Big Brother 15- Week 9 Assessment.

  Big Brother- Week 9 Assessment: Did that just happen?

 

We are into injury time in this year’s season of Big Brother, the players on the pitch are drained, the fans in the stadium are growing tiresome but things are beginning to build towards what could be an exciting climax.

Why am I bringing up all of the football connotations? Well aside from Big Brother one of my other big passions is football, and in many ways I cam make comparisons between Big Brother as a franchise and a football team; they will frustrate you, more often then not squander potential and on many an occasion leave you questioning why you put yourself through supporting them day after day, yet once in a blue moon they manage to pull out a result so amazing it makes all of that suffering as a fan worthwhile, and in this week’s eviction the show managed to pull off it’s own version of a 3-0 drumming of Manchester United at Old Trafford, a double eviction which proved incredibly rewarding on both a personal level and a show level and has helped to make the series all the more unpredictable as we reach the final minutes.

The first part of the double however wasn’t where the magic lay, even though it was one which I was satisfied with on a personal level. I always had my worries about Mark as a housemate even from the early stages of the show expecting him to be a horrible contrived irritant which would stay in the show well past his sell-by date, and to a large extent I feel like this came into fruition, a horribly obnoxious camera who gave me Charlie Drummond vibes in the way in which he would use  his lovable fun-guy persona to hid a dark and nasty side to his personality, the only difference however being that Mark’s focus was based on airtime whereas Charlie’s was through trying to win the show. On the plus side however with Mark I found it refreshing for a their to be a relationship in Big Brother between two gay contestants which didn’t have any kind of stigma associated with it or any kind of audience hysteria, but even in that case Mark came across very poorly in the relationship, more often then not treating Christopher like dirt and blaming him for Mark being perceived so poorly. It was very egotistical of him and I’m glad we managed to get a week without him in the show barring some sort of task twist, which based on this series I am wholeheartedly expecting.

Where the real joy with this eviction lay however was in the eviction of Winston, a result which I would probably put up there with the likes of Kirk and Natalie, Kathreya and Maxwell in terms of great Big Brother evictions, not so much because of Winston as a person but more down to the way in which it has helped to blow the show’s endgame wide open. To be honest I don’t have that much issue with Winston as a housemate, he seemed pleasant enough and I would put him up in the higher echelons of contestants cast to fill the ‘Essex lad’ archetype that the show thrives on these days, the issues for me stems from what he represents as a potential winner of the show, we have seen housemates similar to Winston end up being strong contenders for the win simply on the back of being inoffensive and attractive, and with a group demonstrating as many individual flaws as they do the likelihood is that Winston’s Brian Belo meets Sam Evans persona would have been an easy default vote to win, and would in the process be the cherry atop of this poor series.

The thing that surprised me most of all though was the way in which the Winston eviction came about, I remembered posting on the BBUK Facebook page after the Thursday highlights show a casual comment along the lines of ‘wouldn’t it be great if Winston went this week’ not expecting any psotive responses or any kind of serious take-up of this suggestion, and yet found more and more people as the day went on sharing this same opinion and snowballing into the serious campaign that ultimately proved successful. It has also proven to be the symbolic benchmark for one of the big themes of this years series; tactical voting. More so then any other year in Big Brother history we have the voting audience become much more overtly cynical about the voting process and have begun to abuse the system to bring about results and consequences which they may not have done so in the Channel 4 era of the show, Tamara and Matthew’s boots were attempts to send a negative message to Helen and Ashleigh respectively, Jale and Zoe’s boots designed to save Ashleigh and Chris and even through to saving Pav in the Armageddon week to make sure that Bianca went at his expense. This could be held as a sign of a maturity in the voting audience, but in my opinion it is an indicator of the fact that the swing of power between the tweens and the housewives has begun to be swung back towards the latter demographic. For all that people try and imply that Reality Television is something aimed at the tween audience and those with an impulsive mobile phone finger it is in my opinion the housewives which hold a large sway with phone voting then many like to give them credit for, you only need to look at Christopher Maloney’s success on The X Factor as evidence of that.

The question then becomes who the housewives will look to favour when they and the tweens make their votes on Friday night. Most of the bookies will be looking towards Ashleigh as the winner, but part of me feels that the voters may be a bit hesistant to give her the win when push comes to shove, Big Brother in the Channel 5 has had many issues with the voter’s relationships with women and I feel that Ashleigh may go the same way as Deana and fall short come the end in spite of internet polls and bookies odds saying otherwise. If Ashleigh is to be this years Deana then in my opinion it will be Christopher which will prove to be the Luke. A genuinely nice person, prominent without ever being too overbearing and not carrying as much of the personality baggage which Ashleigh has had during this series, it’s not the result that would be most ideal of the potential choices personally, but it is one that I would happily accept and one which I am quietly confident of happening. I also have a sneaky suspicion that Ash may surprise many coming into the final vote, he survived two evictions where he was a dead cert to leave and has since the vote to win lines opened shown more of a jovial side which will endear him to the audience, have a look at him to take fourth, and maybe even third depending on how the week unfolds.

The final whistle is about to be blown on this series and maybe on the whole what we have seen hasn’t been worth it, but when you nail your flag to the mast you have to keep it up there.

Big Brother 15: Week 8 Review- Every Little Helps

Big Brother 15: Week 8 Review

Firstly I want to start off this week’s assessment by apologising for my failure to post a review of week 7, I had a lot on my plate over the course of the week and unfortunately didn’t have the time to publish my feelings about the week’s proceedings. To be fair though if there was a week to miss writing about however then that was the perfect choice, as the premise of having to write positively about Steven Goode is one to scare off even the most passionate blogger. One of the things is highlighted to me though is the way in which the opinions of those that watch the show can change so quickly over the course of the week, and this week’s proceedings helped t highlight two very notable examples of that, both of which I have plenty of grievances about.

I will begin by speaking about one of those changes of opinion, that being our most recent evictee Zoe, of all of the three intruders that entered during week 6 Zoe was the one who I had as a lock to make it the furthest, even possibly to the final, she was a bubbly character whose presence would make a welcome change in a house defined by negativity and she had a pre-show fan base that put her in a good standing, as demonstrated by being saved first in both a vote to save and vote to evict scenario in her first two weeks, then of course came the Tesco comment, and the opening of the floodgates towards what would ultimately orchestrate her departure. I do understand the grievances that a lot of people had with Zoe’s Tesco comments, as somebody who had worked in a supermarket for a short time I can tell you that it is an incredibly strenuous and highly demanding role which doesn’t give the payment to it’s employees that they ultimately deserve, employees which are more often then not in that position through necessity rather then through an indication of their skill abilities, and it does annoy me that there are people like Zoe who look down on those types of people and considers them as lesser standard of human because of their profession. At the same time however I do feel slightly aggrieved that this comment was blown up in the way that it was by the audience, and that in the eyes of the audience Zoe was targeted and subsequently evicted on the back of one throwaway comment, in my opinion though I think the comment was more then anything the key to unlock the door as it were to targeting Zoe, prior to the comment there had been murmurings surrounding Zoe’s behaviour and the feeling from some in the fanbase that she was getting annoying with her overly peppy Vera Lynn-meets-Sonia routine, and what the Tesco comment did more then anything was allow those which had issues with Sonia to justify venting them in a public forum, in the same way that I feel that I feel people were scared to speak up about Chris until the label of creepy Chris was assigned to him by production.

And speaking of which we come to Chris and his downfall both within the house dynamics and with the audience itself, going from someone with a realistic chance of winning the game to all but certainly being evicted before the finale, Chris has by a long way had a terrible week within the show, but at the same time I do feel that a lot of his behaviour has been exaggerated by production and made to be a lot worse for the sake of attempting to create the next chapter of their show’s story-arc. Firstly there was the grievances that Chris had with Pav, and I will wholeheartedly agree with the majority that Chris has not looked good in his treatment of the Sikh housemate, but at the same time I feel that there is something in the show that we as an audience are not seeing so that they can push the Chris and Pav feud as the lead storyline of this week. Firstly as we know from the previous weeks Chris has been very accurate in his readings of the housemates and that his diary room commentaries about those housemates have been some of the best elements of a weak series, and I find it difficult at times to think that someone who has had such a good read on house proceedings can get this one suddenly so wrong, and the other aspect of this is the fact that Chris’ grievances with Pav feels as if it is shared by the rest of the house, some of the tweets designed to try and substitute for a live feed (yeah right!) have point to the housemates having problems with him, added to that is the fact that all the housemates aside from Zoe voted for him this week, and yet within the confines of the highlights show this has been portrayed as solely being Chris’ problem when I don’t feel this is the case. On a side note I have found the sympathy vote that Pav has generated this week slightly annoying as well, I understand based on past experiences that the British public do love to support an underdog, and I admit that I have been a victim of that as well, but this is the same person that people were clamouring to be evicted last week due to being dull, and the fact that he on some forums the second favourite doesn’t sit right with me. I do like Pav as a person and he seems pleasant enough, but he has up until now not been exciting television.

Getting back to Chris however the other big attack that has been thrown at him this week is the question of his behaviour around Ashleigh being creepy, and this is one that really annoys me in regards to the producers of the show. Up until this week I have never seen anything about Chris and Ashleigh’s friendship that has been interpreted as being uncomfortable, just two friends that appear to be on the same wavelength as each other and need each other to get through the process, and yet thanks to the mechanisms of the production team and the awful labelling of Chris through Bit on the Side this friendship has had so many awful connotations and innuendos thrown towards it which are hurtful and unjustified, and a guy like Chris who has in my opinion been perfectly pleasant throughout the series has been painted by the show and his detractors as, for all extensive purposes, a sick pervert. The sad thing is though is that part of me feels that a lot of the catalyst for these accusations to be thrown at Chris stems from his appearance, being someone who is older and not particularly attractive he attracts negativity from an increasingly shallow audience for behaviour which may be interpreted as romantically motivated, yet I have the feeling that had someone like Ash and Winston behaved in the way that Chris has this week non of these accusations would have been thrown in my opinion. I know that the show needs to thrive on painting villains of the week for entertainment purposes and that I can’t imagine Chris being somebody who production had lined up as being part of their endgame, but no man deserves to have those kind of accusations thrown at him, especially from a supposedly credible production company as Channel 5, and whilst I was happy that Zoe went this week it was more down to wanting to have Chris stay and send a message to production that their behaviour was uncalled for, even if I do admit Chris would have filled the ‘big character in week 8 boot’ rather well.

Two weeks to go now before the inevitable Winston win, lets just hope these are a lot more enjoyable then the past eight.

Big Brother 15: Week 6- Armageddon Off My Screen

Big Brother 15: Week 6 Assessment- Armageddon Off My Screen

Are you still watching everyone? Can’t blame you if you aren’t.

We have survived Armageddon week in Big Brother 15 this week, and by the rate things have been going I could have done with sending most of the house and the production team up on a rocket to try and blow up an asteroid, as a combination of their own behaviours had led to more frustration and annoyance then anyone watching a television show should be victim to. This week in many ways can be considered symbolic of Big Brother 15 on a whole; the drama and the scandal certainly has been plentiful, you can’t exactly call a week where four contestants have gone as being dull after all, but the whole scenario has been tainted with such a degree of disappointment, contrivance and arrogance from the production team that the entire situation has left a very sour taste in my mouth and left me at times questioning the value of watching the show, a sad thing for a long-term fan such as myself to say, but an opinion which has begun to be uttered more vocally by many die-hard fans within the community.

I will begin by addressing the key factor which links a lot of the reasons for this downturn in series perception, namely the Armageddon twist. We have become used to the fact that Channel 5 are some of the masters of advertising hyperbole, often making ridiculous exaggerations over house twists and casting decisions which ultimately just leave the viewer greatly under whelmed, and in my view it is the Armageddon twist which symbolises this more so then anything, turning what was hyped to us as one of the most explosive weeks in Big Brother history into nothing more then a glorified advertising campaign for the new Planet of the Apes film, something which can only be redeemed by the fact that the ‘Apes together strong’ motif continually uttered during the adverts is a perfect anecdote for Helen’s side of the house. Everything about the setup seemed not only underwhelming compared to the speculation which the show had created for itself but at the same time it also led to a degree of desperation and contrivance from the producers to make up for the fact that their hysteria failed to live up to expectations, the casting promises of boyfriends and enemies of housemates for example was replaced instead by three of the most tedious contestants that the show has had, not so much in them being particularly dull people but in that they all represented character types which have by now just become stale in the channel 5 era.

This is most clearly represented in my view by Bianca’s short stay in the house this week, from the view of production I do understand the reasons why Bianca was cast on paper, she was confrontational, obnoxious and was certainly going to ruffle some feathers in the show, but everything about her was done with such an air of desperation and contrivance on her part that any sort of benefit she did bring to the show was automatically nullified, I see her eviction this week, notably in a vote to save designed specifically to save characters such as herself, as an representation of the publics tiredness of the increasing desperation of Big Brother housemates as much as a protest against Bianca herself as a person, although that in itself is something that would require a completely separate article to itself. In terms of the other new housemates however there is a similar air of been there, done that with the characters chosen. Pav seems pleasant enough, and it is refreshing to have another Sikh housemate represented in the show (joining Siavash in that regard) but there is very little else about him which stands out as interesting and original, we’ve seen so many other male housemates obnoxiously state their intelligence and how they will be able to manipulate the house only to slip into a sea of dreariness and fail to live up to their expectations, and Pav is no different in this regard, he certainly talked the talk with alluding to the prospect of nominating Stephen this week, but when push came to shove he bottled out and settled for people-pleasing, a role which is all he’ll succeed in as a housemate. Meanwhile the casting of Zoe is just plain bizarre for me on so many levels, yes she is bubbly enough and a refreshing change from the innate negativity from the rest of the house, but I can’t honestly fathom the reasons why she is there in the first place, I know that the line between Celebrity and Civilian versions of Big Brother has become increasingly blurred since Channel 5 took over, but in my view Zoe is justified enough to lock herself into any celebrity version, and added to that I also perplexed because I don’t on paper see much way which she is going to progress the show’s storyline forward, even with Bianca as much as I disliked her I knew she would serve a purpose for the show in a way which right now I’m struggling to see with Zoe, I certainly think she will do well, maybe even win if the cards fall into place, but it is certainly a strange call her casting.

But now we get to the stuff which had everyone wound up this week, and I mean really wound up. I know Big Brother fans on the whole have a tendency to go over-the-top with many of their grievances with the show, but in this situation I will whole-heartedly agree with them about everything. This week has been a mess of twists and obnoxious production behaviour all designed to orchestrate and demean Danielle and to orchestrate her departure from the show, the desperation from production to do so being one of petulance and immaturity which should be well below a supposedly responsible broadcaster such as Channel 5. I understand that Danielle did have a lot of baggage coming into the show that the production team would have disliked, especially in her presentation of herself as a prudish figure in complete contrast with that, but her treatment in the show drifted into victimisation, and I felt the way that the show went so gung-ho on her was very unsettling. But the thing was though as a viewer I liked her a housemate, yes she was contrived and as false as they come but at the same time she was so bad at attempting to keep up her good catholic girl charade that I found her entertaining with it, she served her purpose in the show as comedy value and to be honest I found it disappointing that she went, especially in such a contrived manner at the hands of the production team.

The worst thing about the whole situation for me however wasn’t so much the twist itself, although I agree it was bad, it was what the twist represented in terms of the relationship between the production in the show and the viewer. Making this a week which has all but exclusively been chosen by the housemates (allegedly) is symbolic to me of the contempt that the Big Brother production team has for its audience. We all know that there is a need in reality television in recent years for there to be a need for storylines in the show, and when done right I agree that they can help improve a series on the whole, but at the same time the viewer should always be the one who has the final say in which direction the storyline goes in through their eviction votes, and that say this week was thrown out of our hands in my opinion because production frankly did not trust the viewer to make the decision that production would want for it’s storyline to progress. This for me is a cardinal sin in the television industry, especially on a show so reliant on a strong relationship with the public to generate voting revenue and to keep the show going in the first place, don’t get me wrong I am one of the first to disagree with the public and their choices of winners, but at the same time I also accept that this was the decision of the majority of the voting public and in my eyes the show should act in the same manner rather then having a tantrum over it and taking away the voter’s right as a punishment, in the television industry the aim should always be to give the viewer what they want, not to have a tantrum when what the public want isn’t the same as what you the producers want. The whole situation stunk of production’s contempt for the audience, and the show should find itself very relieved that there are a lot of fans sticking by the show through brand loyalty only, and even those die-hards are left questioning their loyalty to the show.

What makes the whole thing worse though in my eyes is the direction that production wants to show to go down if they had their way, something which has been demonstrated further this week though their twists and tasks designed to ostracise particular housemates at the expense of others, namely by helping to enable Helen’s harem in the house whilst condemning the group outsiders, culminating in the orchestrated boot of Danielle by the end of the week. There has been a definite aim from Channel 5 to try and push the show towards more of a scripted Reality audience, and Helen’s group in my view is representative of the direction that show ultimately wants to favour, but the fact of the matter is that the audience don’t want this from their show, they have spoken vocally on social media and internet forums about their dislike for Helen, the tedium of Stephen and Kimberly’s relationship whilst at the same time been very supportive of the outsiders of the group, demonstrated by the fact that the likes of Chris, Ashleigh and Christopher are polling so highly online. Production should be going out of their way to appease the viewer for their choices, understand the reasons why the public feel this way about their favourites and learn from this to help improve the show in the future, but as mentioned before there is this head-in-the-sand thought pattern from production which refuses to let them see the show in this way and instead persist with their aim for The Only Way Is Elstree. It’s almost akin to George Lucas learning of how hated Jar Jar Binks was in Star Wars and deciding that the viewer was wrong for thinking this way and giving him more airtime for the sequel. It’s a flawed approach which demonstrates contempt for the viewer, and will eventually come back to haunt Channel 5 if they keep it up, because trust me, once the old school viewers leave they will not be replaced.

Oh, and Marlon went this week as well.

Big Brother Week 5 assessment

Big Brother Week 5 Assessment: Draining Batteries and Draining Enthusiasm

Another week, another reactionary blog about the day’s events on Big Brother, and trust me when I say it has been an absolute slog to get through this week of the show, emotionally exhausting and frustrating in equal measure and sadly with very little to make you feel that things are going to take an upturn. Of all the series to start writing a blog about eh?!

For all of my frustrations about this series however the one thing that I cannot say is that come eviction night it has been boring. Yes I will concede that Pauline’s eviction was something that even Ray Charles could see coming but aside from that all of the evictions have been unpredictable and passionately fought in the online community, and the result of this is that even someone like myself who often likes to take a step backwards with the show and look at the wider picture has been getting more passionately involved with the evictions. This week’s outcome was certainly no exception, but one which for reasons I will explain somewhat feels fruitless.

Firstly however I’m going to start as I always do by assessing the most recent evictee in the form of Jale, now in the past couple of days, be it fuelled by her own wrongdoings or through her status as a target of the fanbases of other nominees I noticed a distinct downturn in the perception of Jale as a housemate, and even though I do agree that she was the right call to be evicted this week I can’t share the same negative sentiment over her in the way that others may have done this week. This was in my eyes somebody who was especially in the early stages somebody who was very level-headed, likable and played her role as an early season underdog very well, and you were left with the impression in those first two weeks that if there was somebody who you felt could have made the killer nomination work in their favour then it would have been her, compared to the launch night fear that I had with Jale that she was destined to be an obnoxious Becky Hannon clone she surpassed my expectations. Where Jale fell apart however as a housemate, and the reason why she was evicted this week, was the fact that after Pauline departed she failed to show much more character development and warmth as a contestant especially compared to her fellow nominees, whilst the second big mistake was through drifting over to Helen’s side of the house and becoming part of a rather obnoxious minority, ironically considering her supposed underdog status and with a series which has an underlying theme of ‘guilt by association’ with the majority of it’s evictions. Jale certainly wasn’t my first choice to go, but the best choice both in regards to likeability and the future progress of the show, leaving open a thin opportunity for the outsiders of the house to mount a comeback in the show’s proceedings, something that would have been nigh-on impossible had one of the other three nominees gone this week.

The eviction however was by all accounts a very small part of the week five proceedings, as this week saw us experience some of the most uncomfortable and frustrating footage seen in Big Brother for a long time, namely the progression of the showmance between Stephen and Kimberly. I have never been a fan of showmances of any kind in Big Brother, and when you have one consisting of someone as joylessly obnoxious and cold as these two you can imagine my enthusiasm would be right through the floor, and it showed as this relationship has become an essential part of number of long-drawn-out highlight shows, but what has made the whole thing worse for me is the behaviour of Stephen in the relationship, a sneering, obnoxious controlling figure more akin to that of an abusive boyfriend then that of a Big Brother housemate and one who through his demanding and condescending demeanour has become incredibly uncomfortable viewing, the wording with which Stephen speaks down towards Kimberly and the way in which she adheres to his every demand and keeps crawling back to him makes me feel very uneasy and leaves me worried about the prospect of another Hazel and Daley situation if Channel 5 do as I think they will and attempt to capitalise on the controversy that the two are generating for the show, and based on the past history with Channel 5 I certainly wouldn’t have put it past them.

The second big storyline of the week stemmed from Marlon’s decision to save himself from immunity as part of this week’s battery task and in the process saw himself thrust into a savage takedown by pretty much the majority of the house and in the process thrown to the sidelines with the rest of the outsiders ready to be picked off when the time is right. Initially I did share sympathies with the group about Marlon’s decision, it came across as cowardly and from a personal point of view I saw him by a long way the most expendable cast member of the series, but as I watched the rest of the group’s reactions to his decisions my opinions did begin to swing in his favour. Firstly there was the realisation that although Marlon was cowardly in wanting to avoid facing the wrath of the public he just did what any of us viewing the show would have done in the same situation, it is a game of self preservation after all, but the other big reason my opinion swung stemmed from the over-reactions of the other housemates and more importantly the reasons for those reactions. These housemates are among some of the most savvy the show has had, and after 15 years on the year all of them know pretty much every trick in the book when it comes to trying to win the show, and the way in which Marlon was attacked by the other housemates seemed more like a group of desperados looking for an opportunity to attack the man they perceived as being the villain of the week with the public, I didn’t see housemates upset about losing their shopping budget I saw a group of cynical desperadoes looking for their Craig Phillips moment to try and and propel themselves into having a chance of winning the show, baring this in mind I found it particularly interesting that Mark and Winston were the most vocal about Marlon’s behaviour when I would consider both to be the two most desperate contestants to win the whole thing. It is however notable and ominous on his part that even in spite of the controversy he generated Marlon remains the least relevant and least interesting contestant of the series, and that he must do a lot more to up his game to build up any kind of redemption for his sexist comments early in the series.

In the last writeup I did following Matthew’s eviction I spoke quite vocally about the way in which the voting public would more often then not fail to see the bigger picture of a Big Brother series and instead look for the short term self-satisfaction with their decisions. Well one of the things that Marlon’s eviction caused me to do, as well as many of the other elements of the battery task for that matter, is make me realise that the producers of the show can be considered just as guilty of this as those who vote in the shows themselves, in some cases even worse then the voters. With the voting public as much as it frustrates me I can to an extent understand the reasons for their voting patterns, they are victims of an impulse medium and most are teenage girls who would never have looked up the term common sense in a dictionary, but the Big Brother producers and executives are professionals with academic degrees and qualifications, they should on paper have the knowledge to understand the repercussions of their actions and understand the long term detriment some of their decisions make. The idea of allowing Helen to see what Ashleigh has said about her in the diary room does on paper sound fantastic, and in regards to the drama it generated it worked, but it has in the same time made fans question the integrity of the show, render the diary room as a concept all but useless and because it was Helen who was the beneficiary of the information given off the impression of the show favouring her, and sadly this is a situation which has shown its head plenty of times in the Channel 5 era.

This approach of short term drama over long term game has been observed by many of the decisions that production have also made in their eviction twists. The decision in week 3 to allow Stephen to nominate and subsequently evict Toya robbed us of a huge controversy magnet who was just hitting her stride at that point, the immunity challenge these week which saved Marlon and in the process kept around a farcically weak housemate at the expense of someone with a bit more depth and of course with this subsequent immediate eviction come the Monday night. I can on paper see where production are coming from, it is unique and is going to cause short term drama and intrigue, but in the process they are once again leaving themselves very open to the possibility of losing a fan favourite housemate and upsetting a British public which is already frustrated with the direction of the show. Personally I think this person will be Ashleigh, which would be for the show and production one of the worst scenarios due to Ashleigh’s popularity with the audience, her status as the most prominent anti-Helen housemate and the fact that her fan base paid large sums of money to make sure she stayed just three days prior to the eviction. The show is walking a deadly tightrope, and a bad move on the Monday is going to leave it hanging by a thread.

Big Brother 15: Week 4 Assessment

 Big Brother 15: Week 4 Assessment

It’s the morning after the night before.

When I put the finishing touches on last week’s update of this blog I certainly didn’t think that seven days later that I would be conducting the post-mortem on the eviction of Matthew Davies, a victim of one of the most controversial evictions certainly of the Channel 5 era and arguably of the entire franchise. Even by the traditional hyperbole that often comes with the aftermath of Big Brother evictions this one has arguably caused more outrage on social media and internet forums then any eviction that I can remember, and I’m certainly not the first person to throw in their two cents over this eviction and I certainly won’t be the last, and like most that have shared their opinion I am thoroughly disappointed with the result, although I have the feeling it may not be for the same reasons as many others.

Firstly however we need to start with Matthew as a housemate, the traditional post-eviction exaggerations of Matthew has led to him being painted as this beloved fantastic all star housemate who was a laugh-a-minute romp robbed in the prime of his BB career, and yet the sad but honest truth is that this was not the case in a long way. Whilst I am someone who did like Matthew as a person and saw him as somewhat of a positive presence in what has been an incredibly negative series I am also the first to admit that he was dull and largely irrelevant to the series, and that aside from one confrontation with Helen over spin the bottle he didn’t contribute much to the house dynamics. Where I have issue with his departure however stems from the fact that Matthew’s eviction has, in the process, ended up saving Ash and in the process, and keeping around a character which contributes very little positives, has an awful self righteous attitude whilst also enabling a very unpopular house majority, is something that doesn’t sit well with me. I do think that a degree of complacency has played a part in Ash not receiving his comeuppance, but it is also the house dynamics of this week and the public’s interpretation of those events which have truly proven the pivotal swing in this week’s eviction.

Which brings me onto the major gripe with this eviction result; namely the way in which the voting audience interpret the show in such a reckless manner. I understand that a show such as Big Brother is one that is driven on impulse and emotion, something which has been exasperated with the rise of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, but what really annoyed me was the way in which two characters in Helen and Ash, both of which had been the victims of vicious scorn online, have seen nearly all of their negative traits from the previous three weeks have been ignored from the audience thanks to a combination of a diluting of the edits of the two, a series of terribly tacky humour tasks and the emergence of a new villain of the week for the voting audience to get their teeth into in the form of Ashleigh, all three factors which to differing extents were producer influenced and orchestrated in the edit this week. Not only did I have issue with how blatant this change in editing tone was but more then anything I was alarmed by the way in which the voting audience managed to buy into what they were being shown in the highlights and in the process see Ashleigh as the figure to be taken down instead of Helen through getting rid of Matthew to send Ashleigh a lesson about her behaviour. I wholeheartedly confessed that Ashleigh has at times straddled the limes between confidence and arrogance, but I would like to think that between herself and Helen she has over the course of the show so far been the lesser of the two evils.

It is this kind of impulsive attitude to the show which at times leaves you questioning the way in which you are supposed to interpret a show such as Big Brother; what is the point of getting so invested into a show such as this, weighing up every single comment and argument over the course of 8-9 weeks, when the voting audience can make their judgements of right and wrong based on 4 days of desperate party lining from the production team, something which arguably will be amplified from production knowing from yesterday’s result that their input does influence the gullible voting public. It is very telling that a lot of those people who came forward and admitted to voting out Matthew as a means of spiting Ashleigh still listed Helen as their least favourite contestant in the series, which to me highlights both the flaws in the audience’s train of thought and the power of production influence.

And yet at the same time I cannot understand the reasons for why the voting public responded so badly to Ashleigh over her actions this past week, yes she was overconfident in her attempt to take down Ash but at the same time she was serving a role which a lot of the casual audience were craving for: someone to appose Helen directly and try and put an end to her alliance of alpha males. Last week the crowd was so vicious towards Helen that they were chanting at the eviction to get Helen’s enemy Jenny Thompson into the house, yet this week the public basically got their ‘Jenny’ put into the show in the form of Ashleigh, and yet have practically chosen to reject it with their decision this week. In some ways what has happened reminds of Big Brother 10 when Lisa received months of scorn and venom against her due to her treatment of Freddie, and yet when the opportunity arose within the house to get her out the voting public instead chose to keep her in as a means of teaching a lesson to an increasingly obnoxious Freddie, of course as we all remember Lisa then used that momentum to put a stranglehold on the endgame and guarantee her side of the house a victory, and that is a fear that I have based on this result. Still as a core five-some, and with satellite housemates in the form of Jale and Kimberly, Helen’s side of the house now dominate the house dynamic, and with normal nominations this week will more then likely orchestrate the boot of Ashleigh and further strengthen their position. And the tragic thing is that those who will be most vocal about this Helen centric house will more then likely be those that got Matthew out this week.

Makes you think doesn’t it?

Big Brother 15: Week 3 Assessment

 Big Brother 15: Week 3

 

 Stand back, there’s a hurricane coming through…

Or at least there was, as three weeks into the show the British public once again made one of their trademark terrible decisions by removing Toya Washington from the Big Brother 15 house, and with it remove the source of a large proportion of all of the conflict from the series within the past week, but coming from a public which rewarded Sam Evans 100k for being attractive I cannot say I’m surprised.

As I said last week in my week 3 assessment Toya’s departure was not one which was unexpected, I was left with the feeling that when the decision was made to allow the housemates to put one of the two power housemates up for the week that the decision was made to orchestrate Toya’s departure from the show, which at the time was something that I was supportive of as I considered her abrasive but without any kind of pantomime quality to redeem her behaviour, you could argue that her delusional interpretation of herself was an example of that but you are stretching it however. By the end of the week however she was someone who I was actively rooting to remain in the show, she begun to show a lot more depth as a personality in the show and whilst she still wasn’t my cup of tea compared to some of the others in there she was practically Ghandi. Someone said it best when they described Toya as the best third placer that never was, and I think that her departure should be used as evidence to production that whilst twists are a necessity for drama that too many of them can create this kind of situation in the future robbing us of future Toyas.

Where I will give production a lot of credit for however managing to make this eviction so competitive, this eviction should have been a cakewalk basically designed to crown off Toya’s departure from the show, and yet through clever editing, some carefully chosen twists and the self destruction of the housemates in week 3 we ended up turning this into arguably one of the most competitive and passionate evictions of the Channel 5 era. I struggle to think of the last time that I saw an eviction which people got so wound up over, creating an eviction atmosphere which was passionate to the point of being hostile. Not only through Toya’s actions early in the week which of course played a part in her eviction but also through the emergence of Ash as probably the worst contestant of this series. I always had issues with Ash from a very early stage of the show, but within this past week he began to reach almost Kris Donnelly levels of obnoxiousness, arrogance and self entitlement which is completely unjustified, someone who believes everything should be handed to him on a silver platter because he’s attractive despite the fact that he is in fact boorish, dull, sexist, arrogant, egotistical and one of the least interesting characters of the series. It’s the main reason more then anything why I had such issues with Toya departing this week, not so much because Toya was so amazing as a housemate but because the potential uproar that would have come with an Ash downfall would have had long term effect on the house as well as giving us an eviction which would have given Sezer a run for his money, instead however keeping Ash in the house has left a dull personality in the show and at the same time helped enable his side of the house (consisting of an obnoxious male foursome and Helen) to dictate the flow of play within the show. The only consolation I can make is that keeping Ash does avoid the possibility of a Helen underdog redemption arc, but once again I am clutching at straws for that one.

Aside from the result though I cannot fault week 3 from an entertainment perspective, a week that had a large number of major arguments and in the process helped to bring a number of minority characters to the forefront. Matthew finally emerged out of his spineless shell to be the unlikely combatant against Helen’s house tyranny, and whilst I did find it refreshing to see a combative side to Matthew I also felt that he was quite lucky to have some cards fall into place for him in the show, there is a slightly snobbish and bitchy side to him during any of his interpersonal conversations and yet due to being well spoken and against Helen’s side of the house I don’t think the wider public will pay too much attention to these shortcomings. Ashleigh was another one to emerge out of the woodwork this week, it has taken me a long time to really get a grasp on Ashleigh in the show, as for me personally her role in the show had been to be a Sophie Reade style figure to remain grounded and relatable against a sea of obnoxious forces, pleasant enough but devoid of any engagement, and yet this week saw her as the victim for Helen’s side of the house and pushed into somewhat of a protagonist role and as a result somebody who might be considered something of a dark house, an underdog position, likeable and with a sidekick in Danielle to take any of the public’s ammunition should she find herself in trouble.

Aside from the emergence of them two Helen of course stole the headlines with another aggressive and berating performance against Matthew which warranted a formal warning and yet more calls for her free pass to be revoked, I can’t believe now that I had her down to be a boring filler housemate when I did my launch night assessment. Whilst Helen is aggressive though I still stand more on the positive side of her as a housemate simply because of the drama she is bringing to the show and the passion she is generating in the audience, and with more confrontational housemates falling by the wayside Helen’s presence as a consistent source of arguments until the final is a good safety net to fall back on. What this week and the argument with Matthew did do for Helen however was get to the source of the reason for a lot of her problems, namely the need for control in a group dynamic, her issues with Matthew stemmed not through Matthew himself but through Matthew not seeing Helen’s interpretation of fun himself. Helen comes across to me like somebody who probably would like the group to get along, but only as long as it is on her levels and to her approval, and the reason why she has associated herself with a group of spineless alpha males who both share Helen’s interpretation of fun and are too scared to speak up against her.

As entertaining as BB15 has been I do have a number of issues with the structure of the series so far. Firstly I have a small issue with the future portrayal of Mark on the show, whilst I do agree that Mark has come across as a lot more likable this week then what I expected this past week has also seen him being used a lot more as the light relief contestant, getting a huge number of individual tasks to distract away from the negative atmosphere that the show has generated, and I get the fear that the over-promotion of Mark in this role is going to lead to him becoming incredibly irritating to watch, something made worse when you also consider the air of contrivance surrounding a lot of his actions. The second issue stems from the Power Housemate twist this year, whilst I am somebody who does like the power twist and support the idea of the twist continuing I do feel that one of the things it has done structurally is lead to a lack of long-term story-arcs within the show, instead containing nearly every major house storyline to a weekly basis, beginning with Pauline’s downfall in week 1, Chris as the anonymous PH in week 2 and Hurricane Toya in week 3, part of this being down in my opinion to the consistent changes in the PH process not allowing for the consistency needed for a good, aggressive storyarc.

Which of course brings us to the Girl Power housemates of this week. Yes it’s terribly unfair and incredibly desperate on behalf of production but it is in my eyes one of the best twists that they could have come up with at this point in the show. Three female housemates have already gone so far this series and thanks to the house dynamics two more of them (Danielle and Ashleigh) were being lined up to follow shortly afterwards, and even for the biggest of Big Brother diehards the idea of Helen being surrounded by eight largely dull male contestants is enough to make you reach for the remote control, so I am all for something which protects the show’s bigger characters and eliminates a poor contestant instead. My one worry with this however once again stems from Helen’s need for control, as I feel that her abrasive and aggressive presence is going to lead to her getting her way and making sure her lackeys remain safe from the wrath of the public, which is why the number of boys safe this week will be a crucial production decision. It should be logical, as three boys guarantees one of Helen’s group misses out, but after what happened with Toya I wouldn’t put my faith in the Channel 5 team.

Big Brother 15: Week 2

Big Brother 15: Week 2 Assessment

So we have come to the end of Week 2 of Big Brother 15, a week which saw the inevitable demise of Pauline in an eviction result and downfall story arc that even Ray Charles would have been able to see coming on the first launch night, but whilst the result may not have been for those who like their shocks and surprises it has been entertaining and for a channel which more often then not makes fatal misjudgements in their production I felt they handled the Pauline eviction week as well as they could, remaining the same overbearing and harridan house lynchpin but also using her presence to set up other characters to take over her torch once she departed, I do think that production maybe could have given her a bit more airtime this week but I understand that there was a necessity to hid her to try and create some kind of eviction tension for the Friday night.

Of those which have stepped up to the mantle to replace Pauline it has been Toya which taken the largest leap to the forefront, I always did have Toya as someone who had all the potential to be a lead antagonist within the series, but certainly not this early in the process and with this sea of aggression and venom, if we compare her to her BB13 counterpart then Toya has well and truly woken up and smelt the hummus, and in the process made herself the primary target with the British public. The other man to step to the forefront is Stephen, somebody who at one point looked like being lost in the sea of Apprentice reject males, and yet has instead broken through with an intriguing mix of manipulative aggression and troublesome self-consciousness, a particularly fascinating character if not a particularly likeable one, and somebody who could have the potential to be the unravelling, Callum Knell character of this year.

In terms of protagonists for the show however this is where we particularly find trouble, although I am always one who does find the villains of a series much more intriguing and enjoyable to watch I do also at the same time want to have somebody appealing to root for as well, and right now I am left with the feeling that the selection of proposed protagonists are either too dull and too flawed to ever truly succeed in such a role. Chris is a great example of this for me, whilst I feel that Chris did brilliantly with his role as the Power Housemate, not only in being able to appease the will of the British public by nominating pretty much every single hate figure in the show and avoiding a Pauline style downfall I am still left feeling that I can’t get behind him in a way that the show wants us to and in a way which I logically should as well, he should be a great underdog in the series and yet lacks the warmth and vulnerability that a protagonist needs. Similarly this is an issue effecting Jale, who I do have a bit more time for as a contestant but still with the nagging feeling in the back of my head that there is a very nasty side underneath and one which has benefited from the luck of the draw to put her into an underdog position which in reality I don’t feel she truly warrants.

One of the things which has been noticeable with this series which I find particularly interesting is the way in which production have gone out of their way to appease the increasingly demanding public, one which thanks to the Power Housemate voting, has become more drunk with power then ever before, firstly through orchestrating Pauline’s departure through Chris’ ‘power trip’ and now through turning what could have been an intriguing week with Toya in control of the house into what could very likely be a week to eliminate her from the show assuming that the British public have a say on proceedings with the voting app. The question I have with this though is why have C5, a channel which when compared to Channel 4 have gone out of their way to protect antagonistic characters in the past for the sake of entertainment, suddenly become fascinated with disposing of them at the first opportunity? Part of it I feel is down to the need to strike the iron when it’s hot when it comes to voting revenue so as not to repeat the same mistake that they made with Wolfy’s eviction in Big Brother 14 but also because I feel that this series more so then the other recent Channel 5 civilian series has a large catalogue of high-quality villains to choose from, and there could be this feeling that the show could afford to lose a couple of them without denting the quality of the product in the long run. I can understand this to an extent but Channel 5 do need to be careful that they do not go overboard with this approach before we end up with an inevitable Marlon, Ash and Winston final three.

Whilst I do feel that Big Brother 15 is still delivering I would have to say that compared to it’s predecessor BB14 I think it is suffering, yes there is a stronger housemate depth and certainly enough arguments to make anyone’s inner masochist happy there is a real lacking of fun with this series, even though BB14 could at times be a bit of a slog Dexter and Gina as characters were so over the top that they could make these kind of situations entertaining, and that is something which the housemates aren’t delivering on, no matter how many shock suits production decides to rely on. Amplify the fun a notch or two and this series and this could certainly give BB13 a run as the best C5 era civilian series.

Big Brother 15: Week 1

Big Brother 15: Week 1 Assessment

 

Well ladies and gents we have managed to survive the first week of Big Brother 15, and if you aren’t one of the many who have abandoned this series to watch England’s inevitable first round departure with the World Cup you will have been rewarded with one of the most action packed launches that the show has had, even if the anonymity of it’s first boot would make you think otherwise.

And of course for all that Big Brother changes and evolves over the course of time one consistent statistic remained, the severe lacking of a Y chromosome within the first evictee, as the British public were given the choice once again of evicting one of three females from the cast for the 15^th year in succession, a streak which will soon enough be troubling The Undertaker at the rate it’s going, and thus giving me more then enough reason to up my campaign for Brock Lesnar to be a Big Brother housemate. In all seriousness though the fact that another female has been evicted is very alarming, and only goes to highlight the issues I have with Big Brother and it’s audience’s interpretation of women, something which is particularly worrying from an entertainment aspect of the show.

What was particularly interesting about last night’s eviction as well was the metaphor it made for the traditional battle between the hardcore forum members who dissect the show and are more cynical and world-weary in their interpretation of the show and the casual audience that much more impulsive and weigh personality a lot more strongly in their housemate assessments. The expectation should have been that a much more abrasive housemate in the way that Danielle has been this week should have been all but gone this week and yet the fact that Tamara, somebody whose departure was fuelled by ulterior motives, went instead could indicate that for this season it could be the diehard fans who are in control of the proceedings, and as one of those diehard forumers who cares about Big Brother more then any sane man should I wholeheartedly agree with the decision that was made.

Tamara is in my eyes one of the stranger first boots that the show has had, with a large proportion of these first boots there is a notable social personality flaw that is very apparent from the early stages and sees them ostracised and out-casted from the group at a very early stage, be it through Scary Mary’s  (BB6) introspective approach to the show or Sallie Axl’s (BB14) abrasiveness,  and yet with Tamara this wasn’t really apparent at all, even if the company that she kept wasn’t the best she seemed pleasant enough and we’ve certainly had other air-headed housemates which were much more irritating and dreary, in fact I would make the argument that she is one of the few housemates in Big Brother history who have been evicted not so much for her own merits but instead as a symbolic message to her allies in the show, seeing these kind of evictions is rare enough but to have one in the first week is incredibly striking and demonstrates just how much negativity that side of the house has generated in such a short space of time. I do think however Tamara was the right choice to leave this week however, not only for the message it does send to the group but also because it killed off any potential showmance with the odious and dull Winston, something the producers were particularly pushing towards based on last night’s highlights, but it also eliminates the dullest of the three nominees and somebody who in my eyes didn’t have much more to give in the show.

And of those giving anything to the show right now it brings me onto my housemates assessments and in particular to Helen and Pauline. Big Brother is a show noted for the way in which it can take these supposedly normal people and yet through the pressures of the environment, a couple of carefully selected tasks and selective editing create a cartoonish villain that would even make Stan Lee envious, but even I have had to marvel at the fact that it has taken just one week to create two personalities that have generated so much venom in the fan base. Helen has been a revelation in her role, as somebody who dismissed her on launch night as largely dull stunt casting she has proven a revelation in the role; bitchy, cynical and with an air of self importance and bravado which I can all but see continuing in the forthcoming weeks, whilst Pauline has mutated into arguably one of the worst housemates since the days of Carole Vincent in Big Brother 8, domineering, nagging, a massive ego, frustrating favouritism to anyone within her in-crowd and yet on top of that lacking the self-introspection to fully understand just how bad she is truly coming across. The fact that both of these two both saw their villain status fuelled by their respective ‘Power Trips’ indicate the success of the twist so far, and even if the twist doesn’t deliver in the forthcoming weeks the impact that they have on these two should deem it a success.

In terms of the other housemates Jale has been a refreshingly positive presence, whilst maybe not the most exciting contestant of all time she does have a relatability and grounded presence which is appealing and I can imagine her doing well in the underdog role, Danielle has been great fun thus far, a sea of comedic hypocrisy which can only be mocked as of now, although I am left questioning whether she does have more to give as the show goes on, Kimberly has been a great snarky protagonist character although I do see her editing taking a downward turn once the main villains are eliminated, similarly with Toya who has the potential to breakout but seems stuck in a lackey role to Pauline which she can’t truly break out of. As for the males though things are much less fruitful, it has a tradition that Channel 5 female housemates always manage to outdo their male counterparts, and yet the gulf this year is almost ridiculous. Winston as I mentioned is nothing more then dull vacuous muscle who almost certainly got off at the Elstree bus stop on the way to Essex, Ash is arrogant eye candy and nothing else, Stephen and Matthew have thoroughly disappointed by erasing all their potential by becoming butt-kissing yes-men whilst Mark is a combination of the worst elements of Charlie Drummond and Rodrigo Lopes. They are redeemed somewhat by the two Chris’, with Christopher emerging as a Dan Neal type figure jumping between both sides whilst Chris does have some redeeming qualities and is someone I can get behind as a protagonist, even if I do admit he lacks the true depth to ever really be a favourite of mine, maybe this task with him as the power housemate may just be the boost needed to see whether he is worthy of my interest.

And it is the twist that I will end the report on, as even now we are all but aware of Pauline’s imminent departure from the show come next Friday, and whilst the large proportion of people are celebrating her demise I am in somewhat of a mixed bag, as someone who does place a lot of importance on entertainment the last thing I want is for one of the biggest villains in the show to have such a blatantly orchestrated departure in only the second week, especially as it looked as if Pauline had done well for herself in building up a safety net around her to survive long past her reign as Power Housemate, but at the same time her brand of villainy is exhausting, the show certainly has enough characters worthy of filling the role but more then anything her role as a week two departure would be a great finale to her storyline and her fall from grace from beloved fun-mum to Carole 2.0, we saw with Big Brother 14 how production missed the boat in attempting to keep Wolfy around one week longer then her sell-by date, and production have obviously chosen to strike the iron when it’s hot.

And hot is certainly what BB15 has been thus far, there will be inevitable detractors who will use the low viewing figures as ammunition against it, but for those which do watch they are for now being rewarded. It can still go to pot, and we’ve seen many a BB series start off quickly and fizzle out to nothing, but as of now enjoy it while it lasts.

Big Brother 15 Launch Night Assessment

Please note: I put this together in the afternoon following the launch of Big Brother 15 on the fifth of June, 2014. However other arrangements meant that I was not able to post my review until today, during which time there have been a selection of new housemates which have entered the house, which will explain why some of this information may be out of date.

Big Brother 15 Launch Night Review:

Well ladies and gents it’s that time of year again, that moment when Lord Sugar sets his sixteen contestants a selection of tasks to see who is worthy of becoming his…

Wait a minute? Wrong show isn’t it? Well you would get the impression that this was a new series of The Apprentice based on our selection of housemates for this latest installment of everybody’s favourite guilty pleasure Big Brother, this time with the cryptic subtitle ‘Power Trip’, a theme which has garnered a lot of mixed reviews from it’s audience thus far with some claiming it to be a change too far for the show with others considering it a welcome change and an opportunity for the show to take something of a more upmarket approach, I was tempted to agree with the latter choice but the sight of Gina Rio’s cleavage in the Bit On The Side studio made me question otherwise.

But let us begin, in terms of presentation not much as changed, Emma is still our refreshingly upbeat Davina clone still doing her best to eliminate the memories of Brian Dowling, presiding over a house which, for all that we poke fun at, is one of the best of the Channel 5 era, I always find it refreshing when a house is designed around a series theme and Channel 5 have taken on this challenge for the first time and I’m pleased to say has done it well. Emma’s house tour was unfortunately a bit too rushed for my liking but considering in recent years the house tour has been something of a dying breed I am willing to take what I’m given. The crowd as ever were their same obnoxious and rude selves, ever since Davina threw out the ‘It’s all panto’ passing comment all those years ago the live crowds seem to have gotten increasingly aggressive and unjust in terms of their reactions, most alarmingly in how there is a significant degree of sexism in their reactions to each of the housemates. Most of the women presented themselves as strong, confident, independent and aggressive in their VT’s and were treated almost as spawn incarnated as a result of that whilst the male housemates arguably trotted out the same lines as their female counterparts and were praised and adored for their behaviour. I have for a long time felt that Big Brother was one of the most sexist shows on television for reasons such as this, and when you realise that this youth orientated audience that attend the live shows are the same which are also most vulnerable to pop culture you finally understand how things such as Blurred Lines are allowed to happen.

On the side of the cast so far I think it is one which is receives something of a mixed review, although in all honesty a lot of the negative issues with the housemates chosen are more down to the perceptions of the casual, less fantatical fanbase as opposed to my own grievances. On the positive side I find it thoroughly refreshing that for once we do have a group of housemates which on the whole are not so despairingly stupid that you are left fearing for your sanity whilst watching them, this is a group which seem very strong minded, independent and savvy enough about house politics that they could certainly make the much hyped ‘Power Trip’ gimmick for this season work,. As I previously mentioned a lot of comments of Social Media and Internet Forums compared the group to something more akin to that of The Apprentice, a testament that I agree with to an extent but one which I am positive about, especially considering that The Apprentice in recent years has produced some of the great Reality TV characters particularly on the female front.

The one problem with this however is that this is ALL that the cast is; one of the biggest appeals of Big Brother back in it’s heyday and to a lesser extent in it’s later channel 5 years has been the diversity of the cast and how these extreme and differing personalities interact with each other in the closed environment, and yet that appeal doesn’t exist thus far with the first ten contestants chosen, the women being the same pencil skirted Ice Queen as overly confident egotists. I understand why Channel 5 have chosen to go down this direction with the cast, it fits with the rumours we have been hearing about the ‘Power Trip’ and it helps to capitalise on the success of Dexter and Gina from the previous year in both of them two being of a good wealth (or presenting themselves as being wealthy in the case of Gina) and having a duplicitous game-playing side, the point that Channel 5 have missed however is that the main reason that Dexter and Gina stood out as housemates and got so popular as a result of that was that they were the only contestants like that in their series in a group that consisted on the whole of self-righteous bores and insultingly pandering try-hards, and by making their character type the norm for the house majority you end up losing the novelty that made their character archetypes so appealing to the viewer in the first place. To an extent I fear that Channel 5 made the same mistake as they did with BB12 in having a group diversity which is far too narrow for it’s own good, only this time shifting the Essex nightclub feelling of that series to one of a North London penthouse, something which in itself could also spell trouble in appealing to the audience, especially one which seems to glorify itself on working-to-lower class ideals.

As for the contestants themselves so far I stand on much more of a positive ground them. Tamara presents herself as having a bitchy persona but I still feel that there is a little airhead in there which could if given the right circumstances be somewhat endearing as she certainly is the weakest of the Ice Queen characters thus far whilst Danielle and Kimberly have good villain potential if they are given the chance to prove it, however with the voting public being their usual selves I can certainly picture one of them being out early, probably Kimberly as I feel production see more potential in Danielle for some reason, Helen is the major dud of the cast thus far, someone arguably cast more for her stunt story then for what I feel she can bring to the table on the show, although I could see her being the type to earn some unjustified cult following on the show in the same way Imogen did in Big Brother 7. In terms of the men Stephen and Christopher seem to have been carved somewhat from the same snobbish prat tree, Mark (arguably the only arguably ‘traditional’ BB housemate thus far) has all the makings of being a season long irritant who the casual viewer will inevitably take to whilst Winston will almost certainly earn a fan favourite status which will be unjustified just for being from Essex and having large biceps, initially I was willing to give Winston the benefit of the doubt as he does seem to be a bit more clued up then the traditional TOWIE type contestant, but once he couldn’t make the obvious connection between being called Winston on a show called Big Brother all hope was lost.

This leaves us with the two noted housemates of the launch night number one, Matthew and Pauline. In terms of Matthew we have a character who in some ways reminds me a lot of me and many other forum members inevitably posting similar blogs such as this, a snarky and at times almost camp approach to discussions whilst also hiding a shy, restrictive side, in a house defined by self confidence he stands out like a sore thumb and is all the better for it, he is going to be somebody who will be a slow burner, the type that will be an under the radar presence in the early weeks only to come out of his shell once larger and more obnoxious characters leave before him, if he can keep up a lot of the potential he demonstrated on launch night he could be a breakout star. The other contestant who stood out was Pauline, by a long way the oldest contestant of the series and by a long way the one that most casual fans took to their hearts, and it’s easy to see why, a sassy battleaxe with an aggressive side and a connection to patron saint of the lower working classes Kylie Minogue, everything about her was designed to appeal to the impulse audience and as the task showed it worked. I however remain somewhat cynical however, I have seen countless times in how contestants, in particular older ones such as Pauline, enter the house with high energy and bravado only to either become a fun-sucking irritant such as Carole or a grumpy house mum such as Jackie Travers, and there is a feeling that the same is going to happen with Pauline, not so much because of the ‘power trip’ twist as the show will like you to believe but through not being able to keep her act up for the course of the series.

Which brings me onto the 'power trip' twist itself, again this is something which fills me with both intrigue and dread as a fan of the show. As a fan of the American version of the show the advertisements, housemate choices and a number of choice words from Emma on launch night lead me to think that we could be getting a much more tactical and aggressive series this year, something which I will be all for as it will place the importance of the game in what is and has always been in my opinion a ‘game’ show. The problem I have though is the fact that I don’t have the confidence in Channel 5 that they will fully utilise this opportunity to embrace the twist of the series whole-heartedly, we saw with Big Brother 14 how the much hyped Secrets and Lies was reduced to a one week twist which served little to no purpose other then to rob us of the train-wreck potential of Sallie Axl and I am left feeling that this could be another potentially great game-changing attitude which could be ruined due to Channel 5 getting cold feet, although as of now so many red herrings have been thrown our way I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. The question however is will the public feel the same way? The British reality TV audience is one which has never taken kindly to chance, I’m A Celebrity still remains trapped in it’s 2002 bubble due to it’s unwillingness to change with the times whilst even with Big Brother itself there are people on internet forums in hysterics due to the diary room button being replaced for this year, such is their insistence not to embrace change, and I am left fearing that this unwillingness to change is going to impact how the show will play out. We saw with Big Brother 13 in how the change in rules in regards to nomination discussions was so badly received that it was rescinded after three weeks, and the same could very well happen with the 'power trip' if the response is negative, either through dismissing the twist altogether or, most likely, turning what should be something truly aggressive and challenging into the same pandering mix of suitcase removals and secret rooms. The show needs to evolve; it’s just a case of whether or not the public will allow it to.