The Antonio Treatment

Is Antonio a member of ASID? No. Did he attend RISD? No. Is he a friendly Rock N Roll guy who cares about people and is willing to try almost anything? Yes, yes he is.

The show takes place in Los Angeles and tends to focus on projects and people with unconventional design orientations. The Rock / Punk / Tattoo culture of L.A. features prominently in many episodes. Antonio has taken on funky clothing stores, apartments, hotel rooms, music studios - you name it. What I like about the way he works is his seemingly infinite list of vendors that can cut, paint, bend, weld, machine or print almost anything. He has a goofy idea for something and he immediately knows who to call to make it happen. To me this makes his process very interesting and unique. Traditional designers have access to "work rooms" in most major cities. These places can custom make almost anything to almost any level of quality, but they operate within the framework of the normal traditional design world. Pink ducks? No. Kravet or Scalamandre throw pillows? Yes. Antonio doesn't use these places and he might not even know they exist. What he does use is automotive paint shops, wood shops with CNC milling machines, welders and so on. I think he touches on the old "High Tech" design movement from the late 70s in his use of industrial materials and processes.

His work tends to be referential in nature and not necessarily original. He likes to research past works from other eras and then pull inspiration from that. But that's okay, because that is what his clients want. One of his main influences is apparently the "lower east side" in 1950s New York. Not sure exactly what that implies, but I like what he does in the 50s idiom. He doesn't always put a 50s spin on things, but he obviously likes it. At other times he totally throws caution to the wind and just punts. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. When an idea fails Antonio and crew are quick to regroup and find a creative solution.

One of the best things about this show is how he connects with his clients. Some of them are his friends already. Others he makes a real effort to understand what they want and what their life is about. He develops a relationship with them. The show also tries to find clients that need a helping hand. He redesigned an apartment for a deaf father who does graphics design work at home. Antonio and the crew built him a workspace and installed various technologies to help him communicate with others and to watch over for his child. The client aspires to be a cartoonist and Antonio introduced him to Stephen Silver, a well know Hollywood cartoonist. Matt the client was very excited to meet Mr. Silver. I think that kind of moment is what makes this show a little different from the usual HGTV fare.

Other IMDb reviews have been pretty harsh on Antonio, his friends and the show in general. They have criticized his work, his personality and those of his crew. Not sure I understand the point of that. I don't have any tattoos (and never will). I don't live the Rock N Roll lifestyle. I do however like to see and learn about things that are new to me. Different is quite often good, or at least entertaining. And I like it when these ideas are presented in a fun, warm and straightforward manner. Just what Antonio provides.

If you have an open mind, you might like this show.

I personally loved The Antonio Treatment. I thought it was a refreshing change and hate that it's no longer on the air. Especially in light of the current trend which seems more catered to flipping and actually have at least 5 husband/wife teams, 3(or more) sets of siblings and one set of cousins.

I think Antonio is extremely talented and I think he is a walking/talking reminder not to judge a book by it's cover. I'd let him design or renovate my place any day!

As for he and his crew's lack of musical recognition, consider their current jobs, which they've probably been doing all along and maybe none of them ever got pass playing small venues and grew bored with that life.

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.

I personally loved The Antonio Treatment. I thought it was a refreshing change. I think Antonio is extremely talented and I think he is a walking/talking reminder not to judge a book by it's cover. I'd let him design or renovate my place any day!