Television series
Fixer Upper
- Light-hearted
Chip and Joanna Gaines take on Waco's least lovable listings, pairing awkward layouts and questionable 1980s choices with a shiplap-and-farmhouse vision that turned into an HGTV empire. It's low-stakes, high-charm television — equal parts real estate hunt, home makeover and marriage sitcom. Comforting, predictable in the best way, and ideal for anyone who wants an hour of cheerful competence before bed.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like home makeovers where the fun comes from watching a messy, unloved house get rescued room by room, with a couple whose bickering and banter make the work feel like a good weekend with friends.
Skip it if you want deep stakes or a sharp edge, since the drama is gentle and every project wraps up tidily, and the hour-long episodes repeat the same arc of tour, demolition, and reveal.
What it asks of you: Little beyond an hour of half-attention per episode; it is bright, unhurried, and easy to dip into, with the same comfortable rhythm each time and no need to track a plot.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Home Town2017
If you loved Chip and Joanna's chemistry and small-town charm, Erin and Ben Napier deliver the same warmth in Laurel, Mississippi — genuine marriage banter, gorgeous reveals, and a real love for saving old houses.
But The pacing is gentler and the drama lower-key; if you came for personality clashes or dramatic budget blowups, this stays comparatively calm.
Good Bones2016
Swap farmhouse chic for Indianapolis grit — Karen Laine and Mina Starsiak Hawk gut houses in rough neighborhoods with sharper humor and a mother-daughter dynamic that bickers as much as it bonds.
But The design style leans more modern-edgy than shiplap-cozy, and the mother-daughter friction feels less breezy than Chip and Jo's easy rapport.
Property Brothers2011
Twins Drew and Jonathan Scott combine the house-hunt and renovation into one tidy hour, with Drew's real estate hustle and Jonathan's construction reveals giving the same buy-then-fix satisfaction plus sibling rivalry jokes.
But The twin dynamic can feel slicker and more produced than Chip and Jo's homegrown charm, and the houses skew suburban-generic.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Fixer Upper
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Grand Designs1999
Same premise — take a flawed property and shape it into a dream home — but stretched into a slow, months-long documentary about the emotional and financial toll of building your own life's project.
Kevin McCloud follows self-builders across the UK as they blow budgets, miss deadlines and nearly wreck their marriages chasing an architectural vision — Fixer Upper's optimism replaced with real suspense about whether the dream survives.
But Episodes run much longer and the tone is far more melancholic; some builds end in genuine heartbreak rather than a triumphant reveal.
More like this (7)
Rehab Addict2010
Nicole Curtis works solo, rescuing genuinely derelict historic houses with obsessive attention to original details — a grittier, more hands-on cousin to Fixer Upper's polished farmhouse fantasy.
But No couple banter, no big reveal party — it's quieter and focused squarely on craftsmanship over lifestyle spectacle.
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition2004
Bigger stakes, bigger tears — deserving families get entire houses rebuilt in days, with the same 'transform a struggling home' arc cranked up to full charity-telethon intensity.
But It's unabashedly manipulative and frantically paced; if Fixer Upper's calm was the appeal, this will feel like sensory overload.
This Old House1979
The granddaddy of the genre — decades of patient, expert-driven renovation without a hint of reality-TV flourish. If you actually want to learn how a house gets fixed, this is the real education.
But There's no couple chemistry, no drama, and very little of the warm lifestyle-brand gloss that makes Fixer Upper so binge-friendly.
100 Day Dream Home2020
Another husband-and-wife team, Brian and Mika Kleinschmidt, race to build custom homes from scratch in a hundred days — same domestic-dream-house appeal, faster clock, new-build energy.
But These are new builds, not rescues, so you lose the 'ugly duckling transformation' thrill that's the heart of Fixer Upper.
Love It or List It2008
Designer Hilary Farr and realtor David Visentin battle over whether homeowners should renovate or move, giving you the same house-transformation payoff wrapped in a more adversarial, will-they-stay format.
But The renovate-vs-sell conflict often feels obviously staged, and it lacks the genuine marital warmth anchoring Fixer Upper.
The Money Pit1986
It's the same 'buy the wrong house in the right place and fix it' engine Fixer Upper runs on, just aged forty years and turned into pure farce.
A gloriously silly '80s comedy where a young couple's fixer-upper turns into an escalating catastrophe of falling staircases and exploding plumbing — the fantasy Fixer Upper never shows you, played entirely for laughs.
But It's broad, dated slapstick with none of the genuine craftsmanship or design payoff that makes the real renovation shows satisfying.
Owned: A Tale of Two Americas2018
It asks what the 'American dream home' Fixer Upper sells so warmly actually costs, tracing suburbs, redlining and the 2008 crash beneath that fantasy.
A sharp, sobering documentary tracing how the postwar suburban dream was built, sold and who got shut out of it — essential context for anyone who's gotten swept up in a home-renovation fairy tale.
But There's no reveal party here, no shiplap — this is a serious, sometimes angry documentary with a political point to make, not a comfort watch.
People
Cast
Recommended by
A Very Haunted Renovation, Wife Swap, Home Town, Good Bones, Property Brothers, Rehab Addict, 100 Day Dream Home, Love It or List It, Bargain Block, Farmhouse Fixer, Windy City Rehab, Married to Real Estate, Ask This Old House, Renovation Impossible, Maine Cabin Masters, Christina on the Coast, Junk Gypsies, Restored, Tiny House Nation, Wood Work, Ugliest House in America