Customer Reviews

Alter Eco

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I enjoyed watching this and seeing the next generation caring so much for our planet. These DVD's do a good job showing us all what can be done especially when we all work together. I have watched this two times already and will probably watch again soon. I hope that they will have another season of Alter Eco.

I found the series to be fascinating. I never knew so many Eco friendly ideas were out there!! Although Adrian Grenier created this, the series really follows up on some very exciting and helpful ideas on how to make the planet more eco friendly starting in your own back yard. I recommend it just for the information itself.

Planet Green had a lot riding on this show, because Adrian Grenier has a very successful series on HBO. Sadly, Planet Green, which used to be the conservative Home Channel, didn't have the young viewers necessary to give this wonderful series the success it deserved.

Planet Green is a luxury for homeowners, an additional expense on the cable bill, usually part of the extended package. The 20 somethings Alter Eco show rings true with didn't have a chance to see on television, unless they sat in their parents house. They would have quickly become addicted to it though if Planet Green had also made the decision to webcast.

I enjoyed the show tremendously, because of its charm, its pacing, its humor, its gentle connection to its surroundings, its people, the general sense of laisser faire and savoir faire... It might play much better on a European audience than in America, because it certainly has that Los Angeles lifestyle and attitude. Nobody yells or shouts, or throws things, no temper tantrums. Imagine, a good vibes show.

The people you see on screen, are friends, comrades, they share a common goal and vision, they are enjoying their lives, they're not down on the world because the planet is falling apart. They're learning as they go. They're young. They separate themselves from what we need to do as human beings to fix things, from the anger that the first reviewer harbors at the world. Yes, the Blue Meanies are monsters... we are up against the evil empire. But let it rest man, the facts speak for themselves.

Each episodes ends in wine and song. But the products and services Alter Eco showcases in each episodes are one step ahead of the pack. An entire art gallery is retrofited to Light Emitting Diode, replacing halogen while the mainstream is still debating incandescent vs fluorescent. Alter Eco was cutting edge last year. Remains so now.

Darren, Boise and Angela take you all over LA, to San Diego, to great kitchens, green centers, to a music festival... you meet wonderful people. As you sit enjoying this show, you're made to feel you're on board, the fourth wall easily falls away to reveal some very talented artists.

If you're an environmental activist, developing the green economy... if you need to present these ideas to college students, to high schools, this is the way to do it. They will feel kinship, this show will speak to them.

My only regret is that they didn't have a chance to see it the first time around, that Planet Green didn't have it set up to put the show online, encouraging interactivity between the stars, its audience and all the businesses involved.

Each member of the cast have gone on to bigger and better things, while this DVD series remain a testament to a great experience.

Bravo.

I think the previous viewer, Mr. Lebryk, while entitled to his opinions is a bit inaccurate on his review. While the claim to the pretext of the show is green renovation, it is not solely an instructional show on eco remodeling. That is what the program "Renovate Nation" is geared for. It would be redundant having 2 similar shows on a growing network. The show is not intended for a Home Depot/Bob Villa step 1-10 show because not enough mainstream folks would watch that, especially the youth. I actually enjoy the side projects they do while renovating. The side projects range from visiting schools to pampering visits. Pampering is unnecessary but lets face it, this is America who loves to pamper themselves.

I think the series "Alter Eco" is great to open eyes all over the world. Our society has come to loving "American Idol". Unfortunately, it will take celebrities for the world to catch on about the environment and the true "reality". We live in such a disregard, selfish, unnecessary consumption and wasteful society right now that it's good to see the crew go off on a tangent while on the green renovation. It shows how when they do go off on a tangent, that they are reaching out to schools and to the community to get the 'ecolution' going. They try to get in touch with what normal people do, especially the ones who are high consumers. They find restaurants, clubs, shops and much more that are contributing to decrease our "carbon footprint" on our environment. It has to start somewhere. The majority of our eco problems stems from the factories and industrial pollutants and depletion of resource. But the root cause of the pollution production is not the factories in in itself but the demand of which we the people create. If a show like this can open peoples eyes and rethink demand, it just might make a difference.


PS. Planet Green (affiliate with the Discovery Channel) did pick up this show on the cable network.

This is series is more fluff than content. Four people try to do a green renovation of a house, that will ultimately be their Alter Eco headquarters.

The four characters are, Adrian (Mr. Cool Handsome Guy), Ms. Super Model, Mr. Worker Guy, and Mr. Money Man.

Each episode is built around the same outline. The crew gets together, they talk, one guy works, and the rest come up with ideas of things to go off and do (that usually have little to do with what Mr. Worker Guy has to do on the renovation. The model and Adrian tend to go off and find food, wine, decorations, or clothes. The guy that owns Ecovation (Mr. Worker Guy) is the only person that actually works. There's another guy that goes off and finds causes or friends to go do things. And then there's Mr. Money guy with his Bentley convertible (eco because it runs on ethanol, or so the film keeps pointing out).

In general a 45 minute episode starts with some good idea. The bearded slacker Adrian shows up with the model, they all spend about 5 minutes saying hello, shaking hands, kissing, and saying sustainable (this word is used ad nauseum). He then comes up with a cool thing he's figured out, it rarely has to do with work, and he and the model take off. The Mr. Worker Guy is usually left behind to build something for everyone else, like a table, a fire place, a toy box, etc. The Bentley guy stands around in his Armani suit and just talks about how green and sustainable his construction company is. And talks a big talk about separating construction waste. And the last guy sort of floats around by himself coming up with some other really useful idea. After everyone goes off and does their cool things, they all meet back at night and have a party with all the new friends they found along the way.

There's so much wrong with the premise of this series. The group tries hard or has good intentions. But nothing they do is really connected to making a difference. The model constantly talks about organic cotton. The guys mostly say the word sustainable. An example of inneffectiveness is the cotton / blue jean insulation. They find out that great insulation is made from cotton, waste blue jeans. The model knows a designer that manufactures blue jeans. They go there and find out that his plant alone produces tons of fabric waste a day. There's a company that does blue jean events at local colleges. So the idea is, marry these two, and we could have tons of great insulation. Well it all falls apart because the jean collecting group is nothing more than a middle man to ship jeans to a company in Arizona. And in fact they are in business to advertise themselves and really want nothing to do with the bulk fabric. So there's a good idea that just goes way flat.

The pretext of the whole program is to green rennovate a house and make it AlterEco headquarters. If the group just did that, this would be an interesting series. If they just did all their odds and ends side things, that might be interesting. But instead they blend the two and it just comes off as a bunch of slackers that have no attention span and want to do random things.

I just can't recommend this series at all. It's no wonder no network has picked this up for broadcast. Oh and let's not talk about the distribution of the DVD's, this is a big plastic clamshell with three DVD's. The series would fit on a single disc and the packaging could be paper, or more eco-friendly. The hypocricy of it all.