By DANNY BUTTLER
House Rules
Channel Seven
THIS is how reality television has conquered the world.
One person in the house starts watching House Rules and becomes addicted. The other people in the house find something else to do.
But through a process of osmosis, the House Rules story starts to be absorbed by everyone within earshot of the television.
All of a sudden, you start wondering if Adam and Lisa will manage to repair the pergola? Will Bomber and Mel’s recycled bed-head win over the judges and does Candy own anything other than short shorts?
They are all important questions that have seen the lounge chairs full on Monday and Tuesday nights to witness the outcome of the week’s challenge.
For all its addictive qualities, House Rules is a very ordinary show. It spends inordinate time plugging products, it stages “incidents” on a weekly basis and never gives a true indication of how much work is being done by the contestants, who have an army of tradies at their disposal.
Its dramatic final was a complete sham with the judges’ results being over-ruled by a surpise “viewer poll” that gave the result to the most popular/marketable couple, Adam and Lisa, rather the weather-beaten older pair of Russell and Carole.
There is also a conspiracy theory that the smaller states were eliminated early (Tassie out first then South Australia) to minimise the loss of jingoistic Victorian and New South Wales viewers.
It also has the tendency – like most reality shows – to drag out the action by continually previewing big moments and then reviewing them afterwards. It makes you want to throw your new Samsung mobile at the TV and swallow a couple a couple of Panadol Rapid. Mmmm, maybe that subliminal advertising works after all.
Like smoking, House Rules is a habit that you never want to get into, because it does you no good and is damn hard to break.
– Danny Buttler
