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Yet another lame HGTV attempt to be more like the TLC or Bravo networks...
For the past 6 years I've been a second-hand HGTV viewer. My wife's a devotee of the network so usually the TV's on the channel. Though I don't actively watch any of the shows I'm familiar with ALL of them. And over the years I've noticed how HGTV has tried very hard to become more like the networks TLC or Bravo -- "edgier" programming, more of a focus on hosts and personalities, and of course, forced drama to spare (I love it when they try to make it seem, via fancy editing, that David Bromstaad is mad about something. I seriously doubt that guy has been truly angry in years.)
Anyway, this Antonio Treatment is the absolute nadir of HGTV's image overhaul.
I caught the "sneak peak" (duly over-advertised by HGTV) on New Year's Day. I watched in mounting nausea with my wife -- who, I can happily report, also loathed this. And she claims to have liked this guy during the "Design Star" show!
It's like HGTV execs sat around and said, "You know, this Miami Ink show gets a lot of good ratings on TLC...let's do something like that, only with designers!" A bad idea both on paper and on video. But lo and behold, here swaggers Antonio with his tattooed assortment of "co-designers" with unimaginative names, each of them looking more like convicts than decorators. (Need I mention they're all also "musicians?" No, I've never run across any of their albums, either.)
Indeed, they prove so incompetent that one of them nearly cuts off his fingers in the premiere episode, throwing a massive mirror into a dumpster...without any sort of protection or planning or common sense. And despite the massive injury which ensues, Antonio and his tattooed "buds" show absolutely no compassion for the idiot; Antonio even jokes that he'll buy the poor fool a "prosthetic arm."
I have no idea what audience segment HGTV hopes to capture with this show. It falls completely outside of the rubric of their past programming. I mean, how many average HGTV viewers know who the bands Helmet or the Chelsea Girls are? In the premiere episode Antonio even casually mentioned HR Geiger -- again, do you think the average "Design on a Dime" viewer would say to herself, "Say, he means the twisted German artist who designed the creature from ALIEN!"?
HGTV has attempted to brand this guy as "the rebel of redesign" which is the most laughable marketing hyperbole I've come across in many a year. They also like to proclaim that "you've never seen anything like this before!" Well, maybe not -- as long as you've never watched anything on Bravo or TLC.
Anyway, this Antonio Treatment is the absolute nadir of HGTV's image overhaul.
I caught the "sneak peak" (duly over-advertised by HGTV) on New Year's Day. I watched in mounting nausea with my wife -- who, I can happily report, also loathed this. And she claims to have liked this guy during the "Design Star" show!
It's like HGTV execs sat around and said, "You know, this Miami Ink show gets a lot of good ratings on TLC...let's do something like that, only with designers!" A bad idea both on paper and on video. But lo and behold, here swaggers Antonio with his tattooed assortment of "co-designers" with unimaginative names, each of them looking more like convicts than decorators. (Need I mention they're all also "musicians?" No, I've never run across any of their albums, either.)
Indeed, they prove so incompetent that one of them nearly cuts off his fingers in the premiere episode, throwing a massive mirror into a dumpster...without any sort of protection or planning or common sense. And despite the massive injury which ensues, Antonio and his tattooed "buds" show absolutely no compassion for the idiot; Antonio even jokes that he'll buy the poor fool a "prosthetic arm."
I have no idea what audience segment HGTV hopes to capture with this show. It falls completely outside of the rubric of their past programming. I mean, how many average HGTV viewers know who the bands Helmet or the Chelsea Girls are? In the premiere episode Antonio even casually mentioned HR Geiger -- again, do you think the average "Design on a Dime" viewer would say to herself, "Say, he means the twisted German artist who designed the creature from ALIEN!"?
HGTV has attempted to brand this guy as "the rebel of redesign" which is the most laughable marketing hyperbole I've come across in many a year. They also like to proclaim that "you've never seen anything like this before!" Well, maybe not -- as long as you've never watched anything on Bravo or TLC.
- perfectpawn
- Jan 3, 2010
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