Everyone Loves a Makeover

Who doesn't love a makeover? The makeup, the wardrobe, the ugly duckling turned swan, are all part of being American, right? I mean isn't rags-to-riches the national dream? I mean if you just work hard you can be on Cribs one day talking about your 38 flat screen TVs, your sports cars and, lets not forget, your stainless steel fridge full of Crystal. And for those who work hard and experience inexplicable misfortune despite saintlike lives dedicated to service despite life's hard knocks...there's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!

The last episode I caught featured the Brown family. Mrs. Brown, the head of the featured family, was anything but the "welfare queen" stereotype often applied to black women who live in government housing projects. Despite the odds she became a homeowner as a single mother with three children. Mrs. Brown also leads and participates in various grassroots community improving organizations. She, like many of the program's participants, deserved a break. The show's team of designers lead by Ty Pennington, of Trading Spaces fame, though a bit naive and socially unconscious, genuinely seem to want to help the featured families. And only the Grinch or Scrooge or some storybook villain could deny the families some help. One gets the impression that the communities that rally to join the show's efforts are doing the right thing by their less fortunate community members. In the case of Mrs. Brown and the Brown Family the community thus far had rewarded them with looting and a deadly fire as thanks. (For their complete story: click here.) Enter Ty and cannons. Yes, that's right, in the Constitution State (Conecticut) they demolish run down houses with Revolutionary cannons. Boom. America. Boom.

The Brown Home: Before (Top) and After (Bottom)

True, the use of cannons begs a question or two. What interests me are the questions that the show neglects to ask. Here's a whole list of them:

Why was home ownership so difficult a goal to archive for the Brown family?

How did their home flood and why weren't they able to recover their losses?

During the deadly fire-- where was the fire department? Why did Mrs. Brown have to rely on her son to rescue her from the blaze?

Why was another rundown apartment their only choice?

Why is it that a windfall reality TV show was their only hope at ever archiving a better quality of life no matter how hard they worked?

Also, what about everyone else still housed in the projects?

Maybe the answer is simple: the Brown family is a brown family. That fact isn't easy to miss. The show had no problem showcasing their...um..."blackness". They got dance lessons as a special treat, after all. And really who can forget the gospel choir visit to Sears to shop with the ever hyperactive Ty. Ahhh, TVland- where the caricatures are black and the blacks are invisible. So as not to provide a serious critique of the systems in place that make the odds of a woman like Mrs. Brown succeeding in providing even basic securities for her family, the show highlights community activism and do-it-yourself/ up-by-your- bootstraps triteness.

If the show addressed even one of the above questions it may actually inspire real change. Instead it reinforces the idea that the burden is on the individual donor/citizen. Yet, someone as hard working and good hearted as Mrs. Brown had no hope short of an extravagant hyperactive reality show.