Television series
Home Town
- Light-hearted
Erin and Ben Napier restore century-old houses in their tiny Mississippi hometown, keeping original character intact while making rooms livable for young families. It's HGTV without the shouting — hand sketches, salvage hunts, porch swings, gentle marital banter. Slow, sweet, occasionally twee, built more around civic pride and preservation than luxury flips or dramatic reveals.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you find yourself happiest watching patient restorations of old houses, where the joy is in a battered porch or a salvaged mantel becoming someone's home, and a gentle, neighborly couple is the reason to stay.
Skip it if you want fast decisions, big reveals, or a show that treats renovation as a contest; here the budgets are modest, the pace is unhurried, and the drama is mostly small-town warmth.
What it asks of you: Each hour-long episode settles into an easy rhythm of meeting a family, walking through a house, and following the work step by step, so it rewards a loose, uncommitted kind of attention.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Fixer Upper2014
The show every renovation series since has been measured against; same shiplap-and-farmhouse warmth, same easy husband-wife chemistry, same devotion to a small town, just swap Mississippi for Waco.
But Joanna's aesthetic leans more magazine-polished than lived-in; if you like Home Town's rougher edges, this can feel over-curated.
Good Bones2016
Mother-daughter team Karen and Mina flip crumbling Indianapolis houses with the same underdog-town pride, trading porch swings for bolder colors and real structural grit and drama.
But More demolition chaos and budget panic than Home Town's gentle pacing; less reverence for history, more hustle and hard deadlines.
Rehab Addict2010
Nicole Curtis was salvaging century-old houses before it was trendy, with a stubborn devotion to original materials that makes the Napiers look positively relaxed by comparison.
But Mostly a solo show with earlier seasons looking rougher production-wise than the glossy, well-lit world of modern HGTV.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Home Town
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Rebuilding Paradise2020
Home Town's tagline about a town's 'future as bright as its past' is aspirational marketing; this documentary shows what that actually costs when a town has to rebuild from ash, not just old plaster.
Ron Howard's unflinching documentary follows real families rebuilding literal lives, not just houses, after wildfire destroyed the town of Paradise, California — the same devotion to place, minus the styling.
But Genuinely devastating in places — grief, loss, community trauma — nothing like the cozy Sunday-afternoon comfort Home Town offers.
More like this (7)
This Old House1979
The genre's granddaddy, running since 1979 — patient, genuinely informative about how houses actually go together, with none of the manufactured conflict newer shows lean on.
But No family narrative, no small-town romance, no reveal-day tears — it's closer to an instructional program than a lifestyle show.
Barnwood Builders2013
A crew of West Virginia guys dismantling old log cabins and barns to reuse the timber elsewhere shares Home Town's love of salvage and the history hiding inside old wood.
But Less about finished, livable homes and more about the reclaiming process itself; slower, more niche, and less design-focused.
Bargain Block2021
Detroit renovators buying dirt-cheap houses to revive whole blocks capture the 'town's future as bright as its past' spirit, but with grittier urban stakes and tighter budgets.
But Fewer swoony reveal moments and a rougher city backdrop than Home Town's consistently polished, picturesque finales.
Farmhouse Fixer2021
New England farmhouses get similar tender historic-meets-modern treatment, with host Jonathan Knight bringing an easy, unhurried charm not unlike Ben and Erin's.
But A newer show still finding its identity; some episodes feel like generic HGTV rather than something distinctly regional.
Property Brothers2011
Reliable comfort-food renovation TV — twin hosts, easy banter, satisfying transformations — if you just want the reveal-day dopamine hit without regional specificity.
But Formulaic and impersonal; little sense of place or historical stakes, just solid, repeatable flips week after week.
It's a Wonderful Life1946
Long before HGTV existed, this film argued a town's soul gets built house by house — George Bailey's Building and Loan gives ordinary families real homes instead of slum housing, which is basically Ben and Erin's mission in black and white.
A genuine classic about believing a small town is worth saving, with warmth and moral clarity Home Town only gestures at, plus it's a beautiful, endlessly rewatchable film.
But It's a full melodrama with a suicide plot at its center — stranger and heavier than its cozy holiday reputation suggests.
The Repair Shop2017
Swap houses for heirlooms: this show applies Home Town's exact philosophy, preserve the character rather than erase it, to clocks and toys and furniture, with owners' stories doing the emotional work sketches and salvage do for the Napiers.
Slower and quietly moving — British craftspeople fix cherished heirlooms while owners tell the family stories behind them, somehow making a broken teddy bear feel enormous.
But No big reveal, no renovation budget, no property drama — a much quieter, more meditative show than some viewers will expect.
People
Cast
Recommended by
Fixer Upper, Celebrity IOU, Good Bones, Property Brothers, Married to Real Estate, Trixie Motel, Renovation Impossible, Junk Gypsies