Collection Intervention tonight on SyFy

Remember back in January when Toy Hunters debuted on the Travel Channel? Well, there's another toy show coming to air this week, and it's on just as unlikely a channel.

Premiering this Tuesday at 10pm on the SciFi channel, Collection Intervention seems, on the surface, to be "Hoarders for Nerds" - it goes to the homes of people who have large collections and tries to help them pare it down. As the press release says:

In Syfy's newest reality series, Collection Intervention, premiering Tuesday, August 14 at 10PM (ET/PT), former Head of Special Collections at Christie's Elyse Luray helps couples, families and individuals whose pop-culture memorabilia collections - from Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica to Catwoman and Barbie - have become damaging obsessions, creating financial strife and a huge strain on their lives.

In each of the six hour-long episodes, Elyse will create a strategy that helps these collectors curate and showcase their collection by assessing where the true value lies and then allow them to decide what’s worth keeping and what they can sell. These massive collections include dining rooms stuffed with 30,000 comic books, a garage filled to the rafters with Catwoman memorabilia, and an almost uninhabitable house filled with Transformers. For each collector, parting with some of their collection may free up some much needed space in their home, provide a cash windfall to get out of debt, or even just allow a couple to become more focused on their relationship.

In the premiere episode titled "A Disturbance in the Force," what started out as a single room dedicated to Star Wars has grown to take over the entire Concord, California home of Garet and Consetta. When Elyse quickly realizes the Star Wars collection has intense emotional meaning to Consetta, she fears that Consetta may not be able to part with a single item. If Elyse is going to help this couple take back their house, she's going to have to use The Force to break through to them.

Also in the episode, disgruntled Los Angeles housewife Lolly calls Elyse to see if she can help her husband Mark let go of some of his extensive Catwoman collection so they can start to pay some bills. When Elyse sees the collection, which has overtaken their garage, she is stunned by the poor manner in which Mark has stored the collectibles he says he loves. Nonetheless, to save their relationship and pay down their debt, Elyse helps Mark identify what in his collection is truly important to him while pushing him to let go of what is not.

We've gotten to see the first episode, and it's not bad. The message of the show isn't "you need to get rid of your collection," but rather "make sure your collection is under your control." Though the participants do end up getting rid of things they'd rather not, it's not like a dumpster is dropped off in the front yard, you know? The collectors are treated well, and the collections are given the respect they deserve.

It's also nice that they start off with a female collector: nerdery may be acceptable in today's society, but it's still viewed mainly as something of a "boy's" domain, where males are the dorks and girls just put up with them. So by bringing the audience in with a woman, it shows that everybody can be a collector, and everybody can get in over their head.

There's a line near the start of the show that perfectly sums up what it's about: "there's a fine line between collecting and hoarding." Anybody who's got a large enough collection can recognize the truth of that statement, and maybe watching Collection Intervention will help you make sure you stay on the right side of that line.