Ugliest House in America

Retta is the greatest thing about this show! She's really funny and her commentary and reactions are enjoyable to watch. I really enjoyed season one. It was new and different. However, in the most recent season (aired early Jan 2023) they're showing mostly giant houses owned by upper middle class people that really are not that ugly. I'm sure they could find truly ugly houses - perhaps with people who really need the $ for the renovation. I like the rapport between Retta and Alison Victoria in the final episode of each season; however, the biggest drawback for me is Allison Victoria's designs at the end of the season. She basically takes away all the charm of the house and makes it as bland as possible. Disappointing after all the build up.

Are you kidding me??? The house with no privacy wasn't even ugly. Or non functional!!! The Amityville house was ugly!!! And it was way more non functional!!!!

And the rock house wasn't the ugliest either! The other ones were way more non functional.

The first season y'all did great but what is wrong???

HGTV can afford to renovate all these ugly houses. Do it !!!

Don't leave these houses ugly. Fixing 1 isn't enough. 11 more houses to fix.

HGTV can afford to renovate all these ugly houses.

This show does a great job of showcasing houses that are ugly, however with that being said they pick the houses that will be the easiest to remodel. You can tell the show wants to be able to show off a nice home at the end rather than overcoming a challenge and remodeling an actual ugly home that is not functional. The house on the first season the house was ugly, but was purchased by her father. The house in the second season could have been passed over. The house in the third season just required cosmetic updates. The houses it was up against were worse. Additionally, there was a home that was not included as a finalist and I'm sure that was due to the amount of work it would have needed.

I loved the array of houses here. Not many were "ugly," but rather thematic or unique - making for a fun walkthrough of nontraditional houses and aesthetics. The host and the designer are fun and enthusiastic, with Retta's facial expressions being top-notch on numerous occasions. The editing is also enjoyable, offering both facts/tidbits and sass (such as the counters for various features and reactions).

But I think it leans into the "ugly" bashing a bit too hard considering the houses in question. This show's definition of ugly seems to take on the broader meaning of "in need of updating and improving function." I'm not personally a fan of the designer (her style isn't my sort of thing, and I feel like she leans too hard into making everything have one style throughout the finished product), but the end results are typically quite pretty. Although, with that in mind, I can't help but wonder if some of the final choices were made according to who was open to letting the designer run with her preferences. Perhaps we would have seen more houses or more ugly winners (pointed look at season 2 in particular) if each season had a different designer.