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.