One thing I’ve learned over the last few months is that when you cohabitate with someone you must learn to either adopt or accept their TV choices. Luckily my partner has shown a great amount of patience with my obscene love of the boob tube. In some cases she’s embraced it (Lost, Project Runway, Battlestar) and in others she’s wisely tuned out (Real World, The Hills). Of course it also doesn’t hurt that my partner doesn’t much watch the TV so I’ve had little to adjust to. However this summer has brought a new season of HGTV’s Design Star so in the spirit of relationship building I’ve taken the first two episodes out for a spin.
Design Star is a carbon copy of The Next Food Network Star. This of course makes sense when you realize the same conglomerate owns the networks. I’m not sure which came first but it doesn’t matter as the results are the same; mostly mindless fun with people who aren’t quite talented enough to stand on their talent alone. The talented folks end up on Top Chef or Top Design (I miss Todd Oldham’s soothing voice). Here, like Next Food, we’ve got folks who are cute or faux edgy. No one really pushes the envelope and that’s ok because the viewers of HGTV tend to want safe not exciting.
Ok enough bitching; let’s talk about the positives. First of all, Clive Pearse makes for a good host. He moves things along and adds the right dash of pomp and humor. Second, the challenges are at least challenging. I must take issue though with the huge letdown of the first episode. The 9 designers stood before Clive as he told them they had a week to build a house. After a few minutes of panic he came back to tell them it was all a joke. That’s a damn shame since a home from the ground up could have made for weeks of interesting TV and they could have donated the home to a family at the end of the show. Shame on HGTV for missing the boat on that one. Still the challenge to design rooms in their already built house was fun and demanding. All the reality show clichés soon popped up. There were the communication errors, the old bitch, the young bitchy guy, the show off who was making his own grave, and the crier. In the end the crier met the show off who ended up showing himself the door. Too bad because he made the best facial expressions. Then there was the moment which I’ve become all too familiar with, where I find myself asking if these contestants have ever seen a reality show as they’re surprised by the infighting.
In the end Design Star is much like the network it airs on. It’s got a few bright spots and it always makes for non-offensive background noise. What do you want folks, that’s summer TV.
Sundays 8pm CST, HGTV, Premiered June 8th
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