IMDb rating:Take the toughest challenges on Survivor, and add hammers, nails and paint, and you get somewhere close to the drama on The Block. One of Australia’s top reality shows, this is as addictive as it gets.
This season, contestants renovate five family houses built in Brighton, Victoria, in the early 20th Century. Each couple will renovate a home from a different decade, and will be tasked with bringing it back to life.
Once again, each pair has to contend with a super-tight schedule and a tiny budget, and, toughest of all, the judging panel: supremely calm magazine editor Neale Whitaker, and interior designers Shaynna Blaze and catty Darren Palmer.
If you think you’ve seen it all, think again – for the first time in the history of the show, The Block had to shut down for more than a month when the Covid pandemic hit in March 2020. Thankfully for fans, filming resumed – with extra precautions in place.
The show is presented by the inimitable Scott Cam and Challenge Master Shelley Craft, who pops in to set the contestants challenges, offer some encouraging advice and occasionally break their hearts. Foremen Keith and Dan are in charge, and woe betide the contestants who defy them or build something that’s not up to Australia’s exacting building codes.
Each week a room or area has to be completed, and at the end of the competition, all five houses are auctioned (in the case of this season, the inspections were done virtually because of Covid safety protocols).
The couple who makes the most cash wins – and they get to keep the windfall.
While the gorgeous interior design is at the heart of the show, the soul is the human drama. Couples fight, neighbours quarrel and you’ll quite often wonder whether someone shouldn’t take the sharp pointy tools away.
New episodes arrive on weekdays on DStv.