‘Making It’ is lightweight and colorful summer fun

What: “Making It,” airing at 10 p.m. Tuesdays on NBC

What It’s About: Hosted and produced by Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman, this crafts competition series pits craftsmen and women against each other, as they vie for a $100,000 grand prize. Why Poehler and Offerman? They were, as you know, castmates on the NBC hit “Parks and Recreation,” while Offerman is a highly skilled woodworker who runs his own online business, Offerman Woodshop. Each week, contestants are asked to complete two crafts, which are then judged by Dayna Isom Johnson, described by NBC as “Etsy’s trend expert,” and Simon Doonan, “creative ambassador for Barneys New York.” Someone is sent home each week, until just two are left. The winner gets that big check at the end of the six-week run. The contestants — each a veteran crafter — are Joanna Gick, Amber Kemp-Gerstel, Billy Kheel, Robert Mahar, Khiem Nguyen, Jemma Olson, Jeffery Rudell and Nicole Sweeney.

My Say: Crafting! Who can’t get into a show about this particular subject hosted by Nick Offerman and Amy Poehler. Seriously, who?

You’d be surprised, or not. The crafts market is huge (by one account, a $40 billion business).

Unsurprisingly, there’s a financial component to this new series too. In the spring of 2017, NBCUniversal spent around $230 million for Denver-based crafts video tutorial site Craftsy. NBCU rebranded Craftsy as Bluprint (mybluprint.com) in mid-July this year, and is deploying “Making It” to get the word out.

There’s nothing really wrong with this, while rare is the reality competition show that doesn’t have some kind of commercial tie-in. What is a little discordant, however, is the presence of Offerman and Poehler, a pair of beloved stars who earned that love through sheer talent and a bemused detachment from the excesses of American culture (like network TV commercial tie-ins). “Parks and Rec” had a big heart — this newcomer too — but it also poked fun at the sort of earnest Midwestern values that are so earnestly on display here.

The show itself is a charmer — full of color and vitality, while the craftsmen and women clearly have the talent and skills to make something worth looking at. The actual crafts part, however, is rushed. You hardly ever see the detailed process of making something but instead the finished product. Moreover, the competition part is restrained almost to the point of nonexistent because judges are attempting to determine the relative merits of — so to speak — an apple to an orange.

As Offerman correctly observes, “It’s like trying to judge a race between a pole vaulter and a fish swimming.” At least this pleasant summer diversion swims effortlessly.

Bottom Line: Poehler and Offerman are — no surprise — fun MCs of this lightweight and colorful summer diversion.