Media: Missing The Point?

Four years can be a long time for the media's memory....

Will the dust now settled on this years’ big comeback and the waiting game for news on the future of the series, Ex Housemates are still fulfilling media commitments.  Continue reading “Media: Missing The Point?”

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The Final Countdown Looms.

The Biggest TV comeback of 2012. Here's view on how it's gone. (Part 1)

So, ladies and gentlemen, the finale night of the first Big Brother Australia series in 4 years is nearly upon. Who can believe it has been three whole months since the all-seeing being made a triumphant return to our television screens? I know I can’t. Continue reading “The Final Countdown Looms.”

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Interesting Characters… No Personality

So after launch night the housemates seemed to tick all the right boxes – they appeared to be the most interesting characters for years. The promise of “Dynamic Housemates” appeared to have delivered.

However, so far, so dull.

Let’s start with the two that stand out. Rima, who insists her height is the least interesting thing about her. So what else have we learnt this week – well, mmm, help me out. If she wasn’t 1m tall she wouldn’t have made it in. Simple.

And then there’s Terri. I admit she made me laugh a few times during launch – but she’s been cast as the mother of the house and in the few short hours she was there, where admittedly we saw very little of her, she was more than happy to accept the role.

Like with Rima I ask if Terri wasn’t 52, would she be interesting? No – her age is the only thing making her different – but it’s very bad casting having nobody in their late 30’s or 40’s to help bridge the gap with the younger housemates.

Next, we go to Travis. His voice – incredibly annoying in the promos, awful on the launch show – by episode 2, I didn’t care. The housemates have been trying their best to label him – “flamboyant” is what I think they settled on, but although he’s no mans’ man, he isn’t exactly out there enough to make himself entertaining.

And then there’s Nobbi. He may tick the Asian box, but he’s just another bogan bloke as we’ve seen time and time again. I do think though when conflict arises, potentially he’ll be at the centre of it – but banished to the Kombi van means the potential for conflict has been well and truly diminished.

Now they’re not blonde, but are the brunette bimbos showing any signs of intelligence – I Don’t Think So! Get Bianca and Rebecca a bottle of peroxide and they’re no different to the girls of yesteryear. Alice must be intelligent to be a Vet – or “Doctor” as they insist on calling her, but I don’t think I’ve heard her speak yet – she’s only ever featured on the running machine.

Renee is obviously a wannabe Reggie and I think she’ll do well – though perhaps she’s that little bit too smart to pull off the dumb country chick character. I didn’t like her at all the first couple of days – could barely understood a word she said, but she’s growing on me.

Onto the boys and the Spa Mafia. Rory is a housemate we’ve seen so many times before – we should probably just give him the prize now and be done with it.

UFO-hunter Saxon should be offering something new to the house – but there isn’t anyone in there for him to share his views with. It was interesting hearing him admit to his sexist and racist persona on the outside – but it’s a kind of a shame he’s attempting to leave that outside – though I’m sure the sexism will creep back soon enough. Thank god Gretel’s not around hey.

The two biggest disappointments though are Ben and David. Despite seemingly being two of the more intelligent housemates, and in David’s case with the most interesting back story of the lot, by Day 4 they’re reduced to hiding cuddly toys.

Is it the housemates though or is it Big Brother – do they render any intelligence useless by the end of the first week – and does any sign of a braincell just end up on the cutting room floor anyway?

Well, having gone through all the housemates (well, I forgot Dixie, but hey, that says all I need to say), I’ve come to a worrying conclusion… the most interesting housemate this series is… Bridgette!!!

I wouldn’t say I particularly like her, but I’m intrigued by her. She will be the person who grows the most during the series as a person, and it’s always interesting to see contestants who go on a personal journey. She may be a simple and shallow character now, but if she makes it to the end she’ll be coming out of it as a simple, but savvy, young woman. Perhaps.

So, in conclusion…
Despite the most promising launch show for years the daily shows this week have quite frankly bored me. I’ve not found myself being able to engage with the housemates at all.

I’d even say they had a better first week last year, though while last year we were waiting for it to implode, this year I’m more optimistic things will improve – though whether I’m saying that after Sunday’s show remains to be seen.

Some things never change though – FNL somehow managed to be worse than ever this year, and the removal of the Rewards Room and nominations twist just proves to me that even the producers didn’t want the show to stick around. It’s there solely because Ten want it – it’s a window to advertise to the under fives.

Anyway, that is all. Hopefully things will improve, but so far, I’m not impressed.

Do you agree – comment on our userblog pages – or share your own views of the housemates and in your own BBBA blog.

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What more do we need?

It’s been a few months since my last blog entry, and lately I’ve had all kinds of thoughts and ideas swimming around in my head so I need to get some of them down on paper (figuratively speaking).

The thing that’s been bugging me the most this week is the idea of leaked information, and what exactly that has meant during this pre-season. In previous years, it was all very exciting to come and visit this site, and watch it defy the BB producers by revealing their secrets before anyone was supposed to know about them. And certainly, in the past twelve months since I became a staff member I’ve been doing a fair share of the secret-leaking.

But this year it’s been different, because BB has revealing a lot of secrets all on their own, moreso than any year before. It started perhaps with the first teaser promo, which came out onto Youtube and our forums via an official Ten staffer. It’s continued in the past week as, for the first time, they’ve been revealing selected Housemates to us as part of the on-air promo campaign. And it came to a peak tonight as the Top 30 Countdown radio program was recorded inside the house, with the hosts giving out extensive details about the brand-new BB house.

So what is there left for us here to do? It’s fantastic that they’re recognising the potential of this kind of marketing campaign, but now they’re doing our job for us! Sure, we’ve still had plenty of our own victories, breaking news that was never supposed to come out and upsetting many within the BB compound. DQ in particular has been dishing it out for the past five months.

After last year’s breakthrough when one of our forum members found the names and pictures of all every HM 24 hours prior to the taping of Launch night, there’s the obvious speculation as to whether or not we’ll once again pull off something that huge. Time is certainly running out, as we’re less than 48 hours away from launch.

But my opinion is that is doesn’t matter any more. I’m at the point where I’ve heard so much, both officially and unofficially, that my desire for pre-season knowledge has been sated. I can sit comfortably waiting for launch, knowing that we’ve heard all kinds of things already about the coming season – while still being very much being secure in the knowledge that there are things, big things, that we don’t know about, and won’t know about until they happen. And that’s perfectly fine with me, because if I didn’t have that excitement of anticipation, the series would be dead to me already.

So if something happens and we do in fact get that huge leak this year, that’ll be awesome. But if we don’t? I won’t be bothered. I’m ready for Launch.

My next blog will come out hopefully in the next week or so – and I’ll be doing something that’s gonna be a BBBA first.

Will

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