I would like to say clearly that I do not like home buying television. Sure, the personalities are wild and the homes are extraordinary, but at the end of the day, buying a home is an administrative task. Your realtor may be personable or your spouse may be demanding, but once you get into the groove of it, it’s all just paperwork. One part of the process that I find compelling is the bidding war – when prospective homeowners find themselves considering various offers and trying to decide.
is the subject of no good workA new eight-episode comedy on Netflix. The series follows a middle-aged couple, Lydia and Paul Morgan (Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano), who have decided to sell their home in Los Feliz, Los Angeles. The house is beloved – previously owned by Paul’s parents and later where the couple raised their two children – and Morgan must decide between different dark-thirsty buyers. There are three interested parties: a young couple, Leslie and Sara (Abbi Jacobson and Poppy Liu), who are happily pursuing careers as district attorney and doctor; Dennis (OT Fagbenle) and Carla (Teyonah Parris), a couple who met only nine months ago and are expecting their first child; and JD Campbell (Luke Wilson), a neighbor who wants to sell his ultra-modern house as he faces a flailing acting career and loveless marriage with his third wife, the Gucci-hungry Margo (Lydia Cardellini).
This isn’t a show about dull administrative transactions – even the coke-fueled realtor working for the Morgans makes sure no boring chore goes without entertainment. It provides a strangely accurate depiction of what happens when a “dream home” comes on the market: Even the best people become the worst versions of themselves. Trust me when I say that everyone on this show is insufferable. Caught up in their own personal dramas and continuing to try to outwit, outwit and outwit the current bosses, no good work The question screams: How far will you go to capture a pile of bricks and wood?
At the center of the show is a 1920s Spanish Colonial-style house – rare in its originality and Los Angeles location – and, crucially, the traumatic events that occur within it. Each episode strategically reveals the details of what happened, but we learn early on that the Morgans’ son Jacob was murdered in the house. But that’s why they don’t want to move forward; Paul, a contractor, is unable to keep up with the necessary maintenance on the house. In the first episode, they watch on CCTV from their son’s childhood bedroom as potential buyers tour an open house. “Let them worry about the water bill,” Paul yells. Lydia, still grieving her son’s death, is saddened by the sale; She believes Jacob is haunting the building and communicates with him through the overhead light in her bedroom (this is a perfect role for Kudrow, who has an acclaimed role as Phoebe). Friend was delightfully quirky while also containing a certain sadness). Over the course of the first several episodes we are helped to understand why she feels guilty: Morgan – Lydia, Paul, and Paul’s brother, Mickey (Denis Leary) – know who killed her.
This isn’t the only non-disclosure floating around in this house; Buyers are also committed to keeping their own secrets or incorporating them. Sarah wants a child and is secretly undergoing IVF, so a family-sized house would be perfect, although she is weary of the fact that a murder has occurred. However, Leslie is conflicted about having a child (she does not know about IVF) and due to her crime-solving lawyer nature she is obsessed with what happened to Jacob. J.D. has no real acting prospects and is suffering from a lack of money, which he hides from Margo; He wants to buy the house as a way to downsize from his expensive contemporary box across the street. Margo, on the other hand, sees the house as a viable opportunity for a developer (Kate Moenning) with whom she is having an affair.
As for potential buyers Dennis and Carla, both are hiding details about their lives from each other, perhaps not surprising considering that they “got pregnant after four dates and got married on the sixth.” ” Yet he is charmed by the house; They don’t like the price tag, so Dennis’s overbearing mother promises to help them pay for it, provided they are allowed to live with her. For the couple, the Los Feliz home puts pressure on Carla to tolerate her new husband’s somewhat creepy attachment to her mother. Will she break her limits and endure the pressure of her mother and son to get her dream home?
If your attention shifts from your screen to your phone at any point in this series, you’re guaranteed to miss something. Murder, sarcoidosis, despair, and the Citizen App are very present and central to the comedy of it all. Jacobson shines as a character who will do anything to get into the home race; Although she is (rightfully) angry when she learns that Sarah is pregnant, she takes advantage of the “good news” in a final request to get home immediately. She tells Lydia, “If we could raise our child in your home it would mean everything to us.” When that fails, she uses her influence as a lawyer to try to convince the stunned Lydia that she can find out who killed her son. Lydia slammed the door in his face.
In subsequent episodes, the antics continue to swirl as the Morgans try to keep their secret a secret, and continue to woo potential buyers. The show effectively evolves from a home-buying comedy into a “whodunit” drama – by Episode 5, we’re less concerned about the buyers’ secrets and more about their fantasies. We come to understand that J.D.’s real motivation behind moving home is to escape back to his hometown of Possum Hollow (where a Possum is an elected official), a return to his simple upbringing without the weight of a gold-digging wife. Dennis is committed to the Los Feliz house, not because he wants to live with his mother again, but because he is convinced that she will soon die as did his father in his late thirties. The house becomes a means of replicating his own upbringing, raised by a devoted single mother.
This all makes sense. After all, a home is where we raise children, where we spend more than half of our timeand a commodity that builds intergenerational wealth. On the contrary, like watching a show again property war— a short-lived, 2012 Discovery reality series where investors try to outdo each other in Phoenix homes without going inside — is feeling pretty cold today. Not only is it a time capsule for the Great Recession and all the foreclosures that resulted, but the show effectively turns a house into a commodity. Morgan doesn’t want to sell to a developer, but is torn between the real possibility of financial ruin and the equally real sentimentality of staying in her home. A bidding war ensues, focusing on the intimate and sometimes mundane internal dramas of each buyer. no good work It’s not just about making an offer on the dream home, but about the dream itself.
Without spoiling the ending, I will say that the “right” people end up in the Morgans’ house, although, ultimately, there are more winners than losers. And that’s what makes this show particularly appealing: The people who want to buy are constantly inspired by the kind of life they want, and like the home buying experience, it’s all about letting go. The house for sale loses its hold on the people caught in its gravitational pull as the buyers are forced out of their own imaginations. There are no aha-haha moments or grand gestures, just the realization that buying a home may certainly change your physical reality, but it won’t reveal any radical vision for your future. Whether you’re in the middle of it, or coming in from the other side, it’s all just paperwork.
Top photo courtesy of Netflix © 2024.
Related reading:
