After we heard that there was going to be a brand new model of Excessive Makeover: Dwelling Version, we thought that the present had just lately been rebooted. However that model, on HGTV and hosted by Jesse Tyler Ferguson, was 5 years in the past. Now, its again on its unique house, ABC, and his hosted by the co-founders of the Web- and Netflix-famous group web site The Dwelling Edit.
Opening Shot: Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, the co-founders of The Dwelling Edit, sit down for an interview to introduce themselves.
The Gist: A brand new iteration of Excessive Makeover: Dwelling Version is right here, hosted by Shearer and Teplin, the place deserving households will get new or extensively expanded properties, constructed out in 5 days with the assistance of a military of volunteers, donations from product-placement-seeking firms, and two designers. This time round, the designers are Wendell Holland (sure, the previous Survivor winner) and Arianne Bellizaire.
This model of EMHE takes benefit of Shearer and Teplin’s capability to assist folks set up their stuff, which helps them set up their lives as an alternative of drown in issues they not want. So, whereas Holland and Bellizaire are on-site to assist shepherd the speedy build-out and supply their very own touches, Shearer and Teplin take all the things out of the home and lay it out in a large house known as the “Edit Zone.” There, the owners and their households can undergo their issues room by room and eradicate what they don’t want anymore. It additionally offers the workforce an concept of what their storage wants are.
Within the first episode, the workforce goes to the Austin, Texas space to assist Gayle Warren, who lives together with her three children and her mom in the identical small home she purchased together with her husband Fred in 1994. The household misplaced Fred to COVID in 2021, and ever since, issues have been taking on their crowded house, with two of the children sleeping in the lounge/eating room.
Greater than something, although, Gayle hasn’t been in a position to carry herself to half with Fred’s issues, together with the garments he wore when he entered the hospital. They are going to be getting a brand new home within the close by city of Hutto, which is nearer to the place their congregation is (Fred was a pastor and the couple owned a restaurant collectively).
What Exhibits Will It Remind You Of? This new model of EMHE is fairly much like the one which ran on ABC from 2004-12 and on HGTV in 2020.
Our Take: Given how the sequence is designed to provide viewers the feels each week, we questioned why Excessive Makeover: Dwelling Version hasn’t been regularly operating for the final 20 years. Greater than ever, the excellent news side of the present is one thing that’s welcomed, even when the precise constructing of the home roughly takes a again seat on this model.
The present’s producers actually wish to lean on Shearer and Teplin’s specialty, primarily as a result of it’s the easiest way to faucet straight into the emotional difficulties the households they’re serving to are having. Within the earlier variations, the households have been despatched on holidays, and we noticed them checking in. Right here, the households get to kind by way of their stuff within the “Edit Zone,” with its corresponding emotional wringer.
What we’re undecided about is whether or not the Edit Zone travels from location to location or if it stays in the identical place. That will clarify why we don’t see quite a lot of Shearer and Teplin on the job website. Both manner, although, there isn’t a complete lot of footage of the particular constructing of the home; a lot of it’s finished in montage and time-lapse type. Maybe different episodes will deal extra with the home and fewer with the group, however in case you’re coming to the present in search of the trials and tribulations of getting to construct a home on a very tight schedule, you’re going to be dissatisfied.
Intercourse and Pores and skin: None. This positively is a present for all ages.
Parting Shot: After the requisite scene the place the bus strikes to disclose the brand new house and the household goes by way of it, they rejoice.
Sleeper Star: The builders and volunteers are the true stars right here. We simply want we noticed what among the difficulties of this type of construct are.
Most Pilot-y Line: Teplin’s signature look is her headbands. She even wears a headscarf round her exhausting hat when the group places up the primary framed wall of the home.
Our Name: STREAM IT. There may be definitely a good quantity of actuality present fudging in Excessive Makeover: Dwelling Version, and it’s pretty suspicious that the house construct itself isn’t entrance and heart within the present. However the present’s emotional pull continues to be there, and that’s principally what they’re going for, isn’t it?
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about meals, leisure, parenting and tech, however he doesn’t child himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared within the New York Instances, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Quick Firm and elsewhere.
