Behind Big Brother
We’re back, don’t ask! In this fantastic episode:
– We return
– Eviction business
– Virginal business
– Bianca and Brigette – argh!
– The two sides of Ben
– Travis’ self esteem issues
– The big box blowout
– Dixie sure is “out there”
– Too many housemates, will Rima fit?
– Return of the Gretel curse
– Will the series last?
FNL took on a horse racing theme this week. Round one involved all ten competitors partaking in a sweepstake and choosing a horse at random. They were then shown a recording of a live horse race and told to ‘barrack with passion’ for their chosen horses. Terri’s horse came home first and Renee’s came in last – winning them both a free pass to the third round.
It was then back to the old standard “two teams” games with Rory, Travis, Bianca and Ben facing off against Dixie, Brigitte, Nobbi and Alice in the second round which is a game of soccer while wearing backwards racing binoculars. Despite a nice early goal from Rory, his team is out-scored 3 to 2 and are eliminated from the games.
Next up is “Photo Finish”; an obstacle course while riding on mini horses on wheels. Alice, Renee and Nobbi go first. Nobbi is very enthusiastic with his whip and gets over the line quickly. Alice comes in last and gets eliminated. Next to race are Brigitte, Dixie and Terri. Brigitte won easily with Terri coming in last and being eliminated.
In the fourth round Nobbi and Renee took on Dixie and Brigitte in a contest to shovel ‘horse manure’. This is the FNL ‘classic’ where one person throws shit (haha) over the wall and the other catches it. Dixie shovels first, throwing to Brigitte. Nobbi then shovels and throws to Renee. Both Brigitte and Renee have impressive falls wall running with their poo-loads but ultimately Renee’s team is victorious.
Nobbi and Renee then had to face off in “The Biggest Winner Game”. They have to see who can don the most extra weight (in clothing) in a set time limit. Nobbi manages to gain 7.05 Kg while Renee picks up an extra 8.65 Kg and wins the games.
Big Brother tells Renee the bottom three Are Dixie, Travis and Bianca, then asks her who she’ll take to the strategy room. She decides to take Dixie despite not wanting to have to tell her that she’s in the bottom three.
Scouts Night started off with Big Brother telling the housemates to “build a bridge and get over it”. The ‘Dib’ them had to race the ‘Dob’ team through an obstacle course by using a plank of wood to move from one rock to the next. The plank was not allowed to be moved to a new rock until all team members were safely on the last.
The ‘Dib’ team was led by Nathan and consisted of himself, Nobbi, Ben, Renee, Brigitte and Travis. The ‘Dob’ team was led by Rory and consisted of himself, David, Alice, Dixie, Bianca and Terri.
The race was a tight one with a different leader every few seconds and in the end Big Brother declared it too close to call. The team leaders were forced to rock off for a winner and Rory’s paper had Nathan’s rock all wrapped up.
A second chance round saw the six losers hanging from a bar to compete for two spots in the next round. Travis and Brigitte were out early, Ben and Nathan lasted a bit longer, but they were no match for Nobbi and Renee
The teams then became Rory, Nobbi, Dixie and Bianca up against Alison, Terri, Renee and David. They had to compete in the ‘box of horrors’ round. Each had to hold their head inside a box of creepy-crawlies for thirty seconds to get a point for their team.
The first competitor from each team (Rory and Alice) had to endure giant burrowing cockroaches and wood roaches. The second competitor from each team (Nobbi and David) had to endure fighting crickets and leaf mimics. The third competitor from each team (Dixie and Terri) had to endure a ‘Creepy Crawly Combo’ which included all of the above as well as meal worms and other bugs. The final competitor from each team (Bianca and Renee) had to endure rubber snakes.
The FNL hosts announced that fake snakes were used as real snakes were too dangerous and showed footage of Mike Goldman putting his head into a box of real snakes and almost being bitten.
All competitors completed their challenge and round two was also a tie. Big Brother announced that the winner would be decided by an eating competition. Rory and Alice each had to eat a Killer Python. Alice easily won, getting her team through to the next round.
The remanning housemates then paired off David and Renne versus Alice and Terri. Each pair had to erect a tent while hindered by The Big Fan. Neither team managed to succeed in their challenge in 2:30 so the winner was decided by a paper plane flying contest. Alice threw hers first and did very well. David screwed his up into a ball and tried to cheat – but failed.
Alice and Terri then had to ask Yes/No questions of Big Brother and figure out what he’d stolen from the house. After many questions and clues, Terri incorrectly guessed ‘Hoop’ instead of ‘Hubcap’ and was consequently slimed, and lost the games.
Alice, as the winner, was told the bottom three were Bianca, David and Nathan. She chose Nobbi to take to the Rewards Room.
I’ve got to admit, I did enjoy these last two Carson specials.
Yes, they did try (to some degree) to make it look like they weren’t shot on consecutive nights.
Yes, they were blatant attempts cross promotion.
Yes, at some point it was excruciatingly awkward to watch.
But, Carson was entertaining and unlike a certain Friday night show, the specials managed to flow and remained entertaining the whole way through. Just as things started to get slow the next housemate would be brought in or Carson would deliver a one-liner that lightened the whole thing up again.
As much as I’m against the cross promotion thing, this, to my surprise, worked. Word from inside the compound is that the Peter Powers special was even funnier – we’ll have to wait until Thursday to find out, though.
The certain Friday night show on the other hand is getting old and stale. It’s exactly the same as it was in 2005 and in this case, sticking to the original concept is not working. The show runs for much too long. Yes, I understand tasks need to be setup, housemates need to be moved in and out of containing areas and whatnot. But watching the show feels like dying a slow and painful death.
Numerous times when I’ve tried to trick myself into believing “this week will be different,” the show finishes and I find myself with a sharp knife to my wrist, not knowing how I managed to walk into the kitchen and retrieve said knife – it must have been the unfathomably boring commentary and real lack of anything interesting.
I’m not even going to go into the fact that the housemates get to see Ninja’s, which is totally against everything Big Brother is meant to be – SECLUSION, anyone?
The concept itself is interesting – housemates in crazy outfits with oversized props and high probability of being injured. However, the way it’s being delivered is painful. Inject some life into this show – changing the theme each week really isn’t enough. Get some new hosts and let’s try to appeal to the older demographic, not 12 year olds who like bright colours and will watch anything prefixed with “Big Brother”.
As spoken on this week’s BBBA Radio!
One of the popular criticisms of the show this past week has been the amount of twists, intrusions, and general external interference we’ve had in the house. Well I’m saying, as someone who has followed things on the OS and watched every daily show this week, that it’s really not that bad.
I’ll use Thursday’s Daily Show as an example. On this particular day the dominant storyline was the weirdness between Nathan and Renee. The other things going on included the ongoing Brigitte saga, and the Wednesday night family dinner. There were some brief clips from the cricket task, and Dixie broke down in the Diary Room when BB asked her a question about exercise. This is all stuff that has come out naturally through the Housemates and their interactions, and the things that are a traditional part of the show, like the weekly task.
The key thing is, all of it was entertaining. And all of it helped me learn about the HMs, and helped me engage with them better, which is what some people are saying we’ve been missing out on thanks to all the twists. I’m not missing it at all. It’s right there.
As for the other stuff they’ve had going on this week – earlier on they had the Bali thing – and while it was largely pointless, except for some funny airplane moments, I’m with everyone on the forums who are saying that this time was just a setup for a future one. Also, even Corey this week was pretty much a background character, so I was quite happy with that.
Programming-wise, this week has brought mixed thoughts from me. The eviction show was the lowpoint of the series thus far, no question about that. They’d already done a couple of stupid things, such as the web-voted HMs who were there for two days, but this was the one thing that made you sit back and think ‘good lord, what have they done?’. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Big Mouth – because that show is fantastic. The interview with Saxon is what a true eviction interview should be. They grilled him – they explored, discussed, and challenged his views and his character. I hope Big Mouth continues to be as excellent.
As I already said, Daily Shows are great. I think they’re picking the right stuff to show, and we’re seeing stuff that’s interesting and revealing about our housemates, as well as just some simple funny shit. Case in point – Thursday night, and one of the all-time best ever lines from Big Brother.
The Carson thing didn’t bother me – yes, it was blatant cross-promotion, but it was an added show so it didn’t infringe on our normal viewing. And it rated well – it won its timeslot easily, which is good for the series and for Ten overall. I even found it funny at times. Lastly, Friday Night Live. This show hasn’t changed a bit. It goes on for half an hour too long, but it panders well to the younger audience, and as long as you just take it at face value, it gives some fun Friday night viewing.
I think that where it matters, BB is sticking to the core ideas of the show and its concept. Three weeks in and I’m completely engaged with the show, more than I have been for at least the past couple of years.
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