Lemondrop

We used to greet the prospect of a new "Project Runway" season with unabashed enthusiasm: We love Tim Gunn, cherish every curl of Michael Kors' lip, and relish the fear inspired by Nina Garcia and her skeptical smile.

Unfortunately for the newest cycle, which premiered last night on Lifetime, it's debuting on the heels of the last lukewarm season that saw many viewers swear in a huff that they were OVER the show, NEVER TO RETURN. But we have high hopes that this edition of "Project Runway" will improve upon the last outing, so we're not ready to throw in the towel just yet.

Here's why:

1) They're back in NYC. Last season's detour to the West Coast proved to be a failed experiment. The producers leaned too heavily on their proximity to Hollywood when concocting challenges. Now that the show has returned to fashionista headquarters, we expect to see more creative tasks than just, "Design an evening gown for [insert awards show here]," and guest judges who bring more than just tabloid name recognition. (Lindsay Lohan? REALLY? Have you seen her wardrobe?)

Also, no offense to Los Angeles, but the city has never hosted a successful Fashion Week -- last season organizers couldn't even fully book it -- and thus it shouldn't have been in the running as "Runway"'s home base. "Project Runway: Paris," however, we'd gladly watch; until then, we hope Lifetime ponies up to keep it in the city that never sleeps. When your main judges don't show up because they're too busy working in a real fashion capital, you know you're losing major street cred. Which brings us to ...

2) No more part-time judges. We've been promised that this round of episodes will correct season six's painful void of Nina Garcia and Michael Kors, who couldn't always (or didn't want to?) hop a plane to L.A. to watch a bunch of mediocre designers make hot pants for Christina Aguilera.

Not only were we deprived of Kors/Garcia sass, but we got stuck with relatively joyless judging sessions featuring people plugged into the lineup just for the sake of having warm bodies there -- and those seatwarmers did not have to deal with the consequences of their verdicts. It made last season's finale unintentionally hilarious, because the whole time, Nina and Michael gazed at the contestants with glazed, perplexed expressions, as if to say, "How the hell did we get HERE?"

They had very little cumulative input into which designers landed in the finals, yet were stuck at the end trying to make them seem deserving. Having both on set every week -- or close to it -- should lend the show more of a sense of continuity, and it gives the contestants a regular stable of people to fear and resent. After all, nothing is more fun than watching Nina and Michael verbally smack down a designer who's getting mouthy.

3) It hasn't been languishing in the can for a year. Thanks to all those Weinstein-created legal tangles that ensued when the brothers moved the show to Lifetime, last season's "Project Runway" aired a year or so after it was shot. Not only did it feel outdated -- Heidi Klum was brimming with her fourth fetus when it actually aired, yet was stick-skinny on the show -- it meant the powers that be were obligated to fill the interim void with constant yammering about how awesome the show was going to be, just so we didn't forget it existed.

The end result: It was going to feel like a letdown no matter what happened, short of someone's weave getting caught in a sewing machine or the workroom catching on fire. (And for those of you who tuned out a huff -- don't fret, neither of those things happened) This season isn't buckling under the same kind of PR-created burden, so it can just go about its business.

4) The changeover is old news. Last season, everyone was watching "Runway" with an eagle eye, so as to note any alterations rendered in the hand-off from Magical Elves -- its original production company -- to Bunim-Murray, best known for producing "The Real World." Would there be confessionals? Threesomes? Arrests? Nudity in hot tubs? Bunim-Murray, however, decided not to change a thing. And while the company was correct to refrain from fixing what wasn't broken, that drive to maintain continuity might have drawn focus from actually, you know, creating an entertaining season of watchable television.

Ergo, with one season under their belts, we suspect the producers have unclenched about matching the original frame-for-frame in favor of casting interesting -- or at least non-irritating-- cast members with actual talent. Thank God for that, because this show can ill-afford another uninspiring final three who look like they're showing undergraduate work.

5) Hey, It Can't Get Any Worse ... Right?