Sample for Blog Post #1: "How Clean Is Your House?"

Description

“How Clean is Your House” is a BBC America show that follows “cleaning experts” Aggie McKenzie and Kim Woodburn as they rehabilitate a dirty house and its owner(s). All of the episodes of the show follow a set format.

Aggie and Kim are mobile. They are middle aged women, who look and act like someone’s very tidy mother or grandmother. They go to all corners of Great Britain, either at the request of the actual “filth offender” or at the request of someone who is close to them. The opening scenes of each episode show them in transit to the location of the house that they are going to clean, and feature snippets of an interview with the subject(s) of the episode talking about how their house got into the state it is in.

When Aggie and Kim arrive, they go into the house without the occupants being present. As each room is examined, the video is made artificially gray and dingy, accentuating the feeling of squalor, and there is ominous music playing in the background. Kim and Aggie go to each room, with particular focus usually on the kitchen and bathroom, examining and commenting on how filthy the house is. Kim takes particular “delight” in smelling things that look disgusting (e.g. toilets, rotting food in the kitchen, dirty sheets, etc.). Since the viewers are obviously incapable of smelling the contents of the dirty house, we are left to rely on the horrified reactions of Kim and Aggie to tell us that it is disgusting. As Kim often says “Oh – the smell!” Aggie is particularly focused on the presence of bacteria, mold, or insects, and is responsible for pointing out the presence of beetles, and speculating on the dangerous organisms harbored by the house. Both will usually express wonderment that people could actually live in the house, and emerge horrified and angry about the state of the house.

Next, the “filth offender” arrives to a scolding by Kim and Aggie. They point out how horrible their house is, and the reactions range from contrition to denial, depending on the person. Eventually, they are forced to admit that their house is disgusting and filthy, and needs to be cleaned up.

At this point, Kim and Aggie transform from prim and tidy women into down and dirty scrubbers. Of course, they aren’t dirty, though – they literally transform into white coats (reminiscent of lab coats) and fancy rubber gloves. They cordon off the house with yellow tape that looks like police tape, and the cleaning commences.

The “filth offender(s)” are then educated on the importance of cleaning, and the use of common household items to utilize while cleaning. Kim usually takes the offender(s) in hand and shows them how to use olive oil, or lemon juice, or baking soda to clean. She is particularly interested in using natural or unusual household items for cleaning. For example, she might use shaving cream to clean a dirty sink, or toothpaste to clean the door of a refrigerator. At all points, she tries to impress on the homeowners how easy it is.

Meanwhile, Aggie is on a mission of science, documenting bacteria, mold and fungi that are in the house, and sending samples off to the lab. When the results come back, she sits the “filth offender(s)” down to look at pictures of the “nasty little buggers” and to show them graphic pictures of the worst case scenario in terms of the health problems they can cause. Basically, Aggie uses science to scare the homeowner.

After the embarrassment of the opening scene, and the hectoring by Kim and Aggie, the house is finally clean. The homeowner is then shown back into their newly cleaned house, and the viewer sees a series of before and after shots of each room. The contrast between the before and after shots is heightened by lighting and by the use of music. As the filth offender is taken on tour, many exclaim that “this can’t be my house!” They are left with a stern charge to keep the house clean, and then Kim and Aggie promise to return to check on them.

Next shot is “two weeks later,” and Kim and Aggie evaluate the house. Depending on how the “filth offender” is doing, they might be the subject of praise, or perhaps a muttered declaration that the whole thing had been a waste of time. Then Kim and Aggie are off to find more filth to fight!

Analysis

There are a couple of notable patterns in “How Clean is Your House?” that would be interesting to examine more closely.

First, “How Clean is Your House” is part of an emerging genre of reality television shows that you might call “reclamation project” reality television. In the United States, examples include “Tabatha’s Salon Takeover,” “Biggest Loser,” “What Not to Wear,” and “Nanny 911.” In Great Britain, besides “How Clean is Your House?,” examples include “Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares,” and “You Are What You Eat.” In all cases, these shows follow similar narrative formats. They identify an unacceptable condition (a child’s behavior, the weight and health of a person, or the state of a business), embarrass and expose the offender, subject the offender to expert advice and help, and then see whether they can continue the newly learned skill. The sheer number of these shows indicate the importance of the genre. It would be interesting to examine the similarities and differences between shows in the genre.

Secondly, “How Clean is Your House” is an example of a show that originally showed on British television, and is ripe for transformation and adaptation for an American audience. A number of popular television shows in the US today are direct adaptations of BBC television shows. These include “The Office,” “Trading Spaces,” and “Cash in the Attic.” Sometimes, these adaptations are very successful, and others are not. It could be enlightening to examine the similarities and differences between American and British versions of the same show to learn how they have either succeeded or failed in the adaptation.

Third, I’m interested in the use of the rhetoric of science in this show and others like it. “Sending samples off to the lab” is a common feature of this show and the other that often follows it on BBC America, “You Are What You Eat.” The scientific certainty of the test results is used to convince the offenders of the seriousness of the situation. Many other popular television shows also use the certainty of science as a crucial element of their plot. For example, the enormously popular “CSI” television franchise is built around the idea that science is infallible and will inevitably lead to the guilty, while exculpating the innocent. The faith in science that television shows both rely on and build in the audience would be a good topic for future analysis.