While you can see Jessica Alba, the actress, beat up enemies in her recent Netflix action flick “Trigger Warning,” the most violent thing she does on her home improvement show “Honest Renovations” on the Roku Channel is slamming a mallet into a wall to give a family a clear line between the kitchen and family room.
But Alba on the show is more likely to play director while clutching a cup of tea while co-host Lizzy Mathis does more of the heavy lifting. Ultimately, the primary point of “Honest Renovations” is to create better spaces for families to live in while providing entertaining interplay between two longtime friends for the viewers.
“We are really putting the time into getting to know these families and transforming their lives for the better,” Alba told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution while promoting the show at the Four Seasons in Midtown Atlanta last week.
Season two debuted Friday on demand on the Roku Channel featuring four families, each with a unique problem. One couple is juggling triplets, another is grappling with an aging mom and three kids, a third family has a mom suffering from stage four cancer and in the final makeover, a single mom is picking up the pieces after the deaths of her father and grandmother.
“This year we did more with diversity,” said Mathis, including two same-sex couples.
This season, Roku is also trying an unusual format where the makeover reveal for the first family doesn’t happen until episode two and episode five includes two reveals. The short season is clearly structured for a binge.
“That was an experiment,” Alba said. “I don’t know if we’ll do it season three.”
While there are plenty of heartwarming moments on the show, it’s balanced by comical ones, usually centered around Alba. She has a sneezing fit at one point and Mathis teases her for being overly dramatic about it.
Another scene looks like it was stolen from an “I Love Lucy” episode: Mathis and Alba haplessly attempt to put up wallpaper on a ceiling. (Yes, that is apparently a thing now.)
After some comical fumbling, they fail miserably.
“My arms were burning,” Alba said. The wallpaper “kept falling on my face. It was the worst.”
“We tapped out,” Mathis said.
“We had professionals who fixed it,” Alba said.
Credit: ROKU
Credit: ROKU
Roku has not officially committed to a third season, but the fact the network is giving Alba and Mathis a multicity promotional tour is a good clue. (UPDATE on AUGUST 29: The show, not surprisingly, was renewed for a third season.)
“The formula works,” Alba said.
“It’s a feel good positive show,” Mathis said.
“I feel we toe the line between being too produced, too cheesy, too corny,” Alba said. “We have an authentic relationship. It’s funny. It’s silly.”
The show is in many ways an extension of The Honest Company, a consumer goods company she helped launch 12 years ago. The company sells products for babies, personal care, cleaning and vitamins with an eye toward environmental sustainability. “Honest Renovations” quietly promotes the company’s products, of course.
Alba recently stepped down as chief creative officer but remains on the board. She said she wanted to move on after the company’s third CEO Carla Vernón took over. “I was there for a year of her transition,” Alba said. “She’s got this. She’s awesome.”
IF YOU WATCH
“Honest Renovations,” both seasons available on the Roku Channel for free
