Escape to the Chateau: Season One
September 25, 2020 7:02 PM - Season 1 (Full Season) - Subscribe

Designer Angel Adoree and her partner, retired engineer Dick Strawbridge purchase the abandoned Château de la Motte Husson in hope of restoring it to its former 19th-century glory to serve as a wedding venue.
posted by DirtyOldTown (13 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
As an American, this show is the one thing that has made me glad I bought access to Peacock. It's just terrific. Angel and Dick are adorable.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:47 PM on September 25, 2020 [2 favorites]


This is very much in the UK reality school in which nice, charming people with real skills do lovely things without ugly drama or histrionics. It's comforting and lovely.

Not sure how many people in the US even have Peacock though. I may be alone on this.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:34 AM on September 26, 2020 [1 favorite]


I managed to watch several seasons of this last year on YouTube? Daily Motion? and it was just marvelous, the creativity, the ingenious-ness. I mean, a hydraulic tube elevator??
posted by TWinbrook8 at 12:05 PM on September 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


I remember Dick from Scrapheap Challenge (first as a contestant then as the presenter). Such a good 'tache.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:04 AM on September 30, 2020 [1 favorite]


I was sort of hoping it would show more of the actual renovation - it sort of felt like the first episode was all about the acquisition and oh lord this place is falling apart, the second episode had some interesting reno, but about equally balanced with Angel spontaneously deciding that Dick needed to stop doing vital, like "would you like to stop shitting in buckets?" work on the house to do something unrelated, then the third episode was "well, the French were never going to get it done in time so a British Miracle occurred and the expat community showed up to get it done in time for the wedding", which the majority of the final episode focused on.

Frustrating. Maybe the later seasons are less goal oriented and so there's more time to actually show a coherent narrative?
posted by Kyol at 6:08 AM on September 30, 2020 [1 favorite]


It gets lighter and lighter on reno content as the series progresses. There are even key projects glossed over entirely. At some point it turned into a recurring advertisement for Dick & Angel’s wedding venue business and our interest evaporated completely.
posted by migurski at 11:14 AM on October 13, 2020 [1 favorite]


I mean, looking back on my comment, right, for all the time they spent in the first episode trying to trace down where their septic system drained, and all the time they spent in the later episodes building what seemed like a _ludicrously_ small leach field for a potential multi-room hotel, they never spent like 5 minutes on showing them figure out where their waste drains actually ended up so they could tap in to them.
posted by Kyol at 2:40 PM on October 13, 2020


Wow, you’re completely right. There were also multiple episodes (possibly seasons) after the installation of the elevator when it was not shown or mentioned and we figured it had failed catastrophically.
posted by migurski at 6:07 PM on October 13, 2020


They actually did resolve the sewage thing. At one point, they take advantage of a French program that subsidizes the purchase of a septic holding tank if it's connected to a filtration system that routes waste through a sand/silt bed to neutralize it as its end point. Essentially, Dick decided this was a better plan than having their merde being pumped into a nonspecific point within the moat, so he reroutes to go with the environmentally sound septic waste treatment approach.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:13 PM on October 13, 2020 [1 favorite]


I do not think they ever explained how/if they got rid of the bats, though.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:14 PM on October 14, 2020


OK I have HUGE feelings about this show. It's basically the only reality-type show my wife and I have ever unabashedly adored.

Most of my fumbling forays into the realm of VPNs and Torrents have been in service of figuring out a way to watch this show in our home in the USA. I have wished for YEARS that there was a legal way to view it.

And now suddenly there is. Finally one good thing in 2020 happened. I am beyond ecstatic about this.

Part of the charm of the show is seeing these two very forceful personalities, who still love each other, take on this enormous project. As my wife and I often say, "The chateau is actually within our budget range for a house, but there is NO WAY IN HELL we could ever do all that work."

Kyol, it isn't really about showing the entirety of the renovation. On the spectrum of Kardashians------This Old House, it is more to the left than to the right. If that is a problem, you might just want to watch This Old House.

I have SO MUCH to say and comment about this show, which I thought about and longed for at least five years, and watched the episodes whenever they would pop up on Youtube, then get taken down. I am so happy to finally have a way to see it. It is the only reason we subscribed to Peacock, and I do not care. I plan to write a lot more, but this is probably a good place for a first comment to stop.
posted by seasparrow at 3:32 PM on October 17, 2020 [2 favorites]


See also: Peacock discussion thread on FF Talk.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:48 AM on January 4, 2021 [1 favorite]


So if you are still on the fence about this one, there are two overview episodes in season five (on Peacock in USA), "Restoring the Dream" S5E08 and "Designing the Dream" S5E09 that go into the full details of the engineering and decoration parts of the renovation, respectively. They are a good showcase for what you will be getting with the show. On full display are Dick and Angel's personalities and how the complement and clash, Dick's technical solutions, and Angel's design sensibilities-- of which my wife and I have always said "She is a real professional, you can see her impeccable skill and craftsmanship and she has an instantly recognizable look and aesthetic that you can't mistake for anyone else-- even if it is not always to our own taste." Actually, in the years since we first started watching the show, I think we've grown to like her taste a little bit more than we initially did.
posted by seasparrow at 7:07 PM on January 6, 2021


« Older Movie: Enola Holmes...   |  Utopia (2020): Utopia for Newb... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments

poster