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Home Front: Culture Wars
House Hunters: A Window on a Derelict Culture
2020-02-26
[American Thinker] Like many people, I’ve been watching House Hunters and its cousin House Hunters International on HGTV with considerable interest, though perhaps not for the usual reasons. I understand the charm the program has for its viewers: the pleasure of visiting houses and their locales, the ideas one may get for redecorating one’s own dwelling, the information about places one may wish to visit or move to, the guessing game regarding which of the inevitable three houses the purchasers will settle for, or simply abundant material for one’s fantasy life.

But I do wonder how many viewers realize that the whole business is largely a scripted hallucination which may even be hazardous to one’s future decisions if taken seriously. And as we will see in the ensuing, it partakes as well of a progressivist rage for leftist queer and gender politics.

To begin with, House Hunters et al. paint a scrubbed and prettified picture of the subject. I recall several episodes dealing with the lovely Greek island of Paros, featuring gorgeous, well-appointed villas replete with lavish amenities including ample showers and impressive fireplaces. I lived in Greece for several years and know the island well -- well enough to know that, like most Aegean islands, it suffers from critical water shortages and an equally critical lack of firewood owing to centuries of forest denudation. Showers will be few and winters will be rheumatoid. And unwary buyers will be sucking lemons.

This is only one instance of the HGTV lie. Cabo San Lucas is another popular HGTV fable, focusing on gleaming condominiums and stunning views. The hagglers, cheats, swarms of importunate vendors, heavy traffic, sewage treatment problems and evidence of extortionate prices are left on the cutting-room floor. Caveat emptor.

Moreover, dialogue and character must rank the program at the lowest end of the entertainment industry scale. The dialogue is cloyingly banal with its ceaseless empty chatter, and the prospective buyers/renovators are generally among the most vapid and unattractive cast of characters one could ever hope to avoid.

These are people whose major interest in life seems to consist of countertops, backsplashes and double vanities; whose speech garbles with wow, awesome, omigod, beachy feel, open concept, price point, lots of natural light, I love it, I’m not a big fan of, we like to entertain, it’s a little tight, I like to grill, and so on, a shrunken lexicon tirelessly repeated.

Participants are obviously coached to behave like puppets, but one wonders what self-respecting person would agree to so demeaning a charade. And practically every one of these people apparently possesses a degree of personal taste one would associate with a connoisseur of the fine arts. Couples are expert in architectural distinctions, whether Ranch, Craftsman, Colonial, Cape Cod, Cottage, Farmhouse, Contemporary, Georgian, Art Deco or what have you. This, too, is part of the HGTV lie.

HGTV may once have appealed to family viewing but that is rapidly changing. The participants remain no less fatuous and predictable but now they are gradually becoming same-sex couples as the producers try to "get with" the progressivist trends of the day. These couples are no more intellectually interesting than their normative predecessors and, indeed, are often given to a frisson of theatrical posturing, which seems to go with the territory.

But HGTV has clearly decided to break even newer ground, featuring its first throuple searching for a home in Colorado Springs. The word "throuple" is hammered in to practically every conversational passage as the woke threesome prances around considering furniture and appliances.

Posted by:Besoeker

#5  #1, 2: A Mexican purchases the property, then issues a 99-year lease to the Gringo. The Gringo builds a nice property. Then an Ejido comes from nowhere to claim land ownership. Mexican lawyers battle it out forever, everybody gets the Gringo's money and he eventually is evicted.
Posted by: Frank G   2020-02-26 12:23  

#4  But I do wonder how many viewers realize that the whole business is largely a scripted hallucination...

He just figured out what 'reality TV' really is? Kind of slow on the take, buddy.
Posted by: Raj   2020-02-26 12:14  

#3  ..just as greasing the hands of the local judges who approve the seizure of the property as well. The problem with Danegeld is you have to keep paying the Dane.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2020-02-26 09:10  

#2  I understand there is a legal arrangement in Mexico where they set up someone to be co-owner (realtor presumably) or something along those lines. it satisfies mexican law and allows the co-owner to skim off the purchase price.

It's 3rd world, there is always a way if you grease the right palms.
Posted by: ruprecht   2020-02-26 08:20  

#1  I like the ones who buy property in Mexico along the coast oblivious to the country's Constitution which says foreigners can't own that property. It's just one step away from appropriation by the locals. I'm sure they'll get the papers stamped and filed before showing up to install new locks.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2020-02-26 06:29  

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