Trading Spaces

I cannot explain how much I loved this show, and I don't know why exactly. If there is one reason, it's that everybody seems so likable even if they are tired and harried.

I especially like Alex McLeod as host in the first season. Maybe it's because she's the original host. I like Paige Davis well enough. However I always found her a little too hyper, a little too outgoing, a little too happy.

I do have to say after a couple of seasons, it does get tired and repetitive. Seriously how many different ways can you redo a room? At least, it was fun for awhile.

Well, I've sat through a number of these dull American rehashes of the vastly entertaining "Changing Rooms," and I'm not impressed.

"Trading Spaces" seems to lack all of the things that make "Changing Rooms" such a charming and entertaining program. First, the hour-long format is way too long, but only because it's filled with designer posturing and stupid homeowners with these "Hi Mom!" expressions on their faces. In the original show, the designers and host (Carol Smillie) have a rapport and chemistry, and genuinely seem to like each other, despite the odd quarrel. The folks on "Trading Spaces" just seem mismatched. Although I didn't catch their names, the lovely redheaded designer is pleasant and talented as is the female carpenter but these two elements don't make up for a dire show.

Try switching over to "Changing Rooms," on BBCAmerica, it's worth the price of digital cable.

This show is pretty mediocre. Actually, what makes it worth watching are its poorer points, because they make the show funny. First of all, I can't think of a more annoying host than Page Davis. She is just so totally phoney and slappable. Then we have a team of about 8 designers who apparently come on the show in some sort of rotation (or they keep getting fired) and just about all of them are incredibly uptight and socially inept. It is truly funny watching guests react to the obnoxious enthusiasm of the "cast" from this show.

I particularly enjoy it when one of the designers intentionally go way over the top with a room as a form of revenge at whomever's p**sed them off at the time (I recall one episode where one of the gay,leather-wearing designers has a tiff with the guests and they end up decorating pistacio green, orange, and brown).

Then of course, my favorite is watching people open their eyes to their newwly redecorated room and pretending to be flattered at what is obviously an utterly horrible job. The wide eyes and repeated useage of the word "cool", all the while repeatedly glancing over at their teammate to see if they're equally horrified is just a riot. Page does a great job of playing up the tension by over acting and dramatizing just how wonderful and tra la la la fun it has all been!

What makes this show annoying is how they once in a while have a cool new idea, but fail to adequately explain how to reproduce the idea for yourself.

Summary: Pretty much a waste of time if you have the time to waste.

Here in Canada, we have several American cable channels such as TBS, A&E, TNN, CNN, CNBC and Headline News. We also have the The Learning Channel, a network that I'd rid myself of if I could. However, that won't happen anytime soon, because my live-in mother is addicted to TLC's Saturday-night hit, Trading Spaces.

Trading Spaces (another import from Europe, no surprise) has a pair of couples who go into the other's homes and redecorate a room with a $1000 U.S. budget and two days to do it in. We get to see these people in what could be labeled as "reality home improvement" as they battle to get the place looking the best with the help of interior decorators, carpenters, and others. Then we see the reactions of the two couples.

I will admit that the show can be intriguing at times and that Paige Davis is a perky, spunky, and very cute host. Still, this show can be silly and kitschy (though not cheesy, that's reserved for Britney Spears and her ilks videos) most times. A lot of the people they find aren't, shall we say, camera friendly. While everyone else wears fancy clothes, the couples are forced to wear lame looking bowling shirts with the "Trading Spaces" logo. Also, the theme music sounds like Night Court's music all remixed! Guys, it's 2002, not 1985, get something 21st century.

Honestly though, the show can be a good watch at times, and TLC is using it wall-to-wall on the dead Saturday night. Paige is a cool host, but the show needs some changes made to it before I can recommend it. I'd rather watch that couple on Canadian Tire commercials do a home improvement show than this right now.

There is waaaaaaay too much b**ching, whining,complaining and DRAMA on this show. Trim it by a half hour it would be interesting to watch. Less arguing and more of the details and ideas shown would be nice, leave it up to the Americans to ruin a perfectly good show.