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.