Reading this thread was definitely more entertaining than the actual episode.
Having now done both I definitely agree. And took half as long too - the premiere really could have ended the moment Daniel and Nick went through the couch to the secret bunker.
This show is so frustrating - I'd forgotten how badly put together it was last year. The house is nice, the cast is promising and the challenges are good, but it largely falls apart in the edit. It's the narration which really kills it - not only have they cast a pathetically weak voice as Big Brother they just don't know what the character is - it switches from being the housemates mate to narrating a challenge in a blink of an eye, when really it should be neither.
The other problem is when the voice is obviously put on post-edit you are fully aware they can be masking how things really happen. It was bad enough that three housemates were pre-selected for the possible twist by being put in first, but then I fully suspect that the call to the diary room wasn't for one of the three but for Daniel to go - only way Seven can prove us wrong is by providing the original audio on the clip. That means he was pre-selected to be immune from eviction and pre-selected to choose the first evictee considering how predictably that twist played out.
Sometimes a twist robs us of a genuinely interesting vote - and this one was finally balanced and could have gone either way. That said I liked the concept of it - only thing I might have added is that they needed to agree, and if they didn't the three nominees would vote one of those two out instead. That would have got us shot of Daniel - how Nick didn't kill him I don't know. Presumably producers removed the sharp object once they'd made the poncho.
Another piece of evidence for how dumb producers are is doing what we all suggested and not having nominations immediately after the challenge - but then forbidding any discussion. If they want it to be a game those discussions about who to nominate need to happen.
All in all it is just a frustrating watch, especially with it being super lengthy episodes which actually seem to reveal very little. I get they had to have a narrow focus on the evictee of the day, which was completely spoiled by him not being promoted beforehand. Wonder if the other three in the "oh, these are also housemates" post will soon follow Max out of the door.
I'm so glad the forming alpha pack has been disrupted.
