"Open House"

Open House is a show I've discovered on my local NBC New York channel. It features residences, usually around the New York area, with particular attention to style and design. Or tries to; it definitely leaves much to be desired for me. In general, I feel the program shows off excessive luxury more than it does for design.  The episode I saw today, for example, featured a $55 million dollar mansion in Beverly Hills. It was a strictly European, classical, Versaille-like palace that, while very opulent, was not particularly interesting. I recall another episode showing off a house whose designer went crazy with the marble and the master bedroom and bathroom were one. Now that was an interesting idea, but also a ridiculous, you-shouldn't-have-done-that-for-real idea. Maybe it's just me, but I think a toilet and bathtub sitting in the middle of the bedroom just doesn't quite appeal.

What I really dislike about the show, though, are the people who walk and talk to show off the homes. Sometimes they're the homeowners, sometimes they're real estate agents, but they always seem unenthusiastic and scripted, offering no emotion in their voices and overusing words like "magnificent" and "exquisite". I hear what you're saying, woman, but you don't sound like it's a "magnificent" space. Sometimes I think I even hear hesitation in their sentences, like they almost forgot what they were supposed to say next, but that could just be my TV, which occasionally freezes.

The program also has a portion where a design team of theirs renovates someone's home either by doing a "Day-keover" (like makeover) and simply redecorating, or "coming to the rescue" and entirely redoing the interiors.  I like this part of the show more because it feels much more real-life than the over-priced, kitschy homes they manage to find. These are real people who submit reasons for needing a rescue, such as a elementary school teacher who battled uterine cancer and had no time to fix her apartment.  Unfortunately it goes by really quickly, in the last five minutes of the half hour show, and it's difficult to catch all the changes they made. But they probably don't spotlight that section because there are already shows that do, such as Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

All in all, Open House isn't a very good show, but it's convenient for filling the hours of my relatively boring summer.

P.S.- I do enjoy the program that comes on after Open House, Talk Stoop. Host Cat Greenleaf talks with various famous people on a stoop in Brooklyn. The conversations are always fun and interesting, touching on atypical but still relevant interview topics.