Big Brother

" Have you been watching BIG BROTHER " my sister asked me in a telephone conversation . I replied that I hadn`t . I knew what the show was because every single tabloid newspaper had hyped up the show from the very first day it started way back in the year 2000 . While the series is being broadcast it`s impossible to open a British popular newspaper without being greeted by page after page of the housemates life stories , but just out of curiosity I decided to give the show a chance and I must say I was totally underwhelmed by it .

It might surprising to know that I managed to avoid this show untill series four , but if this is as good as it gets I`ve missed nothing . A bunch of people sitting around drinking is not great TV unless the people involved are Oliver Reed , George Best , Alex Higgins etc . We have a big strapping Scotsman Cameron Stout and he never makes Anglophobic statements , never gets drunk and never pays flattering compliments to the female housemates ! Not a typical Scot I`m sure you`ll agree . Well Cameron won in a popularity contest that resembled vote for the least boring person because someone will win . I guess I would have voted for Cameron myself but that`s only because we`re both Jocks and the opposition were so bland

That said , if Channel 4 are thinking of doing a fifth series I wouldn`t mind having a go myself . After all the drink`s free and when`s the last time a Jock`s turned down free booze

Each summer in the UK a group of people (6 men & 6 women) are removed from normal society and placed in a house, cut off from outside communication. They are given a shopping budget to buy food and complete weekly challenges to win more money or other treats. On a weekly basis the housemates (as they are called) must pick tow of their number to nominate to be removed from the house. When the nominations are tallied up, those with the most nominations face a public vote to remove them. Each Friday one is removed until only one is left to claim the cash prize.

Too many people are very snobbish about this programme and simply dismiss it as rubbish and attack those who watch it as simple minded, fools and idiots.

That is snobbery in my mind and it is unfair to assume that the millions who make this programme successful are just muppets – you know what? maybe they just find it entertaining? I have watched Big Brother each series it has been on in the UK – however I will dip into it occasionally over it's weeks rather than watch religiously, I reckon I watch about a quarter at most. I don't read the tabloids (Times man I'm afraid) and I don't gossip at work about 'did you see what such and such did' etc but I do easily get addicted to this show – and that's its power. It may be inane but it is real people and you keep watching because everybody loves to judge and gossip and this show gives us all the power to judge and to have people to shake our heads about and gossip about. It is easy to watch because the 30 minutes shows will be eventful (after all, they summarise 24 hours of 'action') and, of course, it is very easy television to watch – it is simple and allows viewers to veg. I have no problem with this because not all TV or films should be high art or make you think – sometimes we all need to just chill out and not think!

Of course it is trash and the fact that it is often just a bunch of students getting drunk for a few months means that it can easily become dull (as series 3 in the UK showed). Thus we have come to see the reason why BB was a worrying trend at the start; it has started to become more and more of a worry and has made me wonder what the makers are willing to do in the name of entertainment. Of course they pick people who will rub each other the wrong way but generally people are polite and channel 4 has been forced to continually spice it up to try and make it more eventful than last year. And that's the problem for me is that it is no longer 'real', it is full of people looking for tabloid deals, who have been selected because they are extremes of personalities. The most recent series in the UK shows this – it doesn't have gay people it has flaming queens; it doesn't have lesbian characters it has angry, left wing feminist lesbians; it doesn't have strippers it has bi-sexual strippers; it doesn't have black characters it has angry alpha-male black men and so forth – this series is the worst for it (they all are extreme stereotypes) but generally they are. At times it is funny (look at Kitten thinking she's some sort of individual when really she's a walking cliché) but generally it is just to try and manufacture fights and tension the best they can.

Now that we (the viewers) have gotten used to that it has been forced to continually up the ante. In the US they put people in with their ex's but in the UK the current series was billed as being 'evil'. They made the house smaller, put them all in one bedroom, make the tasks harder etc. In one regard it has made it more interesting and made these people work for their 15 minutes but in another it is very worrying and quite off putting. One task was funny – BB threw the housemates a kids party and fed them all cake and jelly, then hours later made them all sit on a roundabout until a task was completed – needless to say they all went green and some puked! However recently we had a situation where tow people were placed in another part of the house and allowed to spy on the others, who thought they had been evicted for good. After a week of these two seeing the others backstab them, BB reintroduced them back into the house and gave everyone lots and lots of booze. Needless to say they all got drunk and a fight ensued which security staff had to come and stop because men were about to start hitting the women (not good – even if the girls in question were inviting it something rotten). This is my problem with this show now – it is no longer just veg and gossip TV: it needs to shock and create talking points to keep it's audience and the tabloid headlines. With the UK's problems of binge drinking and after hours, drunken violence, is it right to basically stage a fight – which by the setup and the alcohol, the makers of BB essentially did. They are pushing people as far as they can all in the name of winning ratings.

I watched Battle Royale once and thought it was exaggerated, but now I have a point of reference to see what it is spoofing. How much more violent and cruel will TV get in order to win ratings? This series is not even a third gone and already the makers have been very cruel all in the name of breaking people and creating things for us to gossip about – as the contestants become more savvy and eager for fame, it is all they can do to keep it interesting. I didn't watch this series but I tuned in to see it all 'kick off' a few weeks ago, only to be disturbed by what I saw. I saw people put in a situation where tension would be high and then I saw them fed large amounts of alcohol. Can it be morally right to do this to people simply to 'entertain' others? I know many of us will say these people deserve what they get but it is a worrying thing to have on TV and will only serve to further erode our national morals – ie we don't see others as 'people' on the same level as us.

I am not snobby and I know how easy it is to watch this show: calling it rubbish and insulting those that enjoy it is childish and smacks of superiority that is not there. However even fans will acknowledge that it is rubbish – but it can be entertaining rubbish if all you want to do is have something to gossip about and distract you without taxing your brain – something we all want in some way (nobody watches arty foreign films all the time!). However the format of this (and other reality shows) is becoming increasingly cruel to win ratings – and how far are they willing to go. Things like Fear Factor and eating bugs in 'I'm a Celebrity…' are bad and so is the most recent BB. I accept people will watch these things and I understand why they do but for me I have tuning out as I cannot allow myself to be part of it anymore. BB is the only reality show I have ever bothered with but now it has gone where we feared it would – into the usual ratings-chasing spectacle where it is all very forced, manufactured and cruel. I will not watch people be made to fight and suffer for my enjoyment and I can only hold my head in fear about what we will be watching in 5 years time once our sense have become further hardened to drunken fights and flirting.

Overall this is an awful show but one that I can watch easily as it doesn't require me to think and it can be quite enjoyable and addictive. However the road it (and others) have led us down is a worrying one and even BB supporters are beginning to wonder what on earth is going on. Everything is manufactured to create talking points and the contestants are very aware of what they are doing (playing for the camera, thinking of the newspaper deals etc) – it is no longer 'real' and the novelty has worn off. There are much better things on TV and I think I shall watch them as few of them turn my stomach in quite the same way as this show has started to do.

'Big Brother' has now run for five seasons with 'real' people (i.e. ordinary Joes and Janes who were not celebrities) and has just begun a third season 'celebrity' version.

The trouble is that what was originally an idea of some originality and promise - shut a few contrasting personalities in a house with no contact with the outside world, intrusive cameras, and unusual tasks, for a few weeks and see what happens - after season 1 had passed future house-mates knew what to expect.

Subsequent seasons have seen the house-mates exploit their new-found 'fame' (for doing what, exactly?) not only after leaving the house, but while they are in there. So the challenges get ever more tedious, the tabloid and gossip mag column inches get longer, and the nation for some reason continues to watch.

Another nail in the coffin of British TV, an indication that poor taste and high ratings go hand in hand (that or the TV-viewing public at large really will watch anything and they get what they deserve).

Plot

A group of contestants move into the Big Brother house, where they nominate each other to be evicted by public vote. The last person remaining will take home a large cash prize, while the others take home nothing.

Cast

A bunch of sad sacks desperate for fame.

Verdict

I remember when this came out, I thought it was a fascinating social experiment and an interesting premise for a television show especially since this was before the days where reality television was a big thing (Those were the days).

Throw a bunch of people into a shared property, throw challenges at them and have them voted off one by one until one is left and give that people a wad of money. Inevitably people play the camera, scheme against the others and in theory it makes for great television.

In reality? They scrape the barrel finding the most fame hungry desperate people they can, a combination of vile and just pathetic. And oh boy they do play to the camera, leaving not one single person you can relate to or even remotely like. And the scheming, it shows how scummy the majority are, just like in real life.

And then if you haven't had your fix of watching people sitting around, had your dose of drama and childishness then you can tune in live to watch them sleep in night vision! Yeeeah!

I despise reality television for a host of reasons, Big Brother embodies them all.

Rants

You know Big Brother has given us one good thing, ONE! And that's Dead Set (2008). Remember that? The zombie mini-series about the zombie apocalypse starting and those in the Big Brother house being unaware! Despite all the Big Brother alumni doing their best to ruin it just by existing I have to say that was good stuff. I'd rather watch one episode of that than all 1.4k of this offensively stupid tripe.

The Good

Davina McCall is oddly likable

The Bad

Literally everything else, across the board, just stop it.

We are talking about a show which was once introduced with the words "Day 21 - Derek is eating a sandwich". What sort of person carries on watching anything after that.

You'll see the phrase "like watching paint dry" through thousands of user comments across this website, on despised shows & films.

Never a truer word spoken here though & FOR TWO REASONS.

One because it is that dull - although that maybe a tad unfair on paint.

But secondly - the day British TV fell to it's knees (and went largely unnoticed). A few years back the housemates (there's better names for them than that - but wouldn't make it through the firewall) had to each paint a bench in a colour that reflected themselves. (I expected 12 grey benches). Anyway - after they finished painting them & went inside the camera remained outside, for several minutes - while the viewer did indeed "watch paint dry".

And still the public watched.

There is possibly one thing worse than Big Brother. The host. I won't give her the satisfaction of publicising her name (+or benal facial expressions) but we're talking about a woman who once introduced 3 OF THE 6 FEMALE ENTRANTS one year by their name & breast size. Never mind, name & job title, name & achievements, name and ambitions maybe. Nope, name & size of Charlies are all that counts nowadays.