This show promises something it doesn't deliver: a struggling couple, stung by the real estate market downturn, putting their entire life savings into flipping houses. "Will they make it?" seems to be the premise of these attractive Southern Californians' dramatic narrative. Instead, what we get is a vacuous couple cavorting around in their Escalade picking up distressed properties with someone else's money, bringing in their contractor to slather them with taupe walls, laminate floors, granite counters and vinyl windows; staging them with fake plants and Best Western-quality furnishings, and always making a handsome profit. OC Register reports they make 10K an episode, 13 episodes a year, so they're doing fine. And Tarek reports that they've never NOT turned a profit and that they're now doing between 80 and 100 flips a year. So what you have are two pretty people playing with other people's money, doing lowest-common-denominator flips, and always making a profit. There is no "there" there. They lack the talent and taste of Nicole Curtis of Rehab Addict, the soul and historic sensitivity (and keen eyes) of the Gaines family in Fixer-Upper, or the heart of the flippers in Flip It to Win It, who are working to fund charitable projects or family reunification's. You're left with two people who seem not that excited to be doing what they are doing, don't do the hard work, and inevitably reap the profit. That seems to be the only raison d'etre for the show.
Review of Flip or Flop
