User Reviews

When Fred Willard narrated, this show was quite amusing. Mark Wahlberg's narration is a bit too generic for this type of show. It is really a modern re-telling of The Maltese falcon without Sam Spade. You have Miller Gaffney, the southern belle who charms her way through antique dealers. Brigid O'Shaugnessy was also a femme fatale. Wilmer Cook was from New York. Kevin Bruneau is also from the northeast, and mentions sometimes that some dealers are put off by his assertiveness. Bob Richter the designer,has the style of Joel Cairo in that he wants to win but also throws his support to the others. John Bruo, the professor, is the Kasper Gutman of the bunch. besides his physical appearance, his joviality is definitely that of a Kasper Gutman. I can imagine Fred Willard picking up on this metaphor and narrating the show from Sam Spade's viewpoint. Perhaps Wahlberg will do this style for a Halloween episode.

i enjoy going to flea markets, and it is nice to discover ones from different cities. I hope that

In Market Warriors, Four "pickers" are set loose at a different flea market each week, with $1,000 each, to, in the first round, purchase an item based on criteria put forth by an auctioneer. This is followed by a second, and sometimes third round, where each picker purchases an additional item or two of their own choosing. At the end of the first round, the pickers review each others purchases and decide whether or not they fit the criteria laid out at the start of the show. All the items purchased are then sent to put up in an auction, the winner is the picker who makes the most profit. This show has a similar set-up to the long-running British show Bargain Hunt, except these are all the "experts" rather than a team of two regular people and an "expert" To be fair to the pickers, they are being asked to do the almost impossible, purchase an item for retail at a flea market and then make a profit on it at auction. Keep in mind, most of the items sold at flea markets or antique stores were brought at auction to begin with, and are being sold with a markup. They aren't helped by the fact that the auction houses are half-empty.

That being said, this show is awful. The basic idea of the show, or at least what I think it is suppose to be, sounds interesting...have experts walk though a flea market discussing what is valuable and what isn't and the rationale behind their purchase...but doesn't work. I think part of the problem is there is one picker too many, and I don't think it really matters which one you take out. The other problem is none of the pickers have the charismatic personality needed for interesting television. John Bruno comes close, but goes over the edge into being the crazy hoarding uncle you don't invite to Thanksgiving dinner. Kevin Bruneau has personality, but it comes across as the street-smart scammer trying to get his hand on grandma's silver for a next-to-nothing price. Miller Gaffney and Bob Richter are bland.

The big problem however, and this actually becomes unintentionally hilarious, is that the four supposed "expert" pickers seem to have an inability to pick valuable items.

Nice try, but I don't see this coming back for a second season.