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Reviews
This Old House: Idea House: Mountain Modern (2022)
Excess and mishaps abound
I must first admit I did fast forward chunks of this as there was a lot of filler and redundancy. The "mountain modern" tag line caught my eye as it is becoming quite popular all over the Rocky Mountains with lots of clients and builders and can be done nicely in a mid-range budget. This is a show about a Boulder couple building a 4,500 sq' mega home (assume multi-million dollars) for no one but themselves on an extremely steep slope high in the mountains of Colorado in the heart of fire country so right off the bat there is a level of grotesqueness and entitlement that is a major turn off. Frankly neither the clients nor the builders seem that joyful or enthusiastic about any of it.
From a designer's perspective there are some crazy decisions going on though that make me question if the husband and wife builder/design team really know what they are doing. They do introduce some interesting newish features like solar shingles and a highly efficient all electric hvac system but to try to suggest (as they do) that this type of home being built in this environment is anything close to sustainable is absurd. And they don't seem to truly understand the environment they are building in. In one episode the builder comes on site after a so-called flash flood caused by a 20 minute rain to find the basement completely flooded with mud and debris. I don't think I have ever seen a home being built in our area on that steep of a slope that did not have a retention wall built as part of the site prep work before the house started being built but there is literally no retention behind this house, just a huge raw cut right into the mountainside which looks like its a 35-40 degree slope. I guess it could have been the camera angle because I don't know how the county would not require retention? The builder/husband seems so surprised that the water and mud found its way into the basement via the open electric cavity and crawl space which face the hillside just a few feet away with maybe a 10 foot almost vertical cut in it.
In another episode they discover much to their surprise that they have hit a spring in the designated leach field downhill of the septic and so design a new leach field uphill from the septic system. It just seems like they failed to properly perform geological inspections and engineer the site as it should have been. There are loads of problems sourcing materials and claims that prices are going up every 30 days which given the post pandemic age is not too surprising but the interior designer wife is very smug about it when it is just her and her husband talking, she muses that it's the clients duty to be responsible for their own happiness and not be disappointed but when the wife tells the clients about some problem or another she does so with this sort of overacted downcast manner that feels very disingenuous. It doesn't seem like she feels at all responsible for how this project is proceeding.
I like the idea of Idea House but the husband/ builder seems like he needs a little more experience before leading a show like this and maybe the wife would just prefer doing something else. I hope next time the producers pick builders/clients/projects that are more conscientous of the impacts of building in such a sensitive eco-system in this day in age. Just pick a project not in that kind of ecosystem and not a mega home. It looks like the show got cancelled anyway because you never do see the finished project.
8-Bit Christmas (2021)
Meh.
It's not that funny and I'm a child of the 80's. It tries so, so hard to nail all these 80's references. The problem could be the casting or the script, or both, but it just doesn't deliver.
Emily in Paris (2020)
Fun but....those hands!!!
Love the scenery, great fashion, silly storyline. The whole "social media is life" theme will feel very dated in a few years I am sure, but this one is not meant to stand the test of time. Cute and easy to watch except.... the big bad boss lady Sylvie and her "broken wrists." It is like watching a straight man with no acting skills trying to give an impression of a gay man walking and can only do the old cliche of the sashaying diva with the floppy wrists leading the way. I certainly don't think it looks like a sophisticated Frenchwoman. Even when not walking, she is nervously spinning her rings or fidgeting with cigarettes. It's too much movement and it's distracting from the dialogue. I think her hands need their own SAG card, they certainly are a character unto themselves.
The Pack (2020)
one dimensional
Americans are crazy about dogs and it is true that for alot of people, their closest friend in the world is their dog so it is no surprise that a reality competition show about dogs finally got made.
Lindsey Vonn makes a good host who comes across as authentic and engaged and as a top world athlete makes a good choice to host this show. The dogs are sweet too with the exception of the coon hound. It is sweet but barks incessantly. The owner makes no effort to train the dog not to bark and while it is a very barky breed of dog, they are intelligent and can be trained. It's like going to a restaurant and watching "those parents" let their toddlers run around unchecked because they are too lazy or entitled to teach their children to behave properly for the environment they are in. After the first episode the novelty of the deep bellow had worn off and it was more like fingers on a chalkboard. We live next door to compulsive barkers and it is horrible. Some breeds bark more than others it is true but often times dogs bark compulsively because they have gotten addicted to the behaviour and it actually is not healthy and owners need to work with their dogs to refocus negative behaviour like that. In our case, the neighbor does not exercise their dogs ever, so they sit in the yard barking all day to get out their frustration. I don't know what the issue is with the coonhound on the show but it is off the charts annoying and a reflection of improper training and the show actually promotes this negative behaviour by featuring a dog with a compulsion like this and not addressing it as part of the story line. After all, they have professional trainers on the show that could work with the dog and owner to help the dog.
The coon hound is also forced to wear goggles throughout the entire show! What is that about. Dogs' muzzles are very sensitive and it is so weird that someone would force their dog to wear goggles all the time. I am sure it negatively impacts his vision. Did the producers do this for cuteness appeal? We dress our dogs up for halloween. That is about it. Making your dog wear an accessory every single day is just weird. Another dog is forced to wear sunglasses through the entire show. Also weird, and also probably impacts its vision. Why? I wish humans would stop trying so hard to turn their dogs into something more human-like instead of just appreciating that dogs are perfect just the way they are and don't need to be accessorized. I understand eye protection for wind, extreme cold, or really bright sun but this is over the top.
As for the other dogs, they are ALL pure breds. In a world of dog over-population, I find it tragic to make a show that does not feature any beautiful mixed breed dogs. The producers really missed the mark on this one!
As for the owners, the show definitely tries to pull on the heartstrings by revealing tearful origin stories about each dog and their owner, playing into the idea of dog as saviour. Relationships don't always have to be treated in media as redemption stories. It is okay to feature healthy well-balanced humans with healthy well-balanced dog companions. We are huge fans of the Amazing Race because it does in fact feature healthy humans in competition most of the time. There are definitely stories of overcoming obstacles but it is not the main story-line. In The Pack, it feels like all the humans were broken till their dogs saved them but then cracks start to appear anyway, like the woman who almost has a panic attack because she has to dig bare handed in dirt despite the fact that she is a mother of four. Huh? Who has 4 kids who has not spent a significant amount of time in the dirt? Or the guy who hangs out the window of a car, risking his life. That was just bizarre. The dogs are cute and likeable (despite being a poor representation of the true American dog) but the human stories and antics get in the way. It is easy to develop the characters on the Amazing Race because the human partners can talk to each other. On the Pack, the story line is really just the human telling the audience how awesome their dog is over and over and over again because their dog obviously can't do much more than look lovingly into their owner's eyes or sleep during the interviews - hence the one dimensional title. We are going to finish up the season regardless and may watch a season 2 if they have one, but only if in the first episode, it is abundantly clear that at least half of the dogs are mixed breeds and most of the human contestants are intellectually, emotionally and physically stronger and well-balanced so that a truly exciting competition can be had. And on a final note, quoting Janeane Garalo in the Truth About Cats and Dogs, "It's okay to love your dogs, it's not okay to lllloooooovvvveee your dogs." Enough with the dog on human mouth kissing. It is gross and it is such a part of the show, you get the feeling that the humans were contractually obligated to comply.