Zcsund1234
Well-Known Member
Michael: And now for my initial favourite housemate of the cast. Michael was and possibly still is one of my favourite male housemates of all time. Like the first time, I watched he still made me laugh and presented himself in a very relatable yet unique way. I loved his friendship with Josh all through, he and Stacey together also provided many fun moments and just like Josh I loved seeing a straight man form a strong bond with someone like Benjamin. He had a clear vision to make it as far as he could, and he could have easily won this show and I would have been extremely happy with that outcome. He had this in the bag for such a long time, he had it right there and let it slip out of his hands and watched it fall without realising he had dropped it as hard as he did. I think this may be the biggest downfall a potential winner has ever had on Big Brother Australia, ever since Katie in 06 at the very least. We all know what I’m referring to, if he hadn’t felt the need to alter his already successful game then he would have pocketed that $250,000. But no, the dude overanalysed Estelle’s survival and he, just as fellow housemates would say, “macked on” with Estelle in an attempt to share her assumed popularity.
He was very intelligent, extremely well aware of the game and how to win it. I think it’s clear he came in obviously aware that someone like him could easily present himself as a likeable figure to not only the housemates but also the voting Australian public. I don’t think he played up a personality that wasn’t really his. I think he was a silly person who knew how to make people laugh, he just also knew how to weaponize it to keep himself popular with a majority of the housemates whilst also providing the show with interesting content. Through humour that focused on self-deprecation, witty comebacks and jokes and also a bromance with someone who was presumably going to be popular with the audience, Michael knew what needed to be done to gain momentum towards safety as well as how to maintain his popularity on the outside. It’s no secret (see what I did there?) that he was analytical about the game, but it’s funny how his poor judgement resulted in his demise. As a character, I also loved him a lot. I thought he was funny and extremely relatable but also stuck out as his own quirky character. But underneath the humorous exterior laid someone who was very insecure in their own skin and was easily intimidated by others that he envied. Something as small as talking about masking his face with his long hair spoke a lot to me about how little confidence, he had in himself. I also saw some ugly sides to his personality, very controlling, slightly condescending, easily angered/frustrated and had a nasty part to him like many of the others. Had Josh not left the house the two potentially could have made it to the very end together, and production would have at all costs aided him into winning. He probably did still deserve to win in my opinion. He was one of the very few housemates who stuck out as a winner. Whilst I do have slight shifts of opinion and realised more about his downfall, I still did like and enjoy him.
Estelle: Long ago I could not stand this girl, I spent night after night in my lounge room scoffing at the TV screen, and each Sunday night, I scratched my head in confusion as to why she was still in the house. My entire family felt the same, we all couldn’t stand Estelle. For what reason? I cannot even tell you why. I have spent a decade disliking her to great lengths and I have always celebrated the fact that she was cheated out on the prize. I now actually feel horrible about all of this, even though she doesn’t even know who I am. I feel really bad that she endured 87 long days of isolation not only from the outside world but also from her fellow housemates, with who she had to live every single day. I now have done a complete 180 on my views on her. She was in no way nasty, she was never a gossiper, she never did anything immoral, she provided insights into her life and who she was outside the house, she stuck out amongst the group, and she handled confrontation head-on and stuck to her guns. She was the rightful winner of Big Brother 2012 and lost much like the previous Runner-Up Rory due to one reason, her victory wasn’t the desired outcome for production. I went into this rewatch with the idea of her being an unlikeable housemate and that her defeat at the finale was deserved. I have no idea why I felt such a huge amount of dislike her for, I don’t know what has changed in my life then for me to change how I feel, but for whatever reason, I whole-heartedly say she was harder done by than any other housemate before her.
Her storyline was intriguing and endearing but also extremely discomforting all in one. In the beginning, it is said she was hard to live with by the other housemates. But no scenes or conversations actually made it into the daily shows that help support these claims at that time. At times she over spoke when others were talking, but there weren’t many scenes of her supposed victim playing 'woe as me' persona, nor her tendency to act awkward in conversation or argue at any given opportunity. As time went on however these personality traits became apparent in the edit, and admittedly did annoy me too. It is clear she was difficult to live with, I will say that I could tell by watching it that the housemates were legitimately struggling to get to know her. Being the most nominated housemate is never a nice title to have, but Estelle’s predecessors at least were given the curiosity and respect she was not. Sara-Marie, Jessica, Ashalea, Vesna, Camilla and even Brigitte were all housemates nominated for either trivial issues or for being blatantly hard to live with. But all were also respected by the housemates all enjoyed defining heartfelt moments with their peers. Estelle was not respected until her last days and the sad part is I feel that this respect came out of a place of ulterior motives rather than genuine feelings. I did see someone who was slightly socially inept, but she tried. She tried to disagree less, she tried not to overtalk people and she tried to blend in even if she didn’t want to. Nothing she did won anyone over. She was damned if she did and damned if she didn’t. The house had written her off very early on and it was incredibly uncomfortable watching it playout for the length it did. And when Ava came along, it all got even worse. She couldn’t even make a friend with someone without others finding a reason to talk about her. Benjamin had no right to speak to her about letting other people get to know Ava. A 29-year-old has the perfect capability of getting to know people herself on her terms.
The scene of her reacting to getting nineteen points, her opening up to Sarah about feeling alienated and her hearing Michael say everyone hates her was borderline gut-wrenching. Specifically, when she heard Big Brother say nineteen points, even at the time I thought okay wow that is harsh. I hated that Big Brother announced the point totals, there was no need to shame these people and single the most nominated person out each week. It did take me a bit of time to fully warm to her and understand that what she endured was unfair, but I eventually did come around to ignoring the aspects of her that I didn’t like. I can see why her popularity increased to how it did, I understand why she won support and I understand why she was leading that final vote initially. There are points although early on where she was very close to going. If someone other than Charne was nominated Estelle was in deep danger and Sonia also stated that at Ray’s eviction she was at one point the evictee. Thankfully for her, the friendship with Ava aided in emphasising how unfair the treatment towards her was. It is so strange to me how someone’s existence in a house angered so many other people when all she really did was act a bit strange. Michael, Zoe, Stacey and Benjamin all seem to me at guess as people who possibly weren’t very popular in school and found a socially powerful change in the house. Estelle possibly confused everyone as she behaved like the standard “weird horse girl” so to speak, despite being standardly attractive and not physically matching her personality type. I think the cool group disliked her possibly for these reasons, and that the bullying came from internal unresolved issues of their own rather than anything Estelle did to deserve it.
I am no longer confused as to how she managed to score high votes each week as I can see why people wanted to give her the win. Possibly not so much because she was so likeable, but more of an anti-bullying campaign. It is unfair how she lost, but whilst I admit she deserved the win, I don’t feel she was my preferred winner from a likeability standpoint. I don’t hate her anymore, but she was a bit too SJW, devil’s advocate, too political and a socially awkward person for me to get behind. I think a return for her is completely necessary and I am very interested to see how she compared her 2022 (if she is actually on it) experience to her 2012 one.
He was very intelligent, extremely well aware of the game and how to win it. I think it’s clear he came in obviously aware that someone like him could easily present himself as a likeable figure to not only the housemates but also the voting Australian public. I don’t think he played up a personality that wasn’t really his. I think he was a silly person who knew how to make people laugh, he just also knew how to weaponize it to keep himself popular with a majority of the housemates whilst also providing the show with interesting content. Through humour that focused on self-deprecation, witty comebacks and jokes and also a bromance with someone who was presumably going to be popular with the audience, Michael knew what needed to be done to gain momentum towards safety as well as how to maintain his popularity on the outside. It’s no secret (see what I did there?) that he was analytical about the game, but it’s funny how his poor judgement resulted in his demise. As a character, I also loved him a lot. I thought he was funny and extremely relatable but also stuck out as his own quirky character. But underneath the humorous exterior laid someone who was very insecure in their own skin and was easily intimidated by others that he envied. Something as small as talking about masking his face with his long hair spoke a lot to me about how little confidence, he had in himself. I also saw some ugly sides to his personality, very controlling, slightly condescending, easily angered/frustrated and had a nasty part to him like many of the others. Had Josh not left the house the two potentially could have made it to the very end together, and production would have at all costs aided him into winning. He probably did still deserve to win in my opinion. He was one of the very few housemates who stuck out as a winner. Whilst I do have slight shifts of opinion and realised more about his downfall, I still did like and enjoy him.
Estelle: Long ago I could not stand this girl, I spent night after night in my lounge room scoffing at the TV screen, and each Sunday night, I scratched my head in confusion as to why she was still in the house. My entire family felt the same, we all couldn’t stand Estelle. For what reason? I cannot even tell you why. I have spent a decade disliking her to great lengths and I have always celebrated the fact that she was cheated out on the prize. I now actually feel horrible about all of this, even though she doesn’t even know who I am. I feel really bad that she endured 87 long days of isolation not only from the outside world but also from her fellow housemates, with who she had to live every single day. I now have done a complete 180 on my views on her. She was in no way nasty, she was never a gossiper, she never did anything immoral, she provided insights into her life and who she was outside the house, she stuck out amongst the group, and she handled confrontation head-on and stuck to her guns. She was the rightful winner of Big Brother 2012 and lost much like the previous Runner-Up Rory due to one reason, her victory wasn’t the desired outcome for production. I went into this rewatch with the idea of her being an unlikeable housemate and that her defeat at the finale was deserved. I have no idea why I felt such a huge amount of dislike her for, I don’t know what has changed in my life then for me to change how I feel, but for whatever reason, I whole-heartedly say she was harder done by than any other housemate before her.
Her storyline was intriguing and endearing but also extremely discomforting all in one. In the beginning, it is said she was hard to live with by the other housemates. But no scenes or conversations actually made it into the daily shows that help support these claims at that time. At times she over spoke when others were talking, but there weren’t many scenes of her supposed victim playing 'woe as me' persona, nor her tendency to act awkward in conversation or argue at any given opportunity. As time went on however these personality traits became apparent in the edit, and admittedly did annoy me too. It is clear she was difficult to live with, I will say that I could tell by watching it that the housemates were legitimately struggling to get to know her. Being the most nominated housemate is never a nice title to have, but Estelle’s predecessors at least were given the curiosity and respect she was not. Sara-Marie, Jessica, Ashalea, Vesna, Camilla and even Brigitte were all housemates nominated for either trivial issues or for being blatantly hard to live with. But all were also respected by the housemates all enjoyed defining heartfelt moments with their peers. Estelle was not respected until her last days and the sad part is I feel that this respect came out of a place of ulterior motives rather than genuine feelings. I did see someone who was slightly socially inept, but she tried. She tried to disagree less, she tried not to overtalk people and she tried to blend in even if she didn’t want to. Nothing she did won anyone over. She was damned if she did and damned if she didn’t. The house had written her off very early on and it was incredibly uncomfortable watching it playout for the length it did. And when Ava came along, it all got even worse. She couldn’t even make a friend with someone without others finding a reason to talk about her. Benjamin had no right to speak to her about letting other people get to know Ava. A 29-year-old has the perfect capability of getting to know people herself on her terms.
The scene of her reacting to getting nineteen points, her opening up to Sarah about feeling alienated and her hearing Michael say everyone hates her was borderline gut-wrenching. Specifically, when she heard Big Brother say nineteen points, even at the time I thought okay wow that is harsh. I hated that Big Brother announced the point totals, there was no need to shame these people and single the most nominated person out each week. It did take me a bit of time to fully warm to her and understand that what she endured was unfair, but I eventually did come around to ignoring the aspects of her that I didn’t like. I can see why her popularity increased to how it did, I understand why she won support and I understand why she was leading that final vote initially. There are points although early on where she was very close to going. If someone other than Charne was nominated Estelle was in deep danger and Sonia also stated that at Ray’s eviction she was at one point the evictee. Thankfully for her, the friendship with Ava aided in emphasising how unfair the treatment towards her was. It is so strange to me how someone’s existence in a house angered so many other people when all she really did was act a bit strange. Michael, Zoe, Stacey and Benjamin all seem to me at guess as people who possibly weren’t very popular in school and found a socially powerful change in the house. Estelle possibly confused everyone as she behaved like the standard “weird horse girl” so to speak, despite being standardly attractive and not physically matching her personality type. I think the cool group disliked her possibly for these reasons, and that the bullying came from internal unresolved issues of their own rather than anything Estelle did to deserve it.
I am no longer confused as to how she managed to score high votes each week as I can see why people wanted to give her the win. Possibly not so much because she was so likeable, but more of an anti-bullying campaign. It is unfair how she lost, but whilst I admit she deserved the win, I don’t feel she was my preferred winner from a likeability standpoint. I don’t hate her anymore, but she was a bit too SJW, devil’s advocate, too political and a socially awkward person for me to get behind. I think a return for her is completely necessary and I am very interested to see how she compared her 2022 (if she is actually on it) experience to her 2012 one.
), Sonia, etc etc - but if you can put all that aside, I honestly think it’s one of (if not the) best season we got in Aus since the 2001-2007 days. The cast was impeccable. Plus, it gave us two of the best “game playing” HMs from the original format in the form of Tim and Tahan.
I am loving writing them. If only there was a bachelors degree in Big Brother. I'd actually attend my lectures lmao. I was very disappointed with the inconsistency with 2013's schedule (although 2014 was way worse) and I have always looked at it as weaker than 2012. Over time I noticed people online not agreeing with me and I found others disliked 2012 and liked 2013 more. I expect to jump onto the side of the fence at the end of the rewatch. I was just disappointed with the series at the time.
