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Tiny House Nation

When we talk about streaming culture, we’re usually enthusing about what’s new, but one of the best things about streaming is how it’s made old and obscure cult hits available to a new generation. Presenting Cult Corner: your weekly look into hidden gems and long-lost curiosities that you can find on streaming.

A few years back, some intrepid (and debt-ridden) Americans started opting out of the dream of a massive five-bedroom colonial home with five acres, three bathrooms, and a crippling mortgage and chose instead to downsize. The quaint “tiny houses” popping up all over the country offered people the opportunity to own a home without having oodles of debt. They also force people to live on top of each other in a way that most Americans are decidedly unprepared for. Hence, tiny houses are ready-made tinderboxes for reality TV drama. So, it’s hard to tell how much of the “Tiny House” trend is an actual real estate phenomenon and how much of it is just a cable television hype machine.

My co-workers laughed when I told them there were at least five tiny house shows in regular rotation on any given day: Tiny House Hunters, Tiny House, Big Living, Tiny House Hunting, Tiny House World, and the only tiny house reality show worth watching, FYI’s Tiny House Nation. All five shows will introduce you to insufferable millennials, quirky couples, and down-on-their luck families struggling to pick which small house is one they can live with living in, but Tiny House Nation offers so much more than just the delicious schadenfraude of watching a house search gone wrong. Tiny House Nation follows the journey that these people take as they try to dramatically downsize their lives without realizing that they might have bitten off more than they can chew.

Each hour-long episode follows our hosts John Weisbarth and Zack Giffin as they try to help a client build their dream tiny home. Usually, these offbeat homebuyers have some bizarre quirk that throws a monkey wrench into the build, but they almost always fail to see precisely how much space they are about to give up. Weisbarth is the main emcee. He deals with the homeowners directly and narrates most of the proceedings. He’s also in charge of coaxing these people into throwing out half their possessions like some ruthless riff on Dr. Phil. Giffin is the extraordinary carpentry mastermind who builds these unique tiny homes and ensures each one comes with some dazzling space-saving surprise. Indeed, after about 40 minutes of beautiful reality TV drama, Tiny House Nation delivers its most entertaining bits when you see exactly what wonders Giffin and his crew cooked up.

Did we mention there was drama? Sometimes, the tension on the show comes from financial limitations and other times it’s about people learning to come to grips with the fact that their “dream home” might be careening into a nightmare. There’s a really juicy episode in this most recent season where two “goth” parents bent on moving into a tiny house meet resistance with their all-too-normal teen daughter. While the people who are supposed to be in charge whine about throwing out their performance costumes and how they want to make the house more “goth,” 15-year-old Miura (pronounced Mira) just sagely worries that the tiny house won’t be enough for three people and six pets. But the drama isn’t just interpersonal. Often a tiny house has to be transported to some uncle or second cousin’s farm and the road getting there is downright fraught with peril.

Tiny House Nation offers drama, excitement, and a ton of architectural wonder. It also gives many of us a glimpse of a way of life we’d never want to adopt.

You can stream the show regularly on FYI on Sling TV. For more on Sling TV, click here.

[Where to Stream Tiny House Nation]

Previously On Cult Corner:

Cult Corner: Yes, You Can Watch More Seasons Of The Great British Baking Show

Cult Corner: Triumph The Insult Comic Dog Is The Cruel & Dirty Shakespearean Fool We Deserve

Cult Corner: Cowboy Bebop Is A Sci-Fi Film Noir Kung Fu Animated Masterpiece

Cult Corner: The Staircase Could Blow Your Making A Murderer Obsession Away