I can admit that while in college, while classes were going on, I didn't have a TV. Whatever. Netflix is a thing, and so is Youtube. Now that I'm at home again and my parents have finally gotten a halfway decent cable company, I've got nine thousand more channels than I know what to do with. Fortunately, HGTV has my back.
There are about six different shows in the entire network, for one, and they're all about the same thing. There's the talented woman and her talented husband who help people with houses, the insanely tall twins who help people with houses, the british woman and the real estate agent who help people with houses. You can get the picture. (Personally, the twins are my favorite. I appreciate their professionalism.)
There's no drama. The literal only stress is when the family being aided has awful taste, which has happened more than a few times, and when given the choice they always seem to pick the house that I, personally, wouldn't want to be caught dead in. But the hosts always manage to make things look semi-presentable, and even the ugliest places still look magazine worthy.
They never stay in just one area of the world. There's as likely to be an episode about Luxembourg as there is New York. (Ok, that might be a lie, but Luxembourg is a wee tiny.) It's a great way to see somewhat realistic depictions of what life actually looks like in other countries. Better, at least, than travel guides. For someone not wanting to live in the States for their entire life, it provides a nice estimate of values in other countries. The dollar can get a person a lot more space in some cities than one would expect.
It's great for ideas. We all live somewhere, and it tends to be somewhere that we can decorate. While we can't exactly repaint or knock out a wall, we can dress things up a bit. A large portion of episodes deal with the decoration of homes in cities, where space is limited, not unlike the space allotted for college kids. The designers always have a clear goal in mind, with color schemes and themes, that can be easily translated to little Lubbock apartments.
The entire network is actually rather informative, when one stops to think about it. And, unlike the other television channels, there are no standards they fail to meet. They promise houses, they deliver houses. (I'm talking about the History Channel. The History Channel is not history, and they need to look at their life, and look at their choices.) At the very least, I'm convinced that we all have a slight architect streak in us. And, with nearly house having been redone or remodeled this year, it fits neatly with current events!
