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been a selection of new housemates which have entered the house, which will explain why some of this information may be out of date.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.