"EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION – SEASON 1"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: ** (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: **1/2 (out of 5 stars) STARRING Ty Pennington Constance Ramos Tracy Hutson Paige Hammis Paul DiMeo Michael Moloney Preston Sharp Rated TV-PG Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment Back to DVD Review Home |  |
When the DVD of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” came to my doorstep, my wife laughed in my face. After two years of me complaining about the show whenever she watched it, I now had to subject myself to watching more than six hours of this overblown home makeover show.
Well, now you know where I’m coming from.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not getting down on charity. I just find certain parts of the show hypocritical and deceptive. I don’t doubt that the homes get renovated in seven days, and I don’t doubt the tragic stories of the shows’ participants. However, things aren’t that spontaneous. They can’t be. Even if you can renovate (or rebuild) a house that quickly, there’s so much pre-planning that needs to go into it, even for a shoddy job. So the bull session in the beginning with the designers is all fluff from the get-go.
Ultimately, the designers are overrated actors. The real work is done by the contractors and the workers, who get short shift from Ty Pennington and his excruciating megaphone.
But the biggest problem I have with the show is the potential damage it does to its “winners.” The tax liability issue has yet to play out for these people. According to Newsweek, the show’s producers advise homeowners to take advantage of a tax loophole that allows them to claim their “earnings” as rent, which is not considered income if it is collected for a period less than 15 months.
While some tax lawyers and accountants agree this is a creative interpretation of the law, they are very skeptical that the IRS won’t go after the hundreds of thousands of dollars of improvements to these homes as income.
And even if the income tax loophole works, many of these families are facing ballooning property taxes to the tune of $2000 to $5000 a year. Their only option might be to take out a mortgage on the equity of their newly renovated homes.
In many ways, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” is like one of the contestants from the original “Extreme Makeover” show. It’s got heart, but still has a lot of flaws. There’s a lot of plastic surgery and make-up applied, but when you strip away all the feel-good Hollywood fluff, you’re still left with those flaws.
I’ll admit there are some good things about the show, namely Constance Ramos. She’s one sexy lady and makes things a lot easier to watch. (Yeah, I know I’m being a pig, but I had to find something positive while wading through these nine episodes.) Tracey’s cute too, and Paige is nice as well. But Constance and her controlling nature... there’s just something about that I find so sexy.
It is interesting to watch the show from the beginning. In the early days, the focus was less on the family and more on the tensions among the design team. This got old fast, and they eventually focused more on the families, which get more needy and pathetic as time goes on.
This 2-disc DVD set contains several special features on the second disc. There are bloopers and outtakes, which are okay. The behind-the-scenes featurettes include a spotlight on designers Preston and Paul as well as highlights of how the designers and workers get their rest on the job. Finally, there’s a comprehensive featurettes of the production of the show. They answer some more benign questions about the show, but never seem to address the whole tax thing.
Ultimately, if you love this show, don’t let my cynical nature deter you. My mother-in-law loves the show, and nothing I can say will change her mind. If you can’t wait for this to air each Sunday night, you’ll really enjoy this disc. It’s a giant bubble of emotional discharge packed into two discs.... and you’ll love it if you’re into that sort of thing.
Specifications: Dolby Digital Surround Sound. Fullscreen (1.3:1). English subtitles for the hearing impaired.
