Iggie is the nickname for the *Ignatius J. Reilly “What Degenerate Produced this Abortion Award?”*™
Has anybody seen Bravo’s newest contribution to the Black-Hole-of-Calcutta overcroweded world of Reality TV, Flipping Out with Jeff Lewis? Damn what a trainwreck.
For those who aren’t familiar, Jeff Lewis is a gay real estate developer who earns millions from buying and restoring and reselling houses. He has OCD and AADD which he somehow seems to think excuses him from being a class A asshole as well. He has invested the fortune earned from real estate sales into a “team Jeff Lewis” he continually micromanages and verbally abuses (there is no way he pays enough to make it worth putting up with him), really obvious collagen injections into his upper lips, and a small army of psychics and spiritual healers that Helen Keller could see through. Apparently Bravo/NBC decided a reality show on home renovation would be too boring so they need to concentrate on one of the least likeable and most easily hittable (one of those “If I hit him would it still be gaybashing?” people) horse’s asses in recent memory perhaps thinking they could tap into the “Monk/Aviator/Good as it Gets OCD as plot device” minus the plot and the ultimate likability of the sufferer, and the well established “Gays are intrinsically interesting” market.
Anyway, one of the worst shows I’ve seen in a while and not one I intend to catch again intentionally. But, memorable the 30 minutes or so I did see, so I suppose that’s a success. Did anybody else see it?
I watched ten minutes of the preview special and started having PTSD flashbacks of the time I spent working for the unmedicated bipolar “Mad Doctor”… even to the point of his musing on whether he’d have any friends if he didn’t have people around that he paid to be there. (No, you wouldn’t.)
I had one of those too. Damn- PTSD is right. And as with Lewis (and my sister), he used to say the “they wouldn’t be my friends if I didn’t pay them” in such a self-pitying “I’m misunderstood” sort of way. You’d think these people would realize after a while that if everybody misunderstands you (and misunderstands you the same way) then Ockham’s Razor would indicate they’re not mistaken so much as you’re an asshole.
So does the receptionist woman really sound like Janine from Ghostbusters? Because that’s all I think of when they show her on the commercial droning, “It’sagreatdayatJeffLewis’office.”
We watch house flipping shows obsessively so we’ve TiVo’d it, but haven’t watched yet.
And as a side note, I’m happy that this show gives me the chance to laugh all over again at Jonathan Antin going, “I’m hair … man.”
Every time I see an ad for this show I think to myself, What the hell happened to Bravo? This used to be the channel you went to for a cool indie movie or a misunderstood series that wasn’t being shown on any of the big networks anymore.
I saw the pilot (not the preview special) free off iTunes. I kinda liked it, in a “good god, there can’t actually be people like this, can there?” sort of way.
My SO pointed something out about this: The OCD thing doesn’t seem genuine. He makes one of his “friends” front-face all of the labels in his fridge, yet when they show the script that he has taped near the phone for his receptionist, the paper and tape are both uneven. Any person with OCD to the point that he claims to have it would have all of that perfectly straight.
