STAR RATING: ***** Unmissable **** Very Good *** Okay ** You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead * Avoid At All Costs
Every summer, 13 members of the public, who's personalities stand out the best in the eyes of the producers, are selected from a selection of video entries to compete in a live reality TV show in a specially built house, equipped with video cameras and trendy Ikea furnishings, to see who is the last person to be voted out by the public and win the prize money.
When BB was first introduced to the world in the summer of 2000, it seemed like a fresh, original, fun concept in my eyes. A good social experiment, shall we say. I was 16 at the time, on holiday in Cornwall with my family and there was something that was at least partially engaging about watching the antics of 'nasty' Nick the banker and warm-hearted scally Craig the builder (who'd only entered so he could win the money to pay for a heart operation for the little girl of a friend or something!), even if I didn't think it was the greatest thing since sliced bread and I could ultimately give-or-take it. And, looking back on it now, I could see that the house was occupied by 'real' people, genuine, real people who were believable and you could buy were really like that probably if you met them in the street. Which is certainly not what it's come to now.
In my mind, in one way or the other, things rapidly went downhill from there. The first show was so successful that there had to be a follow-up. The emphasis on voyeurism and adult content began around here, and everyone could see this as a really see-through attempt to pander to people's baser instincts and win ratings. But I just found a lot of the contestants on the second series to be really annoying and up their own arses and that put me off. I suppose the same could be said for the third series, even though Jade Goody was entertaining in as much as she was genuinely thick, thinking Cambridge was in London and such, and I don't think she was putting on an act but just genuinely, un-self-consciously that much of a show-boat. I think series four pretty much just came and went (that was the big Asian guy, wasn't it? And Jon Tickle?) but by series five everything had, as I said, just lost perspective. That's not to mention the assault of spin-off shows we've had from it like Celebrity Big Brother or even Teen Big Brother (and we all know what went on there.)
The people entering aren't genuine, honest and 'real' anymore. They're just making as big an exhibition of themselves as they can in order to get on there in the first place and to make a big enough impression on the public that they will come out as the winners. No-one that shallow and super-ficial really deserves any of our time or attention, but it's likely that our 'baser instincts' may take us over again and we'll tune in just to pander to them. I could never have been a contestant myself, but by now it's unlikely I'd even know how to make a big enough show-boat of myself to have come out the winner on there anyway. Besides that, all objectivity in the game has been lost. The winner of the show who gets all the money is superfluous in the eyes of all the other contestants as they know that if they make a big enough impression on the public, they will be famous enough to attend a film premiere or two for a while afterwards and no doubt get paid a fair bit to endorse certain products or services (hence why Jade Goody's name still garners recognition three years after losing!) This show has come out, more than anything, as a huge testament to Andy Warhol's unforgettably famous claim that "in the future, everyone will enjoy their 15 minutes of fame", irrespective of how untalented, vulgar or desperate they are.
Aside from the contestants, there's the presenter, Davina McCall. A no doubt very pleasant, in her day, very attractive lady who just suffers from that very irritating habit of feeling the need to bellow out everything she says. She's served the show well, but she's a woman in her 30s who's a mother to at least one child who's having to try to keep up with the pace of 'youth TV', the majority of which are in their late teens or early 20s and there's been coverage in the media lately of how it may all be taking it's toll on her. I've heard rumours she's planning to retire and become a mid-wife (imagine an already delirious woman about to give birth being calmed by Davina McCall!) and, if that's true, I'm sure, as my mother said, she'll give it her 100% and no doubt be very good at it, because everyone has their day and everyone has to move on in life. But I wonder how much shelf-life the actual show has left and, if it's a lot, just where it'll go to from here. It's not a show showing 'real' people anymore who's personalities you can relate to, it's just a show showing people eager for instant fame and gratification who are prepared to make as much of an exhibition of themselves and even degrade themselves as it takes to get their names and faces in tabloid rags like The News of the World for their outrageous, degrading behaviour. No truly decent person can relate to people like that and, if they're the only type of people who are going to stand a chance of winning from here, one can only wonder what lies ahead for the show and, the future of humanity for that matter. **
