Two experts take on a weekly challenge of helping to turn around the finances of some poor b*stard who is living beyond their means and has run up debt as a result. The subjects vary each week and can be as diverse as single men spending most of their income in clubs and on boys toys, through to families with 2.4 children trying to keep up with the Jones' in the suburbs. One expert works on their budget while the other tries to get to grips with any psychological problems that may be at the root of the spending.
Yet another in the seemingly endless twist on the shows where experts help members of the public be thinner/cleaner/better/happier/sell their house/buy a house/ have a nice garden etc. This one has less in common with the DIY type ones though and is more in the vein of What Not to Wear and How Clean is Your House. What I mean by this is that, although there is a certain interest in seeing the person "improved" the main value is in peering through your curtains into someone else's life and looking down your nose at them from your blameless and unscrutinised position on the sofa. As with all these "get-help" shows there is some justification within society for them existing in this case it is the fact that credit and debt are now massive problems in the UK and everyone seems to be living beyond their next paycheque to gets things that we are told we need. And the series does mostly present itself as very worthy and doing a good job but it never forgets that the majority of viewers are not there to learn lessons from other's mistakes but are instead there to gawk at someone else and go "oh my god" £500 a month on shoes! What a t**t!" while they ignore their own most recent credit card bill! For me this does work because it provides a bit of car crash reality television when I'm in the mood for not thinking but it has limited value. Have seen a handful now and, although the details and the debt changes, the lessons, suggestions and humour doesn't meaning that once you've seen a couple then it is only ever going to be more of the same from then on in. The show itself never pretends to be all that highbrow and it does feel churned out even if the experts treat it like they are doing the most important work on god's earth. Which is a shame in a sort of snotty way but is actually a strength in getting the audience most of whom are looking for semi-trash TV to watch in the evening TV slot.
Overall then this is nothing you haven't seen before. It is basic rubbish of course and just yet another show that invites us to draw amusement from others but doesn't really offer an actual challenge beyond this. If you like this sort of thing then you should like this but this is a very crammed genre right now and once you've watched it once then it only offers more of the same low-brow stuff to returning viewers.
Yet another in the seemingly endless twist on the shows where experts help members of the public be thinner/cleaner/better/happier/sell their house/buy a house/ have a nice garden etc. This one has less in common with the DIY type ones though and is more in the vein of What Not to Wear and How Clean is Your House. What I mean by this is that, although there is a certain interest in seeing the person "improved" the main value is in peering through your curtains into someone else's life and looking down your nose at them from your blameless and unscrutinised position on the sofa. As with all these "get-help" shows there is some justification within society for them existing in this case it is the fact that credit and debt are now massive problems in the UK and everyone seems to be living beyond their next paycheque to gets things that we are told we need. And the series does mostly present itself as very worthy and doing a good job but it never forgets that the majority of viewers are not there to learn lessons from other's mistakes but are instead there to gawk at someone else and go "oh my god" £500 a month on shoes! What a t**t!" while they ignore their own most recent credit card bill! For me this does work because it provides a bit of car crash reality television when I'm in the mood for not thinking but it has limited value. Have seen a handful now and, although the details and the debt changes, the lessons, suggestions and humour doesn't meaning that once you've seen a couple then it is only ever going to be more of the same from then on in. The show itself never pretends to be all that highbrow and it does feel churned out even if the experts treat it like they are doing the most important work on god's earth. Which is a shame in a sort of snotty way but is actually a strength in getting the audience most of whom are looking for semi-trash TV to watch in the evening TV slot.
Overall then this is nothing you haven't seen before. It is basic rubbish of course and just yet another show that invites us to draw amusement from others but doesn't really offer an actual challenge beyond this. If you like this sort of thing then you should like this but this is a very crammed genre right now and once you've watched it once then it only offers more of the same low-brow stuff to returning viewers.