Face Off is back and I’m actually pretty excited about that. Last year I became addicted to the show as I watched how much time, skill, and creativity go into creating the effects that are seen in so many shows and movies.

This season starts off as most first episodes do, an introduction to the contestants as they arrive each giving you their background and telling you they are there to prove they can do this to themselves/parents/kids/dead loved one/others in the field/etc. and as you can guess there are some that had to be casted just for drama sake. As soon as they arrive they are greeted by McKenzie Westmore (the host), Ve Neill (judge) & Connor (last year’s winner) and they must immediately go to work on their “Foundation Challenge”.  It was nice to see that Connor’s win did work out for him as he is working with Ve on “The Hunger Games” set.

After everyone gets a chance to see who can do what and the works have been either praised or critiqued it is time to really get into competition. Two teams are made, boys vs. girls. The challenge: To re-imagine the Tin Man, Lion, Scarecrow, & Wicked Witch from “The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz”. Each team must create all four characters in the time allotted to be presented in front of the judges. One team will be named the winner and the other team will lose a member.

As I watched I wasn’t not nearly as impressed with these contestants as I was with last years. Maybe that’s because they haven’t had enough time to show what they can do yet; but I’m hoping a few start to emerge as standouts soon or I probably won’t make it past the first couple of episodes this season. Also as with most reality competition shows there usually is a change-up or higher difficulty season after season to keep things fresh and new. It did not happen this episode but I hope to see something like that in the future. Because right now the way it stands is same host, same judges, same work room, & contestants putting prosthetics on models for money. Not a bad format as long as the contestants can rise to the challenge more and they are able to come up with new & interesting challenges instead of constantly dipping in the pool of fairy tales and horror scenes. The fate of the show for me will hang on the upcoming episode where the make-up & effects have to be waterproof as the models will be in a tank of water moving around. If anyone can rise to that challenge and the effects look good I do believe that season has a chance of standing up to the first.