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.