On the box

Since the late 70s, curious Britons have been bringing their questionable junk to the appraisers of the Antiques Roadshow.

Thirty years on and the TV audience’s fascination with the concept of unearthing the value of people’s items hasn’t subsided. Not only is Antiques Roadshow still an enduring and well-known program, but its success has led to a slew of programs that celebrate the heirlooms and collections of the average punter.

In the overseas market and, in particular, the US, a number of different programs exploring the idea of finding value in junk have been highly successful. Some of these shows feature the exploits of pawn shops and their dealings, while others open a window into the lives of professional storage unit auction buyers. These programs feature so heavily, that they have created their own genre within the medium.  

Programs featuring more of a modern take on the premise of Antiques Roadshow have started to surface also, yet with a fundamental twist.

American Pickers follows two professionals of this trade, Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz as they travel America looking for people’s unwanted and rare items in order to turn a profit.

It’s basically a one hour program that features experts in the field of antiques, canvassing the holders of deceased estates and octogenarian hoarders and conning them out of a huge payday of their own by relieving them of their items.  
It’s not exactly daylight robbery; sometimes these people need to clear space, or just need the money, but the fact that every transaction features profit margins at the end denotes the entire process as a little morally questionable.

If Mike and Frank make a big find and manage to undercut on it enough, through their narration they’ll explain what they paid versus what it is they’ll be asking for the exact same item.

The entertainment comes out of the act of discovering some long-forgotten treasure that will fetch a high price with a collector. However, the above mentioned swindling of the honest, trash collecting folk does serve to be pretty unnerving, especially considering the vast amounts of filler between “picks” that try to humanise Mike and Frank by giving them playful banter. The overall result is conflicting, as you’re never exactly sure who you’re meant to be barracking for.

American Pickers is the sort of show that you might pick up half way through, while channel surfing after finding nothing but repeats of Two and a Half Men on TV. It’s one of those funny little shows that runs on a very basic formula, but it’s still entertaining because there will always be more rubbish to scrounge through.

American Pickers can be found on 7Mate weeknights at 10.30pm.