Plot: An unconventional home-renovation show that takes on the country's most infamous homes – the ones known for the mysterious murders and incredible intrigue committed within their walls.
Review: Quibi's big launch features a lot of drama, thrillers, and comedy but the number of reality shows easily dwarfs the fictional ones. While there are a lot of competition shows with famous faces like Idris Elba as well as reality series with celebrities like Chrissy Teigen and Chance the Rapper, the one that seems to stick out the most is the home renovation show Murder House Flip. I will admit that I initially thought this show was going to be a fictional horror series shown in a found footage format, but Murder House Flip is in fact a home remodeling series that takes place in houses where actual murders have occurred.
The twist to this series is clearly the fact that these homes have disturbing backstories to them. I never really thought about the fact that these homes would have new residents after their heinous histories were revealed, but clearly enough people live in these places to make this show viable. After an introduction that gives some background on the crimes that happened in each property, designers Joelle Uzyel and Mikel Welch launch into a pretty formulaic home renovation show process. If you have seen any home remodeling shows in the past, you won't find anything distinctive in what happens in Murder House Flip and the twist loses any appeal once you get past the first part of each renovation.
Because Quibi's format limits episodes to ten minutes or less, each renovation is set over six episodes. So, if you think of a standard home renovation show on traditional television, that means the amount of time between each commercial break is what you are getting in each chapter here. You start with meeting the homeowners, get a background on the property, the designers assess what needs to be updated, then they get to work followed by the big reveal. The episodes made available for review took place at the former home of serial killer Dorothea Puente and her crimes pop up through the episodes but nothing truly graphic is shown on screen. Still, if you are squeamish you may be turned off by the idea of such a positive and light home remodeling show set in a horrible location.
Murder House Flip does not make very good use out of Quibi's format and the limitation of ten minute episodes really is a challenge for this format. Each episode opens with a recap of the previous episode which virtually includes the entire prior chapter. In the episodes I watched, the second and third renovation episodes were comprised of more than half of the running time being a recap of the previous episode. This left only about four to five minutes of new content. When viewed daily, this recap may help the viewer orient themselves to what they saw the day before, but watched in succession it was very redundant.
Murder House flip is nothing new to the genre or format of the home renovation show because the conceit that these homes were the properties of murderers and serial killers is used for shock value. Those with morbid curiosities (like me) will be intrigued by the tour of these crime scenes and learning why these homeowners were willing to live in such cursed places, but the actual remodeling episodes leave a lot to be desired. Murder House Flip is half of a good idea and one that really needs to get some better designers whose ideas may be more exciting to watch. Or, they need to do a better job of integrating the first and second halves of each episode.
Murder House Flip premieres episodes daily beginning April 6th on Quibi.