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The Inferiority Complex: Malibu
LAist was fascinated with this week's Premiere of FOX TV's groundbreaking slave-labor, fix-up condo monstrosity "The Complex: Malibu" in which eight couples are given demolished condos to live in, fix up and sell in the most beautiful city in all of Los Angeles -- Malibu!
Taking place in glorious Malibu (as witnessed in the above photo from FOX.com which was obviously provided to give out-of-towners a Cliff Notes' view of the city itself) the show has placed eight discordant couples in four stacked condos on a hill which could easily be described as "mud-slide ready." Each week, the eight couples are given a room to remodel, a budget and a variety of Sears-related items they can choose from to finish the project. The act of renovation also includes screw-ups, dangerous mistakes, and sleeping on the job -- begging the question, "What's the difference between this and hiring a contractor?"
Each week, of course, the worst contractors (er, Contestants) are fired off the job (er, Evicted) which will eventually whittle the group down to one couple who will, in the sexiest of all reality TV concepts, let them keep the profits after a real estate company sells the complex to the highest bidder. Winners will also, LAist believes, get taken to court by the new owners after they realize they just bought the crappiest condo (replete with Pergo floors) ever.
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As for the city of Malibu itself, "The Complex: Malibu" has seen fit to give us sprawling views of surfers, sea-gulls, lush hillsides (see above), the inside of these broken condos and a Sears somewhere obviously not in Malibu. Future episodes (Fridays at 8pm PST) could include a variety of additional Malibu home renovation-type locations like Home Depot (not in Malibu), Loews (not in Malibu), Sears (again, not in Malibu) and Planet Blue -- which IS in Malibu, but only sells Uggs.
It's good to know that Malibu, the city, is getting its time in the sun.
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