Top Design: You're fired!

So it's time we got back to discussing Top Design, as something significant happened this week.

It's **SPOILERED**, so I'm going to warn those of you who haven't seen it...

Top Design had actually been pretty weak in the middle of its run, but in the last two episodes things actually started to look up: the challenges were more ... well, challenging, and the designs themselves were starting to look like actual rooms and less like something that one of the lesser decorators on Trading Spaces would unleash on some poors saps from Peducah.

But this upturn is bittersweet. Because even though the designs themselves have been much easier to look at, the last two weeks has also seen the exit of the show's only remaining gay contestants, Michael and Goil. Michael pretty much got on everyone's nerves and had spotty design skills anyway, but Goil was a fresh thinker whose creativity often outpaced his time-management issues and lack of practicality (sometimes -- not enough, but sometimes). This last challenge asked him to design a luxury hotel room based around fire, a combination that even the judges admitted was next-to-impossible.

The most interesting thing about this is that the Final Three in an interior design show features no gay men. That's like having a Final Three in a show about step-dancing that doesn't include any Irish people. It's clear that the gay contestants simply weren't up to snuff, but it challenges one's perceptions and prejudices about decorating, don't it? And that's a good thing?