Wednesday, 19 June 2013

Top 10: Most Underrated Big Brother Housemates

Nearly over 200 housemates have graced the walls of Britain's most famous house, and whilst most of the mainstream can easily remember BB stars such as Jade Goody, Nasty Nick Bateman and Nikki Grahame to name but a few, a large number of fantastic contestants have found themselves criminally overlooked, partly down to being overshadowed by other housemates or for the stigma that came associated with the series that they appeared in. This list is designed to highlight to the reader the ten contestants whom I feel a most overlooked and underated in the Big Brother community, I want to stress this is a personal list which some may not agree with, but I will try and talk you around to my line of thinking. With that being sad let us begin:




10) Faye Palmer (Big Brother 12)

Now most of you right now will be thinking how can Faye be considered underrated when she was arguably the second most popular contestant of Big Brother 12? Well I have reason to feel this way and it largely stems from the reasons why Faye's fan base was established in the first place. Whilst Faye's popularity in Big Brother 12 cannot be denied I am often left feeling that the primary reason for Faye's support stemmed largely from the fact that she was considered an extention of Aaron as opposed to her own merits, which I feel is a real crime as in my opinion Faye was the contestant in Big Brother which demonstrated the most depth and grew the most as a character during the course of the series. We have to remember that by week one of the show Faye was a largely overlooked and forgotten character within the show, and yet by the time she departed in week 8 had established herself as the most important female of the series, whilst I do admit that her relationship with Aaron gave her the pedestal to garner this growth Faye carried this on and generated this complexity through her own merits. This was also helped by bringing Jem in during week 4, whilst I dislike Jem as a character and disagree with the decision to cast her the relationship between the two sisters was compelling to watch, especially as Jem's paranoia over Aaron took over and left Faye torn between the intentions of her sister and her showmance partner, which continued to build her depth as well as a report from the audience. An argument could be that Faye was made to look good due to being in a weak series but that doesn't change what a great contestant she was, and somebody who deserves more praise on a BB12 rewatch.




9) Sylvia Barrie (Big Brother 9)

I want to stress that I in no way like Sylvia as a person, and the likelihood is that she would be somebody who I would look to avoid if I met her on the outside world, but in the BBUK community I like to judge people based on the character that they are portrayed as on screen, and in my eyes Sylvia played her role as the bitchy villain superbly, but due to being surrounded by more prominent villains is often overlooked. The early stages of Big Brother 9 saw a conveyor belt of villains come and go through the house with an alarming regularity, of these Alexandra De Gale and Jennifer Clark would gain much notoriety, with Alexandra being ejected for her threats and Jen for helping to cause the defining moment of the series in 'spit-gate'. Sylvia however is dismissed and forgotten by most casuals, her only real status being that of Alexandra's lackey during her reign of terror, but in my eyes Sylvia was just as evil and just as prominent a villain as Alexandra was, she stirred trouble with much regularity and helped to cause some early drama such as her argument with Mikey over him putting on her underwear and her overreactions to pretty much every situation was as compelling as it was infuriating. She picked up Alexandra's baton and carried it on well, and whilst I do feel that the public made the right choice in getting her out in week 3 before she began to get tedious I felt that she was a great early season villain who deserves more recognition.




8) Anton Murphy (Big Brother 12)

There are two primary schools of thought when it comes to Big Brother fans over Anton Murphy, the first was that he was a farcically weak villain in what was one of the poorest seasons of Big Brother in the UK, whilst the other is that he was an irritating try hard who failed in his attempt to try and become the next Victor Ebuwa, these two accusations I can't deny, but I feel that these flaws make people forget some of the more positive aspects of Anton, mainly in how unintentionally funny he was. I've always loved unintentional humour, especially when it comes from Reality TV shows, and in my eyes Anton delivered this in spades, every boastful comment and positive statement that he made about himself, be it  his prowess with women or how great of a strategist he was was nearly always immediately followed by something which contradicted that and left him looking foolish as a result, arguably making Anton Big Brother's own version of the Bad Luck Brian Meme, added to this was the mini-feud with Aaron in which Anton played the accident prone, Wille E. Coyote style villain to perfection, nearly always being left with smoke on his face (figuratively speaking) as every attempt to show up Aaron was countered or backfired on him. Anton doesn't deserve the venom of other BB villains, he was light-hearted enough and whilst the Victor wannabe act was cringe-worthy it wasn't worth getting too wound up about.




7) Emilia Arata (Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack)

 In all honesty I could have put any of the Celebrity Hijack contestants on this list, as the E4 exclusive series was incredibly overlooked and arguably the closest thing we will get to an old school Big Brother series in this day and age, but I went with Emilia as underrated arguably for the same reasons why I consider Faye underrated, namely in the amount of depth and storyline generation that came from her. Firstly there was the relationship between herself and her circus performing boyfriend Victor, as in my eyes Victor would come across as overprotective over his sister which in turn led to an interesting depth and engagement to Emilia's character. As well as this Emilia was also involved in a relationship with Jeremy, which I consider one of the most engaging and enjoyable relationships in the show's history, it may have been not as passionate or intentionally romantic as some other relationships but it was complex, sweet and very engaging to watch, and Emilia was a large part of the reason for that. The celebrity hijack contestants were all overlooked characters, but Emilia stood out the most for me by far, I would have loved to have seen how well she could have done in a proper series.





6) Mario Marconi (Big Brother 9)

The status of Mario Marconi to most casuals is as a goofy unlikable buffoon who proved irritating to the masses and helped to stifle the growth of his girlfriend at the time Lisa, who herself would go on to be a breakout character in Big Brother 9. Whilst I do understand some of these grievances with Mario I also feel that people overlook a lot of the positive sides of the character as well, as once his unbearable week 1 side departed the show we were left with one of the most hilarious and deluded characters the show has ever seen. Mario was for all extensive purposes Big Brother's version of David Brent, always trying to be seen to do the right thing but always making a fool of himself in the process, such as his health and safety warnings over the house due to his care over blind housemate Mikey, which left him looking like a clown in the process as well as his delusions of grandeur over the 14 million fans that were supporting him outside of the house, it left Mario as an unintentionally hilarious goof figure which was brilliantly fun to watch, and combined that with cringeworthy antics with Lisa which helped to add the cherry to the cake. But for all the buffoonery I also felt there was a good person behind Mario, he always looked out for Mikey because of his disability and he was one of the people to come out positively over Spit-gate. He likely would have gotten irritating had he of stayed longer, but his five weeks in the show were great fun and Mario was a wonderful character.




5) Federico Martone (Big Brother 4)

The myth that is perpetrated around Big Brother 4 was the moment that the show found itself on the way to becoming the worst series of Big Brother ever was the moment in which Jon Tickle lost his place in the Big Brother house as part of the controversial week 4 double eviction, but whilst Jon's departure was fatally damaging to the series I felt that as much of the reason for the series' failure came down to losing Federico along with him, and in some cases arguably more so. For the first four weeks of the series Fed was the dominant villain figure within the show, a sleazy womaniser who would often cause controversy over his comment about women, whilst I don't agree with Fed's comments it made for a great antagonistic figure for the show to root against, which is essential in any Big Brother series especially one as passive as Big Brother 4. But Federico also combined this with a funny side which led to a rather strange endearment towards him, his flirting with Big Brother in an Avid Merrion accident were funny moments, as was the way in which he would inadvertently lose nearly every shopping task for the housemates. Fed isn't the greatest housemate ever, but Big Brother 4 suffered through his loss, arguably more so then it did with the loss of Jon.




4) Karly Ashworth (Big Brother 10)

During Big Brother 10 it was nearly impossible to speak positively about any of the so called 'Team Pretty' alliance, but now that the smoke has cleared I can finally confess how much I loved Karly during that series. Sure Karly had a bitchy and catty side in the house, as well as being one of the main instigators of the resent towards Freddie, but I found her a lot more appealing and likable then any of the other members of the group, and certainly more engaging then the likes of Kris, Charlie or Lisa as well as lacking some of the pure venom that would come from the others.. Karly added this with some great funny moments which defused a lot of grief that may have been directed at her , she could talk at 200mph and her inarticulate ramblings, especially those in the diary room were rather funny and quite snarky as well, and was beginning to build a bit of a core fan base before her eviction in week 6, one which I consider one of the most underrated BB evictions ever. Karly both delivered as a snarky tweener as well as a great villain to root against, but because of her low placing and the more vile behaviour of other BB10 villains has criminally become lost in the shuffle.




3) Lea Walker (Big Brother 7)

Big Brother 7 has become somewhat of an Allstar series when it comes to recognisable and famous housemates, being home to the likes of Nikki, Aisleyne, Pete, Glyn, Imogen and Grace to name but a few, but for me one great name thatalways gets overlooked criminally when it comes to that series was Lea, a housemate who had an amazing amount of complexity and intrigue compared to any other contestant in the series, watching Lea at times wasn't the most enjoyable thing in the world, but the one thing it never was with her was boring. The most amazing thing when looking back at Lea as a housemate was just how many storylines she had during her 6 week stay in the house, firstly as one of the many women fighting over Pete's heart as well as her fantastic relationship with Richard (aka Dicky and Dolly( which saw them take up the mantle as the house parents, along with this was also her feud with Aisleyne and the almost Mrs Robinson like relationship between herself and Glyn. On top of this however Lea also had a weaker and more sensitive side which was engaging to the viewer, here was somebody who was deeply unhappy with herself and saw herself as this almost tragic figure, at times I did consider whether it was right for Lea to be cast in the show, but it made the moment when she left the house to unanimous acceptance such a brilliant one and completed her story arc brilliantly.




2) Ahmed Aghil (Big Brother 5)

This placement is not one based on complexity or depth, nor is it one based on how good he was as a protagonist or an antagonist. The main reason why Ahmed Aghil is number 2 on this list stems simply on how entertaining he was, think of any of the iconic and funny moments of that series and nearly all of them will revolve around Ahmed in some way, be it his smashing of the plates in reaction to the wake-up alarm, his attack on the mannequin that the housemates had built, his diary room rant against Marco ("I hate him!") and his disruptive behaviour during the boot camp task which in the process helped to make it one of the most iconic tasks of all time Big Brother history. Ahmed nearly always had a way of stealing any scene in which he was involved in during that series, and when this was a series which included Victor Ebuwa that has to be considered impressive. Ahmed's lack of relevance to the story of the series and his comparative lack of involvement in the Jungle Cats vs Lipgloss Bitches does mark him down a bit, but in some ways he didn't need to be massively involved, he was light relief with some great fun moments as well as a fantastic villainous side that he demonstrated during his boot week. Amazing, Hero, Mega, Easy and Delirious, Ahmed said it about himself and I am in full agreement.




1)Sree Desari (Big Brother 10)

Being the most underrated housemate from the criminally overlooked Big Brother 10, Sree was always going to be a contender to win this ranking, but what tipped the scale fully in his direction for me was that when looking back over these contestants three themes really stood out for me for being great contestants; relevance to the plot of their series, complexity and depth as well as unintentional hilarity, not only did Sree contain all these but he had them in droves, he had one of the most compelling and car crash showmances in the show's history, was an incredibly important character during Big Brother 10's early stages and managed to be as infuriating as he was intriguing to watch, and managed to do all this in only 4 weeks. Sree's relationship with Noirin was pure car crash television, amazingly compelling and engaging but all at the same time leaving you with this mix of sympathy for Sree because of his lack of awareness over the relationship and annoyance over how clingy he got around her, topping this off with the delusion that he was a womaniser who could pull most women in the house. Sree was also great from a social standpoint too, walking a fine line as somebody who desperately sort association with the house minority and saw himself as part of that but was in relaty as much of an outsider as those he was targetting himself. It made for a character that was rather complex and dynamic, and when you take into account how much Sree did and how important he was despite being in the house for such a short time I am left baffled why he doesn't get more recognition, and that is why I consider Sree Big Brother's most underrated housemate.

2 comments:

  1. NOW magazine stated :Ahmed Aghil our BB God"

    The Guardian wrote a whole page about Ahmed, title "AHMANIA RULES"; ah mania short for ahmed mania.

    Davina stated live on Channel 4 " Ahmed is a legend"

    OK! magazine stated "Ahmed is hilarious"

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    1. Ahmed was an absolutely fantastic housemate, simply because of how off the wall and unpredictable he was. I wrote this list though based on who I feel is underrated from the view of the casual fans, and unfortunately when it comes to BB5 they are more likely to remember the likes of Nadia, Victor, Michelle, Stuart, Jason and even Marco before they remember Ahmed, which in my opinion is a crying shame.

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