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?