I’ve noticed a pattern in my recent tv habits that I’m not quite sure I understand. Most of the time the only reality tv I indulge in is Biography, City Confidential, and various History Channel productions. Otherwise I generally stick to really old sitcoms that have gone into syndication on Lifetime and Oxygen, some Animal Planet shows, and movies.

I’ve usually don’t watch Trading Spaces, Surprise by Design or the other fixup / decorating shows on channels like Discovery, TLC, or HGTV. I find they tend to be mean-spirited and the designs to be just yucky - particularly Christopher Lowell’s designs yeeeuck that guy has bad taste. But I can sit around and watch design shows from the UK all day long.

There are even shows that encourage rivalry between the designers like Room Rivals and Garden Rivals but their little sparring is usually good-natured. Maybe it’s because an English person is too polite to say they hate the new design of their room but most times they seem genuinely pleased by it. And I get the feeling - even from the bitchier bbc show What not to Wear - that ultimately it’s about the person getting the makeover - not the designer’s issues, which usually totally overshadow the US shows. Or maybe because almost all of the current popular decorating television shows in the US are shameless knockoffs of these original shows.

They have an interesting but mildly depressing show called The Life Laundry where they redecorate a person’s entire life. Usually the recipient has been suffering from a form of depression and is hoarding items - one woman kept her seven-years-deceased husband’s office preserved exactly as he’d left it before he went into the hospital and due to her experience during the WW2 blitz she also hoarded really old canned food. So these people came in and helped her go through all the crap in her life. It takes a good amount of talking and comforting telling them that it’s ok to let go - that their loved one is not inside that shirt. Then they help sell the items at a garage sale and whatever doesn’t sell gets thrown in the chipper - which seems to be a cathartic experience for the decoratee. Meanwhile there have been little decorator elves redoing and organizing the house for a good start on their new life. How sweet and sad is this show?

And don’t get me started on the gardening shows. There was one episode of Ground Force where they built a little minicar racetrack and a garden around it for a little boy in a wheelchair. There’s just something gentle and caring about these shows which makes our design shows seem all the more brash and tacky.