The Houseboat is a four-part docuseries that shows how two German musicians — Olli Schulz and Fynn Kliemann — get in over their heads renovating a houseboat moored on the Elbe River near Hamburg. It was the home of Gunter Gabriel, one of the country’s most well-known country artists, who died in 2017 after falling down a flight of stairs. There was a lot of interest in the houseboat, and Fynn managed to win the auction for 20,000 euros. What will he find when he gets inside?
Opening Shot: Olli Schulz and Fynn Kliemann are sitting on a couch. Fynn says “Olli is my anchor. Dragging me down.” Olli says, “Fynn is my harbor.”
The Gist: When Fynn goes into the houseboat with Gunter Gabriel’s daughter, he realizes that the singer was a pretty well-established hoarder, and that most of the rest of the houseboat is not in the greatest of shape. The idea he had, at least to start, was to do some light renovation and make it a place for musicians to hang out, rehearse, and write music. But, once he realizes how big the task is, he brings in Olli, an acquaintance from the music community, to help.
Fynn hires a crew to clear out everything from the houseboat except the stuff that Gabriel’s daughter wants to keep. As Dumpster after Dumpster gets crane-lifted off the deck, the musicians are realizing that this is going to be a far tougher job than they thought. However, the two are becoming closer friends because of this project, and Fynn also gets annoyed when Olli “supervises” instead of doing actual manual labor.
As the months pass, they find mold, wet insulation and rot. They decide to gut the interior of the boat, including tearing out all of the electrical wiring.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Houseboat is like This Old House on a river, and neither host has the skills to take on an extensive renovation.
Our Take: To understand The Houseboat, you have to understand European houseboat culture. This isn’t merely a case where someone is living on their boat in a marina, like Quincy on Quincy M.E. did. Houseboats are literally floating houses, often with multiple floors; they don’t often have engines and need to be toed to where they’re moored. In the rivers and canals of Continental Europe, there are many houseboats, and they serve as people’s primary homes.
What’s interesting about this series is that Olli and Fynn aren’t your normal overly-chipper home renovators like you might see on HGTV; they’re musicians, one of whom seems to be allergic to manual labor. They both bought into this boat because of who owned it as well as the neat idea to make it a floating venue for musicians to retreat to and engage their creativity. But they had no idea what awaited them when they entered the boat.
To say that Gabriel was an eccentric might be an understatement; the man looked like he saved everything. While there wasn’t piles of things in the middle of the floor, the man packed every other square inch of that boat with stuff. On top of that, he did very little to keep the boat up; he didn’t even take the protective film off the windows.
So what we’re going to see during these four half-hour-ish segments are Olli and Fynn dealing with how monumental this project they’re undertaking is, and how their burgeoning friendship will grow and be challenged. The two of them seem to be having a good time despite the difficulties, which always helps. Who doesn’t like seeing people try to renovate something and just get completely overwhelmed?
Parting Shot: After Fynn tries to leapfrog over a standing Olli, we see scenes of the last of the stuff on the boat — an old exercise bike, a couch, some paneling and folding doors — being thrown into a Dumpster.
Sleeper Star: We wanted to find out more about Gunter Gabriel after looking through his houseboat. Maybe we’ll listen to some of his music after we’re done with this.
Most Pilot-y Line: Olli tossing things into a Dumpster when he knows the camera is on him is pretty cheesy, even for a professional work avoider like him.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The Houseboat is a fun and light docuseries about two non-contrators trying to renovate a floating money pit. What’s not to like?
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
Stream The Houseboat On Netflix