Parents' Guide to Project Runway

Watching the designers create their pieces in incredibly short amounts of time with small budgets—and crushing pressure—is awe-inspiring. Unfortunately, Project Runway doesn't really linger on the design process itself. Sketching, selecting fabric and materials, cutting, pinning, measuring, sewing, and detailing take a back seat to contestants' beefs with one another and personal crises as designers rush around each episode and try to finish their challenges. Then it's judging time, and viewers are treated to the vices of the fashion world, all of them presented as if normal—from ultra-thin models to pot-stirring, when judges pit contestants against one another and ask them to point fingers, to guests making cutting remarks about clothing, which walks a fine line between critiquing people's appearances and body parts.

Still, it's not all doom and gloom. Longtime viewers will see hosts like Klum and Gunn reveal their softer sides. Gunn, especially, gave Project Runway its heartbeat until his departure from the show in 2018, as the former Parsons School of Design professor provided care and guidance as if each contestant were his own student. Between that human undercurrent and the bright, exciting, and creative clothes on display year after year, it's easy to get sucked into this addictive show.