Bradley: I remember really disliking him at the time, a lot actually. Much like Ben from 2008, I disliked his wanting to impress the boys with his jokes and snide remarks. But Bradley did this in such a way that he ended up being incredibly condescending and came across as very socially inept. Whilst I still did find him incredibly irritating at points, I actually did feel some sympathy for him this time around and didn’t hate him as much as I did. Maybe when I was younger, I disliked him because I didn’t like to see “nerds” on TV. After all, I felt like I was one at school and it was possibly too close to home? Even though I hate watching the younger guys try to act like the cool group, he was young and wanted to be accepted in the group, so I understand why he did everything he did and why he was the way he was. I can understand the appeal of liking the nerdy guy having his first kiss, learning how to be a nineteen-year-old by older peers, the love triangle with Estelle and also the sympathy vote for him having a stutter. He had some endearing qualities, but it didn’t end up winning me over personally. I don’t think he was in any way horrible or nasty, he was just very young and wanted to gain the approval of popular housemates such as Josh, Michael and Stacey.
Funnily enough, I did think he was bullied at the time, but in fairness, I now just think the other housemates felt like he was hard to live with. It is strange to me that housemates were able to tell Bradley to his face their issues with him, but it took weeks for them to do it with Estelle or didn’t at all. Credit to Bradley though, he took being nominated so much very well and was able to face conflict with other housemates extremely level headedly for his age. Whilst Bradley’s storyline had intrigue, it was clearly something that viewers got over very quickly, so I’m still not surprised he got evicted when he did. On the rewatch I realised that he wasn’t as big of a character as I remembered. In the beginning, he was huge, but he slowly starts to get less and less airtime as the weeks went on. Now I feel like he got evicted because of lack of airtime rather than him being unlikeable, or a possible mixture of both.
Josh: I loved him originally and I still do love him after rewatching. Yes, I know he wasn’t the loudest or most complex character on the show, but I personally found him to be both likeable and entertaining. For the last few series, the token hot guy was either an asshole or really boring, but Josh was neither. He provided laughs throughout the show and was laid back and extremely open-minded. I can see why the housemates generally did like him and didn’t nominate him, and why he would have been a candidate to win. He wasn’t as bad with the bitching as much as his friends in the house were, he still made efforts with the outsides or at least was cordial with them at worst. Josh was the good guy amongst the group of villains that controlled the series. The only negative point for him was his relationship with Ava. Too much kissing, yuck. But that only lasted a short while anyway. I really did appreciate him taking Bradley under his wing and teaching him how to speak to girls and be more confident. I also loved his friendship with Benjamin, at the time when I watched this as a closeted teen it gave me great comfort to see that there are people like Josh who don’t mind being friends with a gay man, I loved that he wasn’t stuck to the boy's group like previous members of his archetype. I did enjoy his friendship with Michael and Stacey too, they made me laugh. Josh at the very least, kept the bitchy group maintaining some sort of likeability. When he leaves, that almost vanishes. Josh’s departure was detrimental to the likeability of the popular group, and it disrupted the house dynamics in a very nasty way, to the point of the storyline becoming nothing but bitchiness. Him leaving was very sad, he deserved to go out like any other housemate, so it is truly horrible what circumstances he faced. The reaction from the housemates as well as production spoke a lot of how likeable he was. He definitely deserves a second chance in some way, now the time has probably passed, which is a shame. So yeah, I did like him. Nice guy, reasonably funny, very skilled at what he does and very much attractive.
Angie: At the time she was one of my favourites from start to end, I would cheer each time she was saved by the public, but now my opinion on her has possibly lowered more than any housemate I have rewatched so far. As I was a fan of most of those in the popular group I liked her by extension, as I did the first time. There was intrigue between her and Josh which I once again was interested in watching, I also loved her friendships with Layla, and Michael as I did initially. But once Sam entered and she had that massive argument with Layla, I finally came to understand how young and inexperienced she was, how emotionally unstable she was and just how quickly she derailed mentally in the house. She was probably someone who had watched Big Brother and wanted to do it but didn’t fully grasp how emotionally taxing the experience is. I realised at the time that she was polarising, but what shocks me now is that her popularity with the voting public kept stable for almost two months despite how manic she could be. For someone who lived with men, I don’t understand how she was so sensitive to jokes but was more than happy to dish it out. I do acknowledge however that the Big Brother experience is one like no other, and she may just not have been emotionally ready for it. Whether it was an argument, a disagreement or even a discussion, she was either crying, yelling or a mixture of both.
She did make for interesting viewing despite her unlikeable aspects, the fight with Sarah in the early weeks, her bickering with Estelle and wanting to hook up with Josh and Sam only for them to be interested in other girls. The Layla and Sam situation shed so much light on her as a person. She stated she didn’t want to kiss George out of respect for Layla and then said she would not kiss Sam, but then secretly kissed Sam and blew up when she was caught. It was fascinating to watch her be a part of this popular group and be named the main culprit in the segregation of others, only for her to self-implode and eventually became indirectly banished from the group. It was comical to watch her bitch about Estelle who was said to be the most disliked housemate, only for Angie to repeatedly become nominated herself towards her final weeks. I still am really shocked that her popularity took as long as it did to decrease, but her eviction was imminent. She naturally would have left around the time she did anyway if not soon after regardless of what happened. She provided some decent entertainment, was a much larger character than I remembered, and I will give her the credit for being one of the more interesting narrative contributors before the final weeks.
), 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.
