Let me start off by saying that I really enjoy watching shows like this because I love seeing the personal touch and design that they bring to their homes. The history of their cottages and the towns they live in are exquisite. It's like the bread to my butter. In season 1, I found episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 (Malibu Sanctuary was amazing) to be my favorite cottages. But then I finished season 1 and began season 2 and I started to feel like something was missing. It started to feel repetitive in a way and I don't mean that just with the casting choices but also in the way they would describe their homes. "Connected to nature", "blood pressure dropping" "the stress leaving you", "Tight-knit community" etc etc. Don't get me wrong, that may be how they actually feel about their homes, which is GREAT, but if every family is saying the exact same thing, it starts feel like its scripted somehow. I don't know what the solution to that would be, maybe try finding more eccentric or unique cottages/people.
Now for the part that actually did bother me a little about this show, the casting. Goodness gracious lol. I don't know if there's like a shortage of BIPOC cottage owners out there or if they're hiding and the show can't find any but it was astounding and not in a good way. Season 1 had 11 episodes and out of those 11 only 1 (episode 4 Oxnard Beach Cottage) was an Asian family. I actually ranked that episode in the top 3 for me because it was so different and personal than the rest. Onwards to season 2, I did a quick scan of all the episodes to see the families and again, same problem. Like 12 episodes with only one interracial family, that's it. Really? They even had a Bahamas episode which I figured they would have had a black family with a cottage but no, nothing.
I normally don't complain but when a show like this ties so much of a family's personal history into their cottage/home, I would naturally think they would include as many types of families as possible which isn't the case here. They need to fix that.
All in all, the cottages are really beautiful and I enjoy hearing the stories that come with it but I implore the show to diversify the casting to keep the viewers interested and eliminate redundancy.
TLDR: Great show but BIPOC are missing.
