I happened upon an episode of this series sometime last year. It had been promo'd, in a t.v. commercial beforehand, as supposedly renovation work having to be stopped, urgently, due to a grave being located on the property. The commercial (which included ominously toned audio effects, also, I believe, something like music from the Toccato and Fugue in D minor) made it seem like it would be some actual serious situation. Turned out to be simply that a large stuffed teddy bear was buried in a corner of the backyard by the prior owners. Sheesh: Talk about not only fabricated drama but the shameless hyping thereof!

I watched that episode and I think also another episode or two and wasn't at all impressed by how any of the house flips turned out looking; decidedly bland. The flips that appear on various HGTV (that this series is not on) house-flip series are infinitely better.

@genplant29 said:

The flips that appear on various HGTV (that this series is not on) house-flip series are infinitely better.

Yeah, A&E was once a highly respected Arts and Entertainment channel, but has become so fake and tabloid-like--although they still have some good history/documentary shows.

It is obvious that the show either plays up problems they already knew about before filming, to make it seem like it was a big, unexpected shock; or they likely sometimes manufacture such "problems" for dramatic effect. They also seem to manufacture fake disagreements between team members to create tension. Maybe the show's fan base likes this sort of stuff, but I don't. I much prefer the more straightforward HGTV shows, especially the ones where they resurrect really old buildings and restore them in a tasteful way (e.g., Houses With History; Cheap Old Houses; etc.); or the one where they show how people build "off the grid"--sometimes in really remote but beautiful places.

I totally agree with you about everything you stated, Zurich.

I haven't been getting channels beyond Comcast's Limited Basic level for quite some time, so haven't seen any HGTV or A&E, etc. shows in I suppose now approx. two years. HGTV (in addition to, especially, TCM) is a channel I miss the various shows on. On A&E, if I recall correctly the main shows I liked watching were Hoarders and Intervention (if A&E, indeed, is the channel those docuseries primarily air on).

@genplant29 said:

I haven't been getting channels beyond Comcast's Limited Basic level for quite some time, so haven't seen any HGTV or A&E, etc. shows in I suppose now approx. two years. HGTV (in addition to, especially, TCM) is a channel I miss the various shows on. On A&E, if I recall correctly the main shows I liked watching were Hoarders and Intervention (if A&E, indeed, is the channel those docuseries primarily air on).

I don't know if this helps, but you can cobble together some cheap streaming apps to get lots of good stuff w/out cable or satellite.

HBO Max has a $10/month plan that includes a TCM hub w/lots of great films, in addition to a huge amount of award-winning HBO content. The ad-free version costs a few $ more per month. Discovery+ has a cheap plan that has HGTV and many other things. I have the ad-free version, which costs only a few bucks more per month. The cheap Frndly TV app has A&E and more, as well as the usually hard-to-find Weather Channel. They have two HD plans (and an SD plan that I don't bother with @ $7/month); the cheapest HD plan is $9/month; the other HD plan is $11/month. Both plans have an unlimited size cloud DVR. The cheaper plan keeps recordings for three months; the more expensive plan keeps recordings for nine months.

Those are some great prices, PT. Thanks for the excellent info!

@genplant29 said:

Those are some great prices, PT. Thanks for the excellent info!

I don't know how much you know about streaming apps and players, but all these streaming apps work on either Roku or Amazon Fire TV streaming players. My two favorites are Roku Ultra and Amazon Fire TV Stick 4k. Here is a fairly recently revised listing of various major streaming services with detailed descriptions and pricing.

I dropped Comcast/Xfinity TV quite a while ago, but still use it for Internet. I have dabbled in basically every major streaming app and a lot of minor ones, including Sling TV, YouTube TV, Netflix, Hulu, etc. Currently I use HBO Max, Discovery+ and Frndly TV at a total monthly cost of about $30. Most will allow you to try them on a free trial basis.

I also have two HD antennas and a Tablo Quad 4-tuner network DVR recording off one of my antennas; I can watch the recordings on any TV in my house that is connected to a streaming player. So that's where I get roughly 30+ free local stations, including the Heroes & Icons channel that keeps rerunning AoS. I now have a complete collection of the episodes stored on a 5 TB Western Digital Elements external hard drive along with hundreds of movies and TV episodes.

I still have a TiVo Bolt and a TiVo Premiere DVR that I keep around as backup in case I have a problem w/the Tablo Quad. They both have lifetime service and can record off either cable TV or an antenna. And I bought my own modem-router combination unit a long time ago so I don't pay Comcast to rent theirs.

It's amazing how much free and cheap content one can get with relatively little one-time sunk cost and low monthly fees for streaming plus free antenna programming.

I agree that the faux disasters and fake tension between cast members was initially tolerable, but it has worn really thin over multiple episodes. What initially gave the show some spice now has become tiresome.

I tend to ff past all the nonsense and focus on the actual renovation. I like how they speed up a lot of the action to keep things moving. And the end result when they're done with the renovation is usually quite splendid.

But sometimes I really disagree with their design ideas. In fact, for some of it, I suspect only about 40-50% of open house visitors actually like everything. But I guess they need only one potential buyer to agree with the cast's taste for them to be able to sell the house. And yes, the open house visitors' comments are obviously scripted, not spontaneous.

If you just ff past all the nonsense, it works O.K. But personally, I could really do without Keith. I wish he instead of Duke had left the show.