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BBAU Rewatch

the Theorist said:
To be fair, while I agree it was uncomfortable and don't think Gretel's attitude toward him live on air was appropriate, Jamie tried WAY too hard to "play" the audience/house. When his acting career and training came to light on the outside, his game fell apart.

He very much attempted a Tim Brunero tactic during his time on the show (even though that particular detail wasn't public knowledge at the time). But, unlike Tim, Jamie's playing the "nerd card" all the time and during every live cross was far too transparent and just came across fake. I think it rubbed Gretel the wrong way because she, like a lot of viewers, could see right through it.

Gretel's behavior may have been uncomfortable, but in my opinion Jamie's was also just as uncomfortable inducing.
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I had a similar thought when watching it. I'll go into my depth when I write about him. Throughout the watch I was confused as to why everyone kept saying he was under the radar, I thought he was simply just a shy person. Come his eviction interview and suddenly he's exploding with confidence and has a lot to say, it did make me question how genuine he was in the house. So yeah, I can see why Gretel was angry. I suppose that is why he was evicted. There wasn't much to go off from whirlpool, and he completely disappeared from the edit after Rebecca left. So it seems the audience did see through it.
 
the Theorist said:
To be fair, while I agree it was uncomfortable and don't think Gretel's attitude toward him live on air was appropriate, Jamie tried WAY too hard to "play" the audience/house. When his acting career and training came to light on the outside, his game fell apart.

He very much attempted a Tim Brunero tactic during his time on the show (even though that particular detail wasn't public knowledge at the time). But, unlike Tim, Jamie's playing the "nerd card" all the time and during every live cross was far too transparent and just came across fake. I think it rubbed Gretel the wrong way because she, like a lot of viewers, could see right through it.

Gretel's behavior may have been uncomfortable, but in my opinion Jamie's was also just as uncomfortable inducing.
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The difference is though it was Gretel's job to make the evictees feel comfortable in what for them was an alien environment. I think it was pretty clear by then she'd had enough of it and would be going - and indeed needed to go.
 
For me, I get the annoyance towards Jamie in regards to him seemingly repressing his personality, but Gretel was over the top with her interviewing with him. Anything he said she had to correct and scolded him for being too general instead of literal. It's funny, in nomination shows she's the first to say "Big Brother come on we know what they mean", yet with Jamie she clearly knew what he meant with some answers but yet she still dismissed them and scolded him for not being as literal with his answers. I also don't understand why she question if his family was proud of him, she had such a dislike for him that I really didn't understand.

But again, I like that there is something to discuss with her. I don't agree with some of her methods and how she approached Jamie, but I enjoy having content to discuss. I am really not looking forward to Kyle and Jackie O, nor am I looking forward to Sonia.

Edit: Also after watching Michelle's eviction, I'm disappointed to see Gretel almost excuse Michelle's behaviour and gloss over it.
 
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5:20 Okay that is fully weird and freaky. Wesley announced Bree to be evicted as a joke. Little did they know she would be going and then for her to be wrongly evicted. But when they did the recount, Wesley was the one to go.

I’m taking way too long to finish this. But ya know… uni just started back. Nonetheless I’m still determined to finish hopefully in the next couple days.
 
Zipped through Week 11 and 12 pretty quickly. Michelle leaving is a bit of a double-edged sword, on one hand, it was the satisfying outcome as I wouldn't have wanted Aleisha or Zach to leave but at the same time, the series did get slower without her there. The end stretch of weeks is a tad on the boring side, with most of the entertainment coming from the tasks.

The audience voting to nominate in these two weeks was a bit iffy. In week 11 Gretel announces to the audience that they will get to vote via SMS to nominate a housemate for eviction. From how she describes it I would have assumed had I not known that the person with the most votes would be automatically nominated. There was also no mention that it would be a point allocation to the top two vote-getters until the night lines closed. The result was also pretty underwhelming as it made no difference to Michelle and Daniela being nominated. It saved Zoran from being nominated but Michelle was going to be evicted in any single scenario possible.

The upside-down nomination/eviction was also a bit anti-climatic. It was a good idea on paper that had the potential to be groundbreaking and change the course of the season. However, whilst for the most part, this cast has been the most strategically aware, that doesn't mean they were strategically capable of making the optimal move even if they were aware of it. If they were smart they'd do what Bree said on FNL and that is to vote out the winner of FNL so that they do not have a spot in the final week. Or, they could have also thought logically about who was to win and voted out Aleisha or Billy as that was what they seemed to think the result would be of the nominees.

The constant showing of the graph also did two things, it AGAIN saves Zoran from being nominated as he was initially nominated via public vote and it also shows that fuck all people were voting for it. If Daniela could go from 55% to 26% within the space of the live show then the number of votes could not have been astronomically high. But why show the graph over and over if the idea is to just let the viewers choose? Zach was in the bottom three of votes to nominate and ends up nominated in the top 3. Why was BB obsessed with showing the graph around this stretch of seasons? Well, I know why, but why did it have to be this way?

The result of Daniela's eviction was so foreshown and completely unsurprising. Regardless of the audience or housemates voting she would have left. There was no possible way she could have survived that week. She got extremely lucky to have lasted as long as that, which I will explain more later on. Also, the Kyle stunt, do I need to even say?
 
Always thought around 11 weeks was the sweet spot for how long a Big Brother series should be. As neat as hitting the 100 day mark pretty much all series lasting 13-14 weeks long suffer in the last few weeks, and usually end up with way too many housemates across the series too.
 
Brekkie said:
Always thought around 11 weeks was the sweet spot for how long a Big Brother series should be. As neat as hitting the 100 day mark pretty much all series lasting 13-14 weeks long suffer in the last few weeks, and usually end up with way too many housemates across the series too.
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When I was younger I always thought longer was better. But now I much prefer nothing over 12 weeks. Even that is probably too long. If it reaches a point where storylines are dying and there needs to be tasks and gimmicks put in, throw in a double/mid week eviction and a final 3 and just end it there. I remember being annoyed that 2014 was only 80 days, that's probably more than enough to my mind now. 2014 will be nice and easy to rewatch too because of the lack of episodes LOL.
 
beardymac said:
80 days... and almost the same number of housemates as 2006/07
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That is a disgusting fact, yuck. All those constant eviction shows were so ridiculous. I actually gave up on the 2014 series when they cut the Sunday and Friday Shows, so there is a number of eps I will actually be watching for the first time minus the finale.
the Theorist said:
In some respects, yes, but the 60-90 minute episodes every day is what drags it out worse than a regular longer season, imo.
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Yeah the extended bloated episodes are gonna suck. I get bored sometimes in double eviction shows and FNL shows. But I guess 2012 will be okay since it's only 45 minute episodes and the shorter Friday ones. With no live seperate shows the number of minutes is probably similar to a normal series per week. But 2013 I am very concerned about how long that will take me, considering I am also studying a Masters degree that is requiring me sometimes to come in 9-5 Monday-Friday.

I don't think I will finish before 2022 starts, which is what I planned on doing. If I can at least finish 2013 by the time then I'll be fine as I would have covered eveything necessary for the new season. Part of me is considering skipping 2008 and 2014 as they are both probably the least enjoyable of what I have left, unnecessary to cover for 2022 and also just because they are proabably the two seasons that don't get discussed a much in comparison to the others. But, I am far too deep into this now to not complete it all.
 
So I can see why people think the last few weeks were boring. But in fairness, BB1-5 were the same. I don't think there's blame to place on the series or the housemates for this but more so the bloated length and possibly the format. The housemates had a task where they had to catch spiders from an enclosure. I hate spiders, I could NEVER in a million years ever go near a huntsman willingly. BB then later tricked the housemates into thinking the spiders were in the house which they were quick to debunk.

It wasn't a great task but it reminded of a task that was used in BB Belgium in 2006. A task that would mentally fuck me up and would possibly cause me to actually leave. If you haven't watched the British Big Brother special "Big Brother Around the World" or haven't heard of the task before, I'll share with you what happened. Big Brother told the housemates there was 100 spiders released into the house that they had to catch. This was false. They did have to actually catch the spiders but there was only 99. The housemates were on edge attempting to find this non-existent 100th spider. If that was me I would refuse to sleep.

Unrelated to the 2007 series but here's the clip from the BB World wide special if anyone is interested. From 5:43.

 
Inspired by this thread (particularly you Z . Thanx). I am watching 2003 series.
Oh my lord.
Ive seen pictures of miles upon miles of cornfields in Iowa less corny than Vincent.
His growls. His low-fi sleaze. His absolute cringe.
Its compelling. Im laughing and reaching for the sick bag simultaneously.
The supposed intellect. He is a joy and misfortune to watch.
The romeo and romanticsm of the original wog boy Nick Giannanopolous in his prime.
But it is a joy. Unwitting self-parody on this scale you rarely see.

​

 
A few other quick takes so far.
Jo is absolutely vampiric in her desire for attention and adulation. Disturbingly so.
And whilst I intially liked Gretal for the most part, her very bad decision to hook with Saxon post show truly invalidates any critcism she has about any of the housemates.
Its akin to a Uni lecturer being romantically involved with a student.
Sure, theres nothing legally wrong with it, but its morally wrong.
She was the authoritarian parent figure.
And absolutely undermines and invalidates everything and anything she had to say about any housemate on a moral level. Ever..
 
Fuzz said:
Its akin to a Uni lecturer being romantically involved with a student.
Sure, theres nothing legally wrong with it, but its morally wrong.
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Speaking from experience*, it’s often not a great move. It can be fun in the moment - but it usually never works out well in the end.

However, I will say that while I see your point about Gretel’s responsibility, I can’t say I completely agree as they were both consenting adults and the age difference just shouldn’t matter. She was not his “authoritarian parent figure”. She was the host of a television show he happened to be on. Why is it “a very bad decision”? From what I understand, their fling was also post finale/contracts. I say good on them for having a bit of fun on the side.

*What isn’t right is this… under the guise of anonymity, I’ve been in a situation similar to what you compared Gretel and Saxon to… only the uni lecturer in my situation was actually a couple years younger than me… and I was the student… and what’s worse is he was/is in a relationship while he pursued me outside of uni… but we did have a thing going for a couple years. I fully admit that is a situation worth stating is morally wrong (on both his and my behalf). Not what Gretel and Saxon did, in my opinion.
 
I have almost no opinion on the Gretel/Saxon matter. I grew up only hearing about it so it hasn't had an impact on how I view her or him. People do what they do with their lives, it's no issue to me. I can see how yes it does kind of take away from the idea of Gretel being this mother figure to the housemates, but they were both adults at the time of it so what's the issue I say. Jeff Probst did it, so why not continue the trend.
 
Respect your opinion Theo.
But in light of Saxon's obvious age and immaturity , its disturbing to me.
Very predatorial. And her ediface and philosophies of criticising others for crass or or demeaning behaviour loses all its meaning.
Making her obvious dislikes towards certain housemates completely redundant.
Let us not forget. Yes it happened post bb. But it was a borne out of an instituionalised environment where she clearly held some powerful reins and influence.
 
Up to the Day 99 eviction for 2007 as well! I possibly may watch the finale tonight, depends if my sleeping schedule continues to be messed up (I am fucked for Uni and watching Big Brother for hours every night is not helping LOL). I have watched this so quickly compared to 04, 05 and 06. It almost feels like I watched it all in 24 hours.
 
Fuzz said:
Respect your opinion Theo.
But in light of Saxon's obvious age and immaturity , its disturbing to me.
Very predatorial. And her ediface and philosophies of criticising others for crass or or demeaning behaviour loses all its meaning.
Making her obvious dislikes towards certain housemates completely redundant.
Let us not forget. Yes it happened post bb. But it was a borne out of an instituionalised environment where she clearly held some powerful reigns and influence.
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I can kind of see what you mean. It does in someway take away from this idea of what Gretel was to the show. But it also reminds us that she is a human being and not just what she appeared as in front of the audience. How you react to the age difference is up to the individual, to each their own either way.
 
Fuzz said:
Just to say, Im not seeking an argument. Thats not my style or intent ever. I appreciate the discussion.
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Discussion is the whole fun purpose behind the thread! My goal was to engage people in my rewatch and to encourage others to rewatch past seasons as well. I'd rather polarising topics otherwise what's the point of this forum?
 
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