"Love It or List It" on HGTV: How about "Hate It"? (film, shows)
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I gave this show a try--it was new this year. But it's really annoying, and now I find it unwatchable.
The basic premise is:
A couple or family is outgrowing their home. One member of the couple wants to stay there and do some remodeling, and the other partner wants to move. This designer named Hillary is supposed to remodel their home to meet all their needs, while at the same time, this realtor David takes them house shopping. At the end they are supposed to decide whether they will Love It (stay in the newly remodeled house) or List It (move to one of the houses they looked at, now that they can sell their house for more money).
But the show is sooooo full of artificial drama, it makes me just change the channel.
In every episode:
Hillary the designer says something to p!$$-off one or both partners and they theaten to stop everything and kick her out. It usually has something to do with their kids, parenting, or their needs being unreasonsable within the budget.
The couple always needs like 3-4 essentials in order to stay in their home. For instance, they MUST HAVE another powder room, a finished basement, and a remodeled kitchen. But there is ALWAYS some problem with the house, its structure or systems, that results in Hillary only being able to fulfill one or two of these essential needs.
David takes the couple to at least two houses they hate. They always have to meet separately from David and say "What is he thinking, showing us this house? Is he even listening to us?" Then he shows them a house they like, and they say "now he's finally giving us something to think about."
In recent episodes, they apparently determined that the drama will be more exciting if the homeowners are friends or employees of either Hillary or David. So now they fight about their needs being unrealistic, or the budget being unrealistic, and they now can throw in "but we've been friends for so long, and she's never acted like this."
I know most home-improvement shows are staged--the house hunters already picked their home and the "choices" are just false choices, or the "surprise" problem that gets discovered that slipped through the home inspection was already identified before the show, etc. But I can usually see past these staged things and still enjoy the shows. But this show, like I said, is just unwatchable.
You know the couple is not just coming up with tens of thousands of dollars and just gambling on letting Hillary remodel their home in a way they might like, without giving any input. You know they have not just decided to sell their house and move right there on the show, but likely long before filming began. You know that the first two houses the couple looks at will be disappointments. You never even know if they actually get that third house that they liked--probably not--but they really just wanted to move anyway.
So there is really no reason to watch the show, unless you're the kind of person who likes "reality-TV drama." But in that case, you have tons of other choices and you're probably not into HGTV.
Glad I'm not the only one! I mean, the makers of the show surely know ahead of time that the couple's $40,000 remodel budget is not going to get them a completely finished basement, a new downstairs powder room, a total remodel of the kitchen with all new appliances, a new laundry room, a back deck, plus a new master suite with en-suite bathroom. Yet they enter into it anyway, so of course there is drama later. Hillary can say the couple's demands are unrealistic with the budget they are working with--but she knew the budget and the demands going in!
Similarly, the couple has a budget in mind for buying a new home, and they always want open floor plan, remodeled kitchen with miles of granite and stainless appliances, at least 4 bedrooms, a home office, a completely finished basement with another full bath in it, a huge master suite, a backyard deck and a 2-3 car garage, and a 10-minute commute to work, and their budget is several hundred thousand short for all of that, in the city where they wish to live. Yet David jumps right in, knowing the budget and the unrealistic demands.
They could just cut through all the BS and put Hillary and David in a cage fight, with new weapons each week.
Yeah, I agree. I had commented on this show on another HGTV thread in this forum and basically said the same that you've all said:
I like the idea of "Love it or List it", but the real estate agent guy is like a walking idiot for the first 45 minutes, the English woman designer has the tact of a hammer and never seems to deliver (although the budgets they give her for the work are pretty small), and the "house owners" appear to be recent graduates of a bad acting school rather than real people.
Yeah, I agree. I had commented on this show on another HGTV thread in this forum and basically said the same that you've all said:
I like the idea of "Love it or List it", but the real estate agent guy is like a walking idiot for the first 45 minutes, the English woman designer has the tact of a hammer and never seems to deliver (although the budgets they give her for the work are pretty small), and the "house owners" appear to be recent graduates of a bad acting school rather than real people.
I tried to watch Love it or List it but I can't for all the reasons stated above.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BVitamin
How about "cancel it"? And by "it", I mean the show and give all the funds to Curb Appeal; yes, I like that show. Don't judge.
And bring back Rick Spence!
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