Scott Disick, father of Mason, Penelope, and Reign, and erstwhile partner of Kourtney, has been a Kardashian hanger-on since the show’s inception, flitting in and out of orbit and behaving, in general, like a turd. His antics have never proved enough for a spin-off show—a valuable chunk of the Kardashian empire—until now. Flip it Like Disick, a new show that centers Disick’s entrepreneurial spirit, is a concerted attempt to push him into the spotlight he so eagerly seeks. Ryan Seacrest took a gamble on the Kardashian women and hit jackpot; the production team behind this home renovation-cum-reality show is likely wishing for the same magic, but unfortunately, they’ve come up short. In an overcrowded landscape, personality is everything—Disick, you would think, would be up for the task. But in this setting, he’s not that compelling.
“Most people think I’m completely unemployed and a camera walks around and follows me,” Disick informs the audience in a talking head segment at the top of the pilot. “But my real passion is real estate…” He wants viewers to be convinced by this, but Disick’s role in this endeavor is the money guy and nothing else.
Supporting his dreams of house flipping for the one percent are other, more capable individuals. Benny, Scott’s business partner, and his wife Kozet, handle the actual buying of the properties. Miki Mor, an irascible contractor whom E! News says is the only person Disick trust, does the actual work. Rounding out this trio is Willa Ford—yes, that Willa Ford—who, if anyone was wondering, is enjoying a second career as an interior designer. These are the people Disick has chosen to execute his questionable vision, and they do so gamely, with the kind of motivation created by a paycheck and a camera crew. Any conflict seems manufactured and is neatly resolved. In the show’s second episode, Willa and Miki butt heads over reasonable concerns about budget, but resolve their “issues” after enduring an hour at an obstacle course of the sort utilized by Silicon Valley professionals looking to engender team-building and trust.
“They’re like an old married couple,” Disick crows, once they’ve landed on solid ground. It’s not clear if this is the case or not, but we are expected to believe that this is real.
Flip It Like Disick attempts to merge the empty nothingness of Keeping Up With the Kardashians with a second-tier HGTV offering—not Flip or Flop, but maybe Flipping Virgins. The homes Disick and crew choose are B-list reality TV star starter homes at best: uninteresting to look at, needlessly large, and showy in a very empty way. A mansion in Hidden Hills, a gated community next to Calabasas, is Disick’s target—ostensibly for the season, but the loosey-goosey nature of the entire proceedings make it hard to tell what might be in store. Perhaps more than one home will be flipped. But as this is only an eight-episode season intended for Keeping Up With the Kardashian stans willing to watch the dregs of that family’s comings and goings, I can’t imagine Disick and team will complete more than one project over the show’s lifespan.Is it any surprise that this home-flipping endeavor is less an actual business and more a very expensive hobby, executed not by the Lord, but by the coterie of professionals he’s surrounded himself with? The show is not really meant to highlight Scott’s acumen in anything other than his ability to change. No longer the asshole who once shoved money into a waiter’s mouth at a restaurant in Las Vegas, Disick is a good father and co-parent, but a businessman he is not. Unlike traditional house flipping shows, which function as procedurals, Flip It Like Disick banks on its namesake’s personality to compel people to watch. The trouble is, Lord Disick doesn’t have the charisma to stay interesting past 15 minutes.