Ah, interesting. We just now started recording the 'follow-ups' shows that they're now running, should be fun to see. We're also liking that they've also had several outright or near FLOPS in this most recent season. We used to watch Fixer Upper a lot more religiously- and still DVR it- but have fallen behind a lot more on it.
I've watched the two that have aired so far; it's fun to see the extra footage and the aspects of the deal that they didn't show in the original. It's a little cringe-worthy to watch sometimes because it is so OBVIOUSLY scripted, but every now and then you can just barely catch them cringing/eye-rolling, too, which was hilarious to see; DH and I got a good laugh out of that. :)
I'm assuming one of the other flip shows with the 'yelling and narcissism' is 'Flipping Vegas'? We loved that show simply for how ridiculously staged everything HAS to be and waiting to see what absurd thing will be 'wrong' with the house they've bought or what ridiculous car he'd show up in. We've been sad there haven't been any new episodes for a while.
Yup, that's one of them. I also stopped watching
Flipping Boston and whichever one of them has Armando Montelongo (
Flip This House, maybe?). Just too much yelling, too much being mean to spouses and business partners, too much being hateful and disrespectful to contractors for my taste, even if it's scripted. ;-)
You're definitely right about the formulaic nature of the shows, though; I often say things like, "oh, here's the part where they discover an unexpected expense" and "oh, this is one of the first two houses; they can't possibly like this one, because it isn't the third house yet." ;-)
I've learned something from every episode of the various shows I've seen; I'm planning on flipping a house next year and it's good to watch people do what they do as a fly on the wall. Of course, "reality TV" isn't Reality, but even so there are lessons to be learned, even if they're just between the lines.