The Block - General Discussion

[Kromm]

I'm not sure how iron-clad the contracts are - although I'm sure they'd be pretty tight, as channel 9 (the channel that makes The Block) would not put themselves in any danger of being sued by any of the contestants over content or editing. The contestants might have a whinge publicly through other media, but the producers & the station would be fairly untouchable legally, I would imagine. Although it's well known that if someone on a reality show comes across as mean etc, the producers tell them to say it's the editing that made them look that way. 

 

Of course, the editing can't put words in your mouth, or make you have a lousy attitude towards others. 

True, but the editing can show footage of other people saying you are "dodgy", then have a smarmy voice over agreeing, and let stuff like that linger for half a season.  Or to be fair, even with Dee it can show her being a raging psycho--which she is--but if she perhaps HAS ever apologized to her targets (who knows) never show it. Or potentially transpose time--like whenever Scotty's voiceover implies someone is goofing off and then they show in sequence first some frustrated tradie or spouse looking for someone and then cut over to that person in some off-site location doing something non-Block related or having a few seconds of downtime and IMPLY but don't actually promise those two things are happening simultaneously (HINT: they often aren't).  

[OzTvJunkie]

I know, I was meaning things that contestants say about the others, and then claim they were edited badly. 

 

Steve (from All-Stars Block) is the greatest example of the show editing a contestant to look incompetent and lazy. That was incredibly poor. There was talk & rumours he was looking into suing the show for making him look one way when he wasn't, but nothing seems to have come of it.

[OzTvJunkie]

And once again, an unfinished room beats out TWO finished ones. What's with that?

[Bored2sheets]

Exactly, I honestly don't give a shiat about the scoring anymore! All i want to watch is the auction and seriously can't believe I am saying this but I am actually looking forward to the wedding. This season has been rather disappointing and its obvious the producers just care about the drama so why not just have a happy ending, i.e. wedding! Oh ...and I am newbie here so was wondering if this is a US forum? Just want to be sure i dont post any spoiler that's all 

 Carlene seems to like making nice snarky comments behind people's backs. And Simon and Shannon, while actually fairly open about being sneaky and dishonest about certain things, seem to be Dee's willing cronies in a lot of ways.

And Kromm, well said about M & C! I thought the same of them from early episodes and gobsmacked that no one seem to pick it up until the first day of apartment 6! 

[Kromm]

And once again, an unfinished room beats out TWO finished ones. What's with that?

This would be what? The third time this season for that? Or is it four? I lost count.

I haven't seen it yet, but my instincts tell me it's probably the usual suspects on each side of that situation. Probably Max & Karston being punished by the judges for vague stylistic things more harshly than a judge "favourite" (the boys or Michael & Carlene) turning in an unfinished room and barely being penalized. Or the other standard thing--Dee & Darren losing out slightly but acting like they've been more robbed than anyone else.

In this judges universe "it feels cold" with perfect workmanship and finishes means 3 points off sometimes, while leaving doors off, and bad finishes, and other stuff like that is just FINE and only gets a point off, if that, unless you aren't one of the pet teams (in which case it might mean 4 points off). So the key to winning is to do sloppy workmanship, but throw in lots of wood and coloured cushions and maybe a plant. Unless you aren't a pet team, because then you might throw in what they say are TOO MANY plants--although I suppose if you throw in a few extra coloured cushions that might compensate. Also the key is consistency, except when it isn't, and they want you to change, even if it doesn't match everything else you did (and then they'll criticize you for that).

Of course what's worse than the judges are the show writers/producers, and their mouthpieces Scotty and Shelley, who can slyly insinuate on the broadcast whatever the show wants.

EDIT - Hah. Finally saw it. The moment the judges figured out who's room the master bedroom was two of them chose to punish their scores specifically for that. I was admittedly shocked the judges let them get second place (since second place actually got decent coin this week)--however, that seems entirely down to Neal's scores and only his. And I was denied seeing Dee be a raving pyscho this week, as I'd predicted. Oh well. In trade we got the Boys bitching, even though they were LUCKY to get third place with crap finishes and a stupid ugly gimmick with diagonal tiles.

NEXT WEEK: Is there ANY way a kitchen doesn't win? I mean unless someone else throws in a super-duper amount of extra cushions, or a type of towel the judges love a lot. Or maybe the newest gimmick with tiles--perhaps these ones can be on an 11 degree angle instead of 22 degrees.

Edited October 8, 2014 by Kromm

[Kromm]

Oh ...and I am newbie here so was wondering if this is a US forum? Just want to be sure i dont post any spoiler that's all

It seems to be a fairly international site. Any show anywhere in the world seems suggestible to them for a forum--although by and large it looks like for practical reasons they may be limiting it to English speaking shows in English speaking countries--although even that doesn't seem absolute since Japanese anime, Korean dramas,and Spanish language Telenovelas seem to have at least overall genre-topics, if not individual show forums.

I don't think spoilers should be an issue with The Block, because anyone choosing to watch it Internationally is going out of their way to do so (finding it on YouTube on one of the quickly appearing and disappearing channels or streaming it from an Australian site somehow). I think post-broadcast concern about spoilers from shows that have already aired is only really an issue with shows that air on legitimate broadcast platforms at different times in different parts of the world (Doctor Who would be a good example... I'm not sure but I think the site just assumes once you enter a specific episode topic with THAT show you'd better be prepared to see anything if it's aired anywhere in the world)

[Kromm]

Oh brother.

 

The Block new series is about to get a whole lot more controversial ... Guess who is coming back?

 

(answer: a very loud short person with a very tall partner)

[Bored2sheets]

lol. I read it this morning! I can't believe they have asked for them to return!!! I would have thought channel nine would give the less fortunate contestants to come on this show so they could build a better future. Whilst I dont know their financial situation, but if you can afford a $3M home, you won't be doing the tough! I work in finance and I aint going to give you that kind a money if you can't pay it back!

Now I understand how the rich get richer and the poor gets poorer!!!

I now want M & K to win so bad follow by C & J and the boys! 

 

[retrograde]

Youch, what a fizzle out of a finale. 

[Kromm]

Youch, what a fizzle out of a finale. 

The flaw must have been in how these reserve prices were set in the first place.  Someone REALLY miscalculated, and the way the show spun off into unpleasant drama just exacerbated the problem that already existed.  People were turned off by the show, turned off by these people, and there may be other reasons we don't even know about that however luxurious the place was that those properties might seem like a bad investment to the professional property hunters who actually buy them (real people certainly don't).  

 

Most sickeningly is that while three couples got majorly screwed over by the show, the most abusive and worst for the show legacy are the ones getting another chance.  The ones most likely to perpetuate the "too much drama" problem, I mean. Then again, the show is also in the business of selling Ad time based on ratings, and I suppose they're still in the mindset that endless footage of Dee acting like a psycho, and Darren looking ready to smash things and/or just standing around looking like an idiot, is the way to go.

Edited October 12, 2014 by Kromm

[retrograde]

Yeah, here is an analysis of it from a real estate perspective. Basically, the location isn't all that good, which I agree with. Would I live a few streets back from High Street? Sure. On High Street? Not so much.

[Orwell1984]

In the end, I also don't think the "secret" room was much of an advantage, it transformed M+K to a four bedroom without the benefit of having additional funds to spend on the room.  Also, it was accessible by a spindle staircase and seemed unconnected to the appartment.  Not sure the additional uptick to the reserve price was worth it.  

[knitta please]

That was heartbreaking.

It was hard watching the reality wash over each of their faces, knowing their hard work wasn't going to be rewarded.

Even harder was seeing the joy taken out of the brothers' and Chris and Jenna's winnings.

It was as disappointing as NZ last year when Tom and Loz walked away with so little.

Time for production to do more research about the market so as to prevent this happening again.

[Kromm]

Part of me wants to think the viscous way the show went after some of these contestants contributed.  But reality is that the real estate muckity mucks who actually buy the places (again, real people don't--at least right off the bat in a public auction) don't care about people's reps (and notoriety in fact might HELP their resale of the apartments).

 

Still the humiliation Max and Karston suffered at the hands of the show must have seemed doubly a betrayal when they probably got less than minimum wage in Australia if you calculate two people's time for 60 hour weeks (and the actual worktime might have been half again over that) over 3 months time.  EDIT - Okay, I looked up minimum wage and  crunched some estimates and found that's actually not true... if you unrealistically assume 60 hour work weeks on The Block... even if so, it still seems to come out to them being paid shit wages for the time they put in)--an Events Manager like Maxine probably would have made a hell of a lot more just going to her normal job, and even a Coal miner like Kartson probably would have.

 

And this was the first time I ever felt sorry for Michael and Carlene.  They're idiots, but not idiots on a grand scale like Dee and Darren and didn't deserve 3 months of working close to for free either (and one could argue them being shafted so badly shows how totally laughable the standards and decisions of the judges are).

 

I'd have added Dee and Darren to that tally of people humiliated by the show for little to no money, except of all of them they caused their own humiliation (and then got rewarded with another shot next season, where you KNOW the show will be far more generous with calculating the reserves in reaction to people mad about this season).  

Edited October 12, 2014 by Kromm

[Bored2sheets]

It was terrible to watched last night! I couldn't believe I was in tears watching a reality TV show. My heart goes out to them in particular M & K, their hard works an all the crap they copped on the show. I think the biggest problem is the reserve price! When I saw M & K at $1.7M I knew straight away they won't win the comp but didn't expect them to just profit $40K. Channel 9 really screwed them cause there is no way those apartments could have gone above $2M!!! Don't think I can watch the block again especially with DD in it. I can only hope that Max will get a gig in the industry to make up for her disappointment.

[OzTvJunkie]

I didn't watch last night, but have read enough in the papers today to know what happened. 

 

The people I feel sorriest for are Michael & Carlene. D&D keep harping on about giving up family time etc to be there, but they at least saw their children quite often during filming. M&C didn't see theirs once, (I might be wrong and the kids came visiting once), and they both worked extremely hard for the time they were there. To only make $10k must be heartbreaking. 

 

I'm very pleased Chris & Jenna did really well, and very happy the boys won.

 

I don't think their valuer got anything wrong. He valued the apartments at what they are worth, and 3 of them sold for almost the valuation. People might choose to pay over the odds because they desperately want a place, but it's only really worth what a valuer says it's worth or what someone is willing to pay for it. And there were only 2 desperate people bidding on the 5 apartments, who happened to buy the first 2. Everyone else were very happy to only pay the value of the apartment, and nothing more. 

 

People can blame the valuer all they want, but at the end of the day, if the property isn't in a good location, it isn't going to break records when it's sold. That's always been the property rule - location location location!

[Kromm]

There'd never be any incentive to renovate apartments if a pre-reno valuation was the same as a post reno one.  The reno is supposed to add value.

 

Certainly the same has to be true, only moreso, for outright building an apartment in an empty shell.  If the valuer set a value before the build, isn't the whole idea of the show that he was doing so based on the cost of the property alone?  Again, what's the point if NOTHING you do to the apartment would change the value?

Edited October 13, 2014 by Kromm

[Bored2sheets]

Not saying the valuer is wrong, but I would have thought the reserve price is locked in after Channel 9 has done all their accounting hence making sure they get their cost back ( and profit as well ) so anything above the contestants get. So I think 9 screwed them because they are greedy, if they lower the reserve the contestant wouldn't have been so disappointed. And the fact that their wasn't much bidder left that didn't help. 

You know, the chinese who was bidding wasn't too keen on the boys or Chris and Jenna, they are more keen on M & K apartment thats why they didn't go further with the first two.  M & K layout and design are winners for the Chinese, chinese loves that style and if there was another chinese bidder there...they would have done well.

 

[Sarnia]

I agree that it is heart-breaking to see the couples making so little profit after so much hard work, but it's hardly the first time it happens in the history of the show. Some houses even failed to sell at auction in early seasons, and I'm still very upset about the $25K profit Mark & Duncan (& Dale) made in the All-Stars season, while Mark almost died (literally) during renovation.

This being said, probably there has been some errors in marketing (and optimistic reserve prices - or pessimistic, depending on your point of view). This was not an enjoyable season all together, at the beginning I was hoping for less drama and more renovation and was bitterly disappointed. I'm not excited at all about next season.

[Kromm]

Are they really doing this again after the disaster that was the last season?  Apparently.  I wonder what artificial drama the show will cause, and which constants will get screwed over this time?

 

Some horrible people were asked back. Dan from Dan and Dani as Keith's assistant.  And the disgusting Dee and Darren as contestants.  Ugh.

 

Assuming Channel 9 is as lackadaisical at wiping out YouTube copies as in previous seasons I may risk my sanity viewing some of this. I dunno.  This show HAS been getting worse and worse each season.  I'd be shocked if they break that trend.

[Kromm]

Just saw the first few episodes.

 

Wow, casting people.  Way to go on totally embarrassing the notion of all female teams by casting the biggest pair of nitwits ever.  Epically stupid wouldn't even begin to cover them.

 

And yet amazingly...

they came in second place.  Somehow with both of these idiots going shopping BOTH days and leaving almost everything up to some super-competent tradies they were clearly very lucky to have gotten.  I mean coming in second when your entire team is gone from the site 90% of the time?  Good lord.

Edited January 30, 2015 by Kromm

[Sarnia]

Wow, casting people.  Way to go on totally embarrassing the notion of all female teams by casting the biggest pair of nitwits ever.  Epically stupid wouldn't even begin to cover them.

I was also very, very angry at this. And particularly since I suspect at least part of this feeling is due to editing (because I don't believe you can actually be as clueless as they have been shown, and deliver such a good looking room).

 

PS : do we need to use spoiler tags for something that has already aired?

[Nozycat]

I didn't like the cousins room, thought it looked bare and cold.

 

I wouldn't think we need to use spoiler tags when it has aired.

[Kromm]

So apparently the nitwits again try to go the route of shoving everything off on tradies and lucking into it not being a total disaster.

 

I realize the teams with a man usually means he's been cast because of some tradie type experience, thus ultimately saving that team some money, but just watching BOTH teammates go off on joint shopping trips every single time actually bothers me almost as much as it does that big phony, Keith.  Besides no local oversight, assuming they DO get onto The Block proper, these ladies are either going to run out of money fast, or the show is going to have to get all sketchy about their billing, like they did with Max and Karston last year (although I bet far less likely to screw these two with a public shaming the way they did with those two).

[Gweilo]

I only watch The Block sporadically, but is this not even the Block proper? Is this, like, the pre-Block? Damn, how many times can one watch a sleep deprived couple renovate things?

I do like that there's a bit of breaking the fourth wall, when you hear the producers asking questions, and references to noise restrictions and so forth. Shows like Masterchef always pretend that they exist in a bubble where people are just running around cooking food and crying, and a cameraman happened to be walking past.

[Kromm]

The monster that is Dea is getting a suspiciously good edit.  You can see between the cracks she's the same mega-bitch, but they're clearly choosing to air the amusing clips and leave out the rages, cheap shots and scowls.

 

EDIT - And ugh.  The fix was in to get this b*** back on the show (probably as a quid pro quo to keep her from suing).  Hate that we're going to be subject to her again for a whole 'nother season (and her husband isn't much better).  Annnnnd... it took one episode after we learn she's on to see her to ditch the fake nice and go into bitch mode--she just needed to locate her victims.

Edited February 17, 2015 by Kromm

[retrograde]

Is anyone still watching this? I have been only watching the room reveals and the episode the next day where the other contestants and the buyers' advocates judge the rooms. It makes the show far more tolerable, but I feel like the rooms in general have been pretty underwhelming this season. 

[Nozycat]

I've been watching on 1/2 ff.  Wish we could just get good reno's and not all the drama.

[rereader2]

I watched it on ff--just the reveals. So half of every fifth show til the last week.

It was enough!

[Sarnia]

I watched it on and off and mostly the reveals and judging as well. This show could be at least half shorter without the extensively rehashed drama. And Scotty voice-over is becoming really annoying. It's a shame.

[Kromm]

The show's been getting worse and worse with the imposed drama for years, but this went even further. You could also tell how out of their way they went to make sure that Deanne and her even worse husband both provided the drama, but also quietly didn't really get punished for it.  Endless shots of Keith the Foreman lecturing them on stuff they had to redo, for example, then all at the end them getting it all done for free by the crew that swooped in that they didn't even have to pay for.  And like last year, Scotty and his "teasing" voice overs hanging people out to dry with suggestive statements about them--but at least this time it never left anything hanging longer than a week (whereas poor Karstan & Maxine last year were called "thieves" and "cheaters" for over a month).

 

I'm on the fence about how much we saw with Anastasia was her being a sulky sook, how much came from grief with Dea and Darren doing the same thing they did last year with Karston (going around behind their backs to badmouth and ruin people's reputations and drive them into even more of a temper), and how much was the show encouraging all of this (and Anastasia just being the show's victim).  It's really hard to tell--whereas with Kartson last year it was easy to tell Dea was just out to get him personally, that the show itself was a willing accomplice to make Maxine look incompetent or like a cheat with that bill, and that the show itself also was going out of it's way to make Chris and Jenna look both lazier and stupider than they really were.  This year we did clearly get the show going along with the "they're lazy" brick tossed, mainly at Tim and Anastasia, but then they also chose to show her reaction to it as her being unstable (and it's hard to tell if it was because she really is, or if there's more that happened that we didn't get to see).

[retrograde]

I see The Block won the most popular reality show Logie. I know it has a broader demographic than, say MasterChef -- it's full of bogans, but also celebrates high-end real estate -- but... really?

[Kromm]

The show is as ridiculous as ever.

 

It looked for a while like they'd gotten rid of those stupid mid-week challenges that took them away from The Block, but apparently they are due back this week. I DO understand they need to get a way to serve out extra money to these folks, but taking them off-site for a whole day is ludicrous. 

 

Here's what I think they should have done. Have a true one-hour challenge (which in taping time probably takes 2-3 hours) but do it 100% ON the Block instead of taking them off-site. No running to stores.  No off-site workshop or dragging them to the off-site HQ. Provide the materials 100% for them, and a space in an unused part of the building. And also perhaps only involve ONE of the pair--who they can nominate depending on the challenge--while the other one goes back to normal work.

 

Also, so far they don't have the peer-prize. I wish I believed they'll keep those gone, but I bet they won't. 

 

How about a TOTALLY new idea... a targeted feature that's judged separately each week from the whole build. So let's say it's a bedroom week, yes? The room as a whole gets one score and one prize, and lets say... the bed gets a second score and separate prize. Or a required wardrobe. Or anything really--within the scope of normal features in any type of room there are plenty of options. So in a bathroom it might be "we're going to specifically judge the storage" that week, and that would get the special second score. While the room winners MIGHT still get the room feature prize, it's not quite as much a sure thing as a fair peer-prize, nor as reliably bucked when people are upset.

Edited September 23, 2015 by Kromm

[retrograde]

God the Hotel Saville. I'm weirdly glad they didn't knock it down -- that place is a dump, but it's an iconic dump. 

 

I'm not sure coming back on this show is doing Ebony's interior design business any favors. She keeps getting beat by amateurs. 

[Gweilo]

That Andrew guy seems to have a really severe case of ADHD!

[Nozycat]

ADD maybe, he is hardly hyperactive.  Andrew was doing my head in at first but now I feel more concerned for him, he seems so overwhelmed and distressed in that clip.

[Gweilo]

You're right, nothing hyper about him :)  I don't think this season will be much fun to watch if every week they can't get a room done, and are completely overwhelmed all the time.

[Nozycat]

Yeah I don't like seeing people that overwhelmed or drama between contestants either.  I just want to see them create something good.

[Kromm]

I laugh SO hard whenever outsiders like the Buyer's Advocates come in and totally disagree with the judges about an apartment.

 

I wouldn't personally make a black kitchen, but it didn't deserve the worst score the girls got from Neil. The girls are just Neil's designated punching bag this season, I think (which makes NO sense when Whitney & Andrew exist and are so much more deserving of that). 

 

Speaking of Whitney & Andrew...  they are the worst contestants ever in a huge history of bad contestants. Whitney is just this evil, spiteful, immature headcase, and Andrew is little better than a child (and a dimwitted child, to boot).

[Kromm]

Finale: Suzi apologizing is great and all that. But where was the apology from Whitney?  You know. For being evil and immature. 

 

Actually I take it back. Suzi apologizing is cringeworthy (and I'm sure she was pressured into it). She had nothing to apologize for. Reading up on the situation it seems that Australia and the buyers were punishing Suzi more for posing naked than for anything she did or didn't do on the show. Meanwhile an abusive headcase like Whitney, and the crappy apartment she and Andy The Manchild turn make MORE?  That does not compute.

Edited November 27, 2015 by Kromm

[Nozycat]

I saw Suzi as sexually harassing several of the men on the program repeatedly and think she owed an apology for that and thought she was just as immature and not evil, but at times as  mean as Whitney.

[Kromm]

Every year I find the episodes of this, but give up part way through when the people on it get too irritating.  Lets try again!

Doesn't seem to be a special name for this edition like previous years. 

Episode 1 finds me not hating any of the couples overtly, but being highly amused that one Princess wakes up on the morning of Day 2 (the first day of actual work--so before they've done anything but make phone calls) complaining about how "hard" it is.

[retrograde]

Oh yay, new season.

I don't know why they have to go bigger every single season. It just means they end up facing impossible hurdles and making too many mistakes. This is a show that isn't especially satisfying when people fail or do shoddy work.

[Kromm]

19 hours ago, retrograde said:

Oh yay, new season.

I don't know why they have to go bigger every single season. It just means they end up facing impossible hurdles and making too many mistakes. This is a show that isn't especially satisfying when people fail or do shoddy work.

It is also SO predictable when you can tell what's going to happen in the last episode within the first few.  For example, as if the deck wasn't stacked enough against the couple on the first floor, now the Apartment above them gets $40K off their reserve (not even getting into the other goodies). So you can tell who's going to be rock bottom at auction already (and I had to wonder if they already suspect that, even not knowing about the 40K). The top two floors will still get the best auction results, unless the word is truly shoddy, and the 2nd floor and first MIGHT have been closer before that 40K situation (and now it won't be). 

Really it is a shame they relied on an existing safe, because a true twist would have been to give the worst apartment (Floor 1) it. Higher ceilings and what looks like a medium sized patio at best don't make up for the other differences much at the end of the day. 

[retrograde]

At first I though the two women would be the biggest pains in the arse, but nope, it's the baby boomers. They are just the worst.

[rereader2]

I saw the first couple of weeks but have already started just watching the reveals--there's so much recapping what's happened it feels that all I've missed is repetitions of manufactured drama.

[Kromm]

On 9/6/2016 at 1:46 AM, retrograde said:

At first I though the two women would be the biggest pains in the arse, but nope, it's the baby boomers. They are just the worst.

The two women are as well (or rather the overly dramatic crying one, who's wept an ocean of tears already). You know. The one who went on about how The Block was "the hardest thing ever" when they'd only been there 24 hours.

[Sarnia]

And who is having nervous breakdown over the choice of a paint color. I don't know if they do psych eval before casting but she is obviously not able to handle the pressure.

As previous years I will be watching only the room reveal episodes.

[retrograde]

If you come on the show as a professional stylist, you have to expect the judges will critique your styling, jesus. (Though I do agree the baby boomers' room was hideous again — especially that bedhead — and should've come last, and that the boys are being graded on a curve because they're likable larrikins)

[retrograde]

Can I interest anyone else? This year's cast is pathetically predictable (boomers, larrikins, and then a heap of vapid and attractive interchangeable couples) but I am a sucker for a Melbourne weatherboard.