Aubriana Menendez

If you enjoy the “cult de sac” culture of uniform homes, uniform families, with uniform looking people, this show is for you... TOO MUCH WHITE in both the cast and the decorating.... The McGee decor styles boasts the aesthetic of “basic white girl instagram” interior decor. The designs are unoriginal and lack character - lots of kitschy Knick knacks that serve no purpose. No personality is added to the rooms (rarely any family photos, no personal memorabilia, or any items that have special meaning to their clients). No tailoring to the personality and lifestyle of the family. The McGee decorating style lacks diversity and is very colorless, just different hues of white with an occasional muted blue. Shea considers adding in a splash of red as “funky” (like a white person calling ketchup “spicy”). With all this in mind, The McGee Team’s interior decorating is very clean and aesthetically pleasing, however uninspiring it may be. It may be better suited for hotel chains, or office spaces, but the lack of warmth and character makes it unsuited for home living, in my opinion. Beyond the interior designs the show has a other red flags: 1. The white privileged shines through in the cast: - Shea says “Mormons we’re the first people in Utah” (not a direct quote, but she said something similar) completely disregarding the Native Americans that have been there long before. - Setting up a tent in a children’s room, calling it a “teepee”... not every tent is a teepee and if even so, it’s culture appropriation... - Calling the living room she could only $20,000 on a “budget living room”. Yikes. 4. Her team, neighbors, and friends are all white, look, and act the same. I understand she lives in Utah but wow...there’s no diversity, other than the clients, which I’m sure was strategic. Her husband lacks just as much color and character as her style, hardly involved in the business yet is the CEO? He has no opinion on design or co-parenting... There are much better designers out there that deserve recognition!

Dialogue is unrealistic. The book was so good, maybe I had too high of expectations. From my perspective, it seems like whoever wrote the film version comes from a background of privilege and cannot empathize with the original authors story. So instead, they overemphasized different moments of the story and created drama in scenes that did not require that much attention. Felt like the movie missed many of the author of the book’s point, tone, and narrative.