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Do you love it or do you hate it?
Is it your hot summer viewing, or has the hot summer sun simply dried out this well known, loved and loathed format?
The chances are that even if you aren't a fan of the show, you'll still be overwhelmed by tabloid newspapers trying to print the best pictures of someone's nipple, while the broadsheets quietly chastise the show, pleading for the end to come. So has Big Brother gone from the almost intelligent experiment that we all witnessed 7 years ago to an obscene show filled with nudity, drunkenness and violence.
It is true that the show has changed. Who can forget the unlikely characters from season 1. I cannot imagine any of those comparatively normal people getting into the show anymore. We had a Nun for goodness sake, as well as computer salesmen and other people with average, mundane jobs. These were real, everyday people. Back then it could have been described as a sociological experiment. Even the house was dull and took on a 'back to basics' style. There were no hidden surprises. No secret brotherhood. No lies encouraged and started by big brother. Nothing. They just put the housemates into the house and let them get on with it while we watched in our millions.
This year, however, it's completely different.
It's actually rather unfair to say that this year is different. There has been a gradual change in the format since the start. It's more about making the housemates suffer. We want Big Brother to put them in, tear them apart, patch their relationships back up only to shred them to pieces. It doesn't help that they are consistent in mixing social opposites, and extremes thereof. You just know that if a homophobe is in there, so will a homosexual. You're putting in an upper class chap who's earned his money and hates people who scrounge from the Government? In goes Wee Boab from round the corner who hasn't done an honest days work in his life. Racists are accompanied by ethnic minorities. Chauvinistic men are accompanied by strong, self-confident, lesbian women's rights activists.
This year we have a whole load of irritating, conflicting people. We have quiet royal George, a self confessed mummy's boy. British, and homophobic. Then we have Shahbaz, the unemployed Scottish Pakistani Poof who has been nothing but over dramatic, argumentative and petty and has already fallen out with all of the housemates. We have Pete who is also unemployed and suffers from Tourette's Syndrome, causing him to say 'wank' or 'wanker' all of the time (sometimes I wonder if it really is the Tourette's based on who he's forced to talk to) and we have Lea, a 35 year old mother who claims she has the largest (and possibly most expensive) breast implants in the whole of the country.
So we have a small space where opposites are forced together prior to a huge clash and explosion of strong personalities. If this were a nuclear warhead I would have left the country by now. This is, essentially, a TV show about nothing. It's filled with drivel and doesn't do anything. It just sits there. They just sit there. Doing nothing. All day. But for some reason, millions of people tune in religiously every night.
Including me.
I'm addicted. Despite all I say against the programme, it's compelling viewing and I'll be hooked 'till the end. Season after season, night after night. I'll be there watching, along with 4.5 million other people with nothing better to do with their summer.
Is it your hot summer viewing, or has the hot summer sun simply dried out this well known, loved and loathed format?
The chances are that even if you aren't a fan of the show, you'll still be overwhelmed by tabloid newspapers trying to print the best pictures of someone's nipple, while the broadsheets quietly chastise the show, pleading for the end to come. So has Big Brother gone from the almost intelligent experiment that we all witnessed 7 years ago to an obscene show filled with nudity, drunkenness and violence.
It is true that the show has changed. Who can forget the unlikely characters from season 1. I cannot imagine any of those comparatively normal people getting into the show anymore. We had a Nun for goodness sake, as well as computer salesmen and other people with average, mundane jobs. These were real, everyday people. Back then it could have been described as a sociological experiment. Even the house was dull and took on a 'back to basics' style. There were no hidden surprises. No secret brotherhood. No lies encouraged and started by big brother. Nothing. They just put the housemates into the house and let them get on with it while we watched in our millions.
This year, however, it's completely different.
It's actually rather unfair to say that this year is different. There has been a gradual change in the format since the start. It's more about making the housemates suffer. We want Big Brother to put them in, tear them apart, patch their relationships back up only to shred them to pieces. It doesn't help that they are consistent in mixing social opposites, and extremes thereof. You just know that if a homophobe is in there, so will a homosexual. You're putting in an upper class chap who's earned his money and hates people who scrounge from the Government? In goes Wee Boab from round the corner who hasn't done an honest days work in his life. Racists are accompanied by ethnic minorities. Chauvinistic men are accompanied by strong, self-confident, lesbian women's rights activists.
This year we have a whole load of irritating, conflicting people. We have quiet royal George, a self confessed mummy's boy. British, and homophobic. Then we have Shahbaz, the unemployed Scottish Pakistani Poof who has been nothing but over dramatic, argumentative and petty and has already fallen out with all of the housemates. We have Pete who is also unemployed and suffers from Tourette's Syndrome, causing him to say 'wank' or 'wanker' all of the time (sometimes I wonder if it really is the Tourette's based on who he's forced to talk to) and we have Lea, a 35 year old mother who claims she has the largest (and possibly most expensive) breast implants in the whole of the country.
So we have a small space where opposites are forced together prior to a huge clash and explosion of strong personalities. If this were a nuclear warhead I would have left the country by now. This is, essentially, a TV show about nothing. It's filled with drivel and doesn't do anything. It just sits there. They just sit there. Doing nothing. All day. But for some reason, millions of people tune in religiously every night.
Including me.
I'm addicted. Despite all I say against the programme, it's compelling viewing and I'll be hooked 'till the end. Season after season, night after night. I'll be there watching, along with 4.5 million other people with nothing better to do with their summer.
2 comments:
Inspite of myself, I absolutely love BB Dunc - it's just so gripping. I think it has something to do, as you say, with a desire to see people suffering! Sadism runs deep! Indeed. Davidx
This pogramme is poopie! I mean Y aint there just some avvarage people in there....makes me think, when folk say I would make a good housemate what the hell is wrong with me....Im not in the etnic minority, nor am I homophobic, gay, have torrets (or however you spell it?!) and altho my breasts are....well I will leave that one to you...I certainly aint had implants. Maybe next year things will look up. Good blog tho dunc. Shame you sound like a tad off a toff....but then you do live in Edinburgh now...I'm just your wee weegy best mate! luv ya x
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