Sometimes reality needs tweaking
Reality television, in its many forms, comes in for a lot of flak. Mostly for fabricating stuff or nifty editing that adds tension or drama. I was thinking about this last night as I watched the first episode of new, local, fly-on-the-wall series, Smashed Palace (Mondays, 9pm, Box).
It focuses on a huge car wrecking yard in Horopito and the people who run it and visit it. Apparently they have the largest collection of vintage cars and parts in the Southern Hemisphere. It opened with plenty of great shots of rusting cars against a beautiful backdrop of snowy mountain and blue skies.
We were introduced to the characters – Colin and Barb, who run the yard, their daughter Michelle and other members of the team. Then we met some people looking for car parts. Three friends wandered along what looked like endless miles of dusty shelves jumbled with old bits of metal.
‘‘Something like it, but I should have brought my ruler . . . it’s four inches, eh, and that’s three inches,’’ said one of them picking out some rusty bit of something from a shelf full of dusty, rusty bits of something.
It started to become apparent that watching people buying old car parts, actually isn’t that interesting. And perhaps sometimes reality does need a bit of tweaking in order to make it watchable. There was near-constant narration from Millen Baird (Auckland Daze), but listening to someone talk about people buying car parts doesn’t make it any more fascinating. Unless you’re a vintage car enthusiast – in which case I imagine this is television gold.
But these are big personalities with a real passion for cars – it should work. And finally, watching Colin negotiate the purchase of five rotting Mini from a hoarder’s backyard, we got a bit more insight into the business and the people. It felt like a scene that was left to linger longer and it was all the better for it. Perhaps there’s some promise here.
There are more big personalities stepping up in Reno Rumble (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday following Shortland Street, TV2). This home renovation show brings together past competitors from The Block and House Rules to form two competing teams of eight couples. Each team has a house to renovate each week – with crazily short time frames, of course.
Two days to completely revamp half a house? That’s insane. It’s taken me five years to paint my living room ceiling. And to be honest it’s not finished yet. I’ve just stopped noticing it.
Anyway, for all the hype – the posturing, the bitching, the countdowns, the fabricated tension, the people giving 110 per cent – there are no surprises here for viewers.
It’s all watchable enough in a ‘‘seen this before, but with a vaguely different colour palette’’ kind of way. And anyway, judging by the number of reno shows around we’ve all got a seemingly unending appetite for watching people put up wallpaper and arrange furniture. I guess it beats getting off the couch and finishing that ceiling.