Photo: AppleTV
Run out of stuff to watch? Join us as we excavate the streamers' back catalogues for the shows we might have missed.
There are so many real estate shows! Fix it and flip it renovations, tiny homes, Alaskan cabins. There's something for every taste.
In 2020 AppleTV+ jumped into this burgeoning market but in typical Apple fashion, they did it with taste and class. Directed by a range of acclaimed filmmakers, each episode of Home - except the last - joins the story after the houses have been built and each one centres the people who are at the heart of each one.
From the Swedish glasshouse cabin in episode one (which helped a father connect with his autistic son) to the conversion of abandoned buildings on the deprived Southside of Chicago into vibrant and exciting community facilities, and the modernist Austin home built on top of a former toxic brownfields site, but which is now almost totally blended into restored wetlands, each episode is distinctive and rewarding.
My favourite two are a complete contrast. Bamboo is the fastest growing structural timber you can get, and the architect and developer of some incredible luxury Bali lodges delights in telling us that none of the wood in her build existed more than five years earlier.
And the modest Hong Kong architect who has converted the tiny (34 square metre) apartment he grew up in into a home of infinite variety thanks to moveable walls, a Murphy bed, and an attitude towards space that we could all learn a thing or two from.
The final episode does follow a build as a charity attempts to use complex 3D concrete printing to solve the problem of affordable housing for the poorest people in rural Mexico, reminding us that all these glorious homes are inaccessible to 99 percent of the planet, no matter how inspiring they are.
Photo: AppleTV
Is it worth a watch?
Story: 3.5/5 (these are all single topic episodes and can be watched in any order)
Production: 4/5 (Visually, these shows are a little bit like the drone shots at the end of every Grand Designs episode, opened up to a full half hour)
Bingeability: 4.0/5 (because they are only half an hour you can probably watch two or three at a time without experiencing architecture fatigue)
If I liked this one, what shall I watch next?
Grand Designs (the original and best property development show)
The Property Brothers (our entry into the highly formatted - and highly addictive - world of real estate television)
Backyard Builds (a Canadian series about making better use of your outdoors, this thoroughly likeable show deserves a Kiwi version).
Home (Season One) is streaming now on AppleTV+
