Psycho Drive-In logo
Search
  • PDI Press
    Featured
    • ON SALE NOW! NOIRLATHOTEP 2: MORE TALES OF LOVECRAFTIAN CRIME!!

      Allison Mattern
      December 31, 2018
      News, PDI Press, PDI Press Catalog
    Recent
    • ON SALE NOW! NOIRLATHOTEP 2: MORE TALES OF LOVECRAFTIAN CRIME!!

      psychodr
      December 31, 2018
    • VOICES FROM THE NIGHT: The Living Dead Tell Their Stories

      John E. Meredith
      October 31, 2018
    • American Carnage: Tales of Trumpian Dystopia

      psychodr
      March 24, 2018
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-L
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
  • Columns P-Z
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    Featured
    • They Shall Not Grow Old (2019)

      Allison Mattern
      January 31, 2019
      Movies, Reviews
    Recent
    • They Shall Not Grow Old (2019)

      Peterson Hill
      January 31, 2019
    • Advance Review: Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)

      Peterson Hill
      January 30, 2019
    • Polar (2019)

      Nate Zoebl
      January 28, 2019
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
    Featured
    • Interview with Indie Horror Master, Chris Bickel

      Allison Mattern
      July 13, 2018
      Interviews
    Recent
    • Interview with Indie Horror Master, Chris Bickel

      Dory Hoffman
      July 13, 2018
    • David Black: Carnies, Carnage, and the Creative Chaos of Darkness Visible

      Dan Lee
      March 7, 2017
    • Jaiden Kaine joins the Marvel Universe as new Luke Cage baddie, Zip

      Andre Lamar
      September 29, 2016
    • SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators of Batman: The Killing Joke

      Jason Sacks
      July 28, 2016
    • SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators of Syfy’s Van Helsing

      Dave Hearn, Paul Brian McCoy
      July 27, 2016
    • Wondercon Interview: The Cast of Damien

      Gary Richardson, Laura Akers
      April 16, 2016
  • News
    Featured
    • ON SALE NOW! NOIRLATHOTEP 2: MORE TALES OF LOVECRAFTIAN CRIME!!

      Allison Mattern
      December 31, 2018
      News, PDI Press, PDI Press Catalog
    Recent
    • ON SALE NOW! NOIRLATHOTEP 2: MORE TALES OF LOVECRAFTIAN CRIME!!

      psychodr
      December 31, 2018
    • We’re KICKSTARTERing NOIRLATHOTEP 2: MORE TALES OF LOVECRAFTIAN CRIME!

      Paul Brian McCoy
      August 6, 2018
    • BREAKING! DOLEMITE AND OTHER RUDY RAY MOORE CLASSICS ON VOD FOR THE FIRST TIME!

      psychodr
      June 22, 2018
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
Breaking
  • They Shall Not Grow Old (2019)
  • Advance Review: Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)
  • Polar (2019)
  • Advance Review: Serenity (2019)
  • Star Trek Discovery 2.01 “Brother”
  • Advance Review: Glass (2018)
  • RSS
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Who We Be
  • Contact
  • PDI Press
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-L
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
  • Columns P-Z
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
Home
Reviews

Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge 1.02 “Return of the Skeksis”

Allison Mattern
April 8, 2014
Reviews, TV

This episode’s challenge was to create a Skeksis, the bird-like, reptilian creatures from the 1982 movie The Dark Crystal, who has been banished to a faraway land but is returning, changed and evolved, after its time away. The contestants will be judged on sculpting, mechanization, and costume.

The contestants are combined into groups of three, and Russ and Tina are grouped together AGAIN. After their horrible blow-up at each other during judging last week, I was excited to see how Round 2 would go in this episode. Russ says that he is pleased to work with Tina once more so that they can redeem themselves, but I’m a little skeptical about that. Especially after the personality clashes begin all over again as soon as they start to work. I feel bad for Ivonne because she’s paired with these two, but it also gives us some perspective: Tina really is the problem because she’s basically just annoying and hard to work with.

CS102-01

Each team is assigned a different land for their Skeksis to be returning from:  frozen wasteland, decaying forest, or arid desert – everyone is happy about their faraway lands of banishment.

This week the creatures are much more complex and, therefore, a lot more exciting to watch.  We get to see what goes into the mechanization of the creatures.  Here’s a hint – it’s complicated and deals with robotics. All of the tech talk went over my head, but that’s the great thing about the show:  you don’t have to understand exactly how it all works. Getting a glimpse behind the scenes and then seeing it all come together at the screen test is like magic. Too much technical jargon would take away some of the mystifying qualities of the creatures, and therefore, the joy you feel when you see them come to life. Thankfully, the show keeps the jargon to a minimum and doesn’t try to over-explain the nuts and bolts of the mechanizations, much to the benefit of all of us non-engineers watching.

Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge - Season 1

Tina volunteers to work with the animatronics on her team even though she’s not quite sure what she’s doing, and she, of course, wastes a ton of time and then screws it up. Ivonne and Russ end up having to pick up Tina’s slack. Ivonne has a ticket on the Tina Trainwreck this week, and she doesn’t seem too happy about it. Russ, admirably, manages to not yell at her this episode.

Ben does an amazing job with his group’s animatronics, making a fin that pops up, eyeballs that move via remote control, and a nose that kind of snarls.

Two groups decide, independently of each other, to add a little extra creature onto their Skeksis design. Uh oh! Now it looks like they copied each other! This, however, never seems to cross the judges’ minds during the screen test, so Melissa stressed out for nothing. Melissa does, however, endear herself to me this episode with her positivity and enthusiasm. She’s just very likeable. Her group makes a little bug creature that she controls during the screen test, which the judges love. Tina’s group made a little squirrel creature that apparently was supposed to provide pee for their creature to drink in the desert?

Yeah, the judges don’t get it either.

CS102-02

This week’s screen test is WAY more awesome because the creatures have so much more to do. Last week they just flopped around, but this week they walk across the stage, make noises, and the creators use remote controls to move their Skeksis’ eyes around. One creator from each team gets to perform with another puppeteer inside their Skeksis, one mans the remote control for the animatronics, and the third is just there for moral support, I guess.

Robert, Josh, and Melissa get overall good marks, and their creature eventually wins. Robert wins the challenge after being in the bottom two last week, but I personally think that Melissa should have won. She was the real leader on the team, and she created the little extra creature that the judges really liked. Because she is an awesome person, she congratulates Robert and seems genuinely happy for him.

Jake, Lex, and Ben’s Skeksis also finishes in the top because they worked so well together and created a really cohesive creature. Ben was also a contender for me to be the winner this week because of how great his mechanics were, but hey, I’m not a judge on the show.

Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge - Season 1

Ivonne, Russ, and Tina are on the bottom. Their creature is pretty much a hot mess. It’s especially embarrassing when the mechanized parts don’t work at the judges’ table. They don’t like the eyes, the little extra creature, the animatronics, or the costuming, which is pretty much the whole creature. In a shocking twist, Tina gets eliminated! She totally deserved to go, but I thought that a character as polarizing as her would stay around and cause conflict until at least the midpoint of the season.

Maybe there’s some integrity to this reality show? It seems like there just may be, and I give the producers a lot of respect for making decisions based on actual talent instead of who will create the most drama.

I give this week’s episode a 4/5 – up a whole point from last week as I was sure it would be. The creatures are getting more complex and we’re starting to get to know the personalities of the contestants. It can only get better from here.

Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge 1.02 "Return of the Skeksis"
4.0Overall Score

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Allison MatternBrian HensonJim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge

No Robin Hood Is Going To Save This ‘Lady in a Cage’
Game of Thrones 4.01 “Two Swords”

About The Author

monsterid
Allison Mattern
Teacher of Reality

Allison Mattern is a high school English teacher who shamelessly loves reality television. She's a dog person, but owns three cats because she's lazy and they're easier to take care of. She spends most of her free time grading papers, but sometimes gets to watch her favorite shows, and sometimes she gets to write about them.

Our Facebook Page

Our Instagram Page

Load More...Follow on Instagram

Follow us on Twitter

My Tweets

Latest Reviews

  • They Shall Not Grow Old (2019)

    Peterson Hill
    January 31, 2019
  • Advance Review: Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)

    Peterson Hill
    January 30, 2019
  • Polar (2019)

    Nate Zoebl
    January 28, 2019
  • Advance Review: Serenity (2019)

    Peterson Hill
    January 24, 2019
  • Star Trek Discovery 2.01 “Brother”

    Paul Brian McCoy
    January 22, 2019

Latest Columns

  • Lost in Translation 282: Remakes and Comedy Vehicles

    Scott Delahunt
    February 15, 2019
  • Women in Horror: Zelda Rubinstein

    Jessica Sowards
    February 11, 2019
  • Lost in Translation 281: Parodies

    Scott Delahunt
    February 8, 2019
  • Women in Horror: The 6th Friend (2016)

    Corin Totin
    February 1, 2019
  • Lost in Translation 280: Bumblebee

    Scott Delahunt
    February 1, 2019

Look Who's Talking

John E. Meredith
John E. Meredith - 2/14/2019
THE FLESH IS WEAK #5: TAKE SHELTER
So this morning . . . apparently two years later . . . with the car loan within a few months of being paid off . . . what feels like the inevitable happened. Though I've been incredibly careful on...
Dignan
Dignan - 1/26/2019
Advance Review: Serenity (2019)
I'm sorry, the title "Serenity" is already taken. Please choose another name for your film.
Shawn EH
Shawn EH - 1/24/2019
Star Trek Discovery 2.01 “Brother”
She's also on a command training path, so that should tighten things up a bit when needed, and she was both soft and hard core in the Short Trek with the stowaway she found. That struck a good...
Paul Brian McCoy
Paul Brian McCoy - 1/23/2019
Star Trek Discovery 2.01 “Brother”
She was... energetic and bubbly. I think that'll tone down a bit as the season goes on. Agreed on Jet Reno. She was awesome. Exactly the sort of energy this show needs. Good to hear from you, man!!
Dignan
Dignan - 1/23/2019
Star Trek Discovery 2.01 “Brother”
I felt Tilly was a bit over the top in this episode, and worry she is becoming a caricature of herself. I hope they give her more depth and less one-liners. Really liked the Jet Reno character so far....
Large_rectangle_336X280
RSSTwitterFacebookinstagramtumblr

Archives

All work on this site is Copyright © each individual writer.
  • PDI Press
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-L
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
  • Columns P-Z
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
%d bloggers like this: