Bree: There are three stages of Bree within this season. And they appear to occur in each of the three months of the show. In the first month she is Krystal’s #2 and I would say is likened Gretchen Wieners to Krystal’s Regina George. The two girls back and forth to each other and gossip about Terri and get into altercations and are both joint at the hip and on the other’s defence. Krystal is more of the main character and cops the most flack for what occurs. Then comes the second month, Krystal is evicted and more and more of Bree’s friends continue to leave. Bree soon finds herself in a position of mother duck where the women view her as their leader. Bree has cemented bonds with the boys and has a cringe forced flirtmance (is that what we’re gonna call it?) with Ryan as they are literally the only two eligible people to be involved in a fling. Here she is not really a main character as Paul is taking up most of the screen time, but she is asserting herself as a barrier to Paul’s pot stirring and she isn’t afraid to admit to bitching about others or being pissed off. It was only a matter of time until she’d be repeatedly nominated, and dare I say she probably came close to leaving in the weeks she survived. Day 64 comes along and she is unsurprisingly evicted leaving the ducks without their mother. Then we discover Bree is not to be evicted and re-enters the house. And here we have the final stage of Bree, a new character has emerged who actually shows emotion and an in-depth side to her about how she feels in the house. We also see some denied jealousy in regards to Monica flirting with Ryan and we see Bree really express her true opinions and she seems to feel quite comfortable in expressing her annoyance towards other housemates directly to the group. And that is the story of how Bree Amer went from being a forgotten late-stage evictee, to accidental Runner-Up and reality TV legend.
I’ve been team Bree for a long time, and after this I probably still am. I admire her for being strong willed and secure enough in herself to cope in the Big Brother environment. I will say as an almost 22-year-old I am in disbelief that the character I watched is the same age as I am. I don’t know anyone my age who is that able to stand ground and handle high pressured situations as well as she could. If someone heard her bitching and called her out, she’d say yeah, I am and what are you gonna do about it. She owned what she said and did and was even a humble loser at the end of it. She would do well in the modern format in my opinion, personally I think this cast in general would. If I was to pick one cast to play the modern game, I would choose either this group or 2013.
I think Bree does come across as older as she is (although I have noticed this with many reality TV shows I’ve watched from the early 2000s, do people just look younger these days or was Bree genuinely mature for her age?) and she exudes confidence that I don’t even think she knew she had. It goes without saying, she benefits highly from the false eviction. I will argue until I die that she was close to leaving that week Wesley did and had he just left on Day 64 like it was intended she would have followed Monica in that double no questions asked. Her feeling of guilt and not belonging in the house allowed her to gain enough popularity to escape that double at Ashalea’s expense. Now whilst I say this, I am just stating what I think would have happened rather than what I wanted to. Bree was too much of a controversial figure to survive eviction naturally on her own with how Big Brother works.
Had the show ran naturally it would have been an all-male finale again. And dare I even say she may not have been asked to host Friday Night Live? The false eviction is the best thing that could have happened her to her unless someone can enlighten me as to why I should think differently. I would have voted her over Trevor to win, she contributed more to the show and I think her story arc is the most developed of all of them. Good on her for lasting as long as she did when the odds were stacked against her. I am looking forward to seeing her on FNL and may I also add her absence on BB2022 will be noticed.
Trevor: Much like Ben from BB1 I always looked at Trevor to be a rather boring and dull winner. As much as that opinion has slightly changed, I don’t have as much to say about Trevor as I do Ashalea, Ryan, Paul and Bree. Trevor is a really likeable guy, and I say that as I believe he still truly would be to this day. Is he riveting television that would create headlines and polarizing conversation? No, he’s not, much like all of the people that end up winning these shows anyway so what difference is it? He was funny and did have pretty likeable vibes when shown on the daily show. I don’t think his lack of airtime has anything to do with him being boring, I just think he isn’t a dominating personality that needs to argue his case or over speak others. He is just plain and simply a really nice person who is easy to get along with.
To never be nominated by your fellow housemates is a pretty impressive achievement and to be one of only two in the history of BBAU (please someone fact check me as I am going off the top of my head) is a really incredible feat. I think he deserves the million dollars and even so I think he deserves to win. If it couldn’t be Paul or Ashalea I am glad it is him. I am happier a production pet just because it’s funny to think they were annoyed about the result after a whole 86 days of not wanting an “accidental” winner. That teaches you to pick and choose when to care about the result.
Whilst he isn’t a hugely dynamic figure on the show his win is pretty satisfying just because of how likeable he is. He played pranks on people and made me laugh and did manage to change my opinion on him. If I was to guess why the % wasn’t shown it would be because Trevor probably won with like 75% of the vote and Big Brother didn’t want Reggie to be knocked off her biggest winner margin crown. Fair enough, I guess. I look forward to seeing him on BB2022, I think it will be fun to see how the million dollars shaped the rest of his life.
And that concludes my coverage of BB4. After realising how much I had to say about each of the housemates I am left thinking maybe this IS my favourite season still. Despite the fact I said this group is very one dimensional I have so much to say about them. However, the fact that they come across as one dimensional may be why there is so much to say but I can’t really figure out which is why.
And so here we have the first season to really have my opinion of it decrease, but that was due to happen anyway and I expect the rest of the Kris Noble seasons to experience the same. That is bound to happen watching the show from an analytical point of view rather than watching it for the first time for entertainment purposes. As time goes on, I may still think highly of this season as I do think it’s easier to watch than the first three.
Wish me luck everyone for 2005, I am very excited to see Vesna grace my television again. I expect from here my write ups will be very long, so apologies if you can’t handle it! I have much going on in my brain that needs to be dotted down. Also thanks to
@timmy for the great idea of looking at Whirlpool whilst I watch. It does help with understanding the audience thinking and I plan to do the same for the rest of my rewatch.