This is a dreadful show based on a ridiculous gimmick. What's the point of renovating an entire house in one hour? You know what? It looks like they only spent an hour on it. (e.g., most of the walls are covered in ugly wallpaper.) Although, I think some of the design choices may be cultural. As an American with a design background, I've noticed that there are fundamental differences between American and UK homes that are significant in terms of how the homes are renovated. For instance, all UK rooms have doors. In America, living rooms generally don't have doors that close them off to the rest of the house, so the UK living spaces look claustrophobic. And the majority of them are so bowling-alley narrow that it looks as if a body could stand in the middle of each room with outstretched arms and touch both walls. Overall, all the homes featured on this show are small and narrow. The most significant difference is that UK homes don't have closets. Closet space is such a huge deal in America, that it's a culture shock to see so many houses without any built-in storage. Subsequently, every bedroom makeover includes an overpowering monolithic floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall wardrobe that make the small rooms appear even smaller.
From a production standpoint, the majority of the show's format consists of the host (called "the presenter" here) running from room to room with a stopwatch and getting progress updates from the designer. Of course, there's a harried energy to the whole production as the dozens of workers rush to complete the renovation in the short time allotted. (It should be noted that a great deal of prep work is done prior to the beginning of the makeover that isn't counted in the 60-minute timeline.) That's all fine, but the narration is just awful . . . and boring . . . and dripping in design cliches, including the overuse of everyone's favorite interior-design descriptive phrase, "light and airy."
The only upside to this show is that it's a surprise makeover arranged by family members as a way to thank an altruistic parent or sibling, etc., so the reveal segment at the end of each episode provides a nice payoff, although I sometimes wonder if the "marks" are as pleased with the changes as they claim. At least the entire renovation is free to the homeowner.
