['America's Next Top Model' - 'Erin Wasson']

Welcome to cycle 16 of 'America's Next Top Model.
It's hard to believe that there's been this many seasons of a show that Tyra Banks still manages to make all about her. Case in point: Tyra's caricatures of various girls from past seasons at the beginning of the episode and her spending way too much time pointing out the couture T-shirt she was wearing. Oh, Tyra. It's OK. We get it.

From the very first moments of the premiere episode, Tyra wanted to make it clear that this cycle was different from the others. First off, this wasn't just any old premiere episode. This time around there was no casting week. I'll repeat that; NO CASTING WEEK. This is a first in 'Top Model' history and quite frankly, I was relieved. It's not that there's anything particularly wrong with casting week, but attempting to generate drama from a few girls who will ultimately stand little to no chance of making it seems like a waste of time.

It is a universally-acknowledged truth that Tyra Banks is crazy -- certainly by those of us who watch 'America's Next Top Model.' It is a truth universally mentioned by the people we live with and who are forced sometimes to watch it with us, that it's a pretty stupid show.

There really isn't a criticism I can level at the show that hasn't been covered, ad infinitum, by other critics, and even by me in previous columns. Tyra is a diva. The challenges are cruel. It's probably rigged.

And yet, the show continues to appeal -- on a fairly serious level -- to those of us interested in fashion, in television and in feminism.