This will seem a silly, out of touch review, but keep in mind I
haven't had cable for a few years and PBS generally sucks at providing
content online.

Today I caught an episode of the most recent season of "This Old
House" and "Hometime," two favorite shows of mine. In a statement that
will date myself twofold, it felt like the shows were vinyl records
where the RPM had been sped up. They were in many ways the same, but
the pacing of both shows has become frenetic. Maybe too frenetic for
me.

It could be that I recently converted early seasons of both shows from
VHS to DVD, and so the transition from the older to the newer felt
more jarring to me. The editing on the episode of "This Old House"
from 2010 I caught -- well -- first of all, there WAS editing. What
used to be a single camera following the goings on of a home
renovation has transformed into something else entirely. Norm Abram
seemed winded as he tried to deliver information with the speed of the
guy who used to do the FedEx commercials. And "Hometime" felt even
stranger because the episode I watched featured a return by former
co-host JoAnne Liebeler as she, Dean Johnson, and his newer, younger
wife whipped through a garage renovation in minutes. It felt like
nobody on either show stopped to take a breath.

The hour of TV watching made me feel old. I was an admittedly dorky
kid who watched these shows in the '80s, and I was taken back seeing
their modern revamps. They still offered information and demonstrated
new products and techniques, but they seem really concerned about not
giving viewers a moment to consider changing the channel.
-- 
Kevin M. (RPCV)

-- 
TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People!
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