Launch night, I was fuelled with Big Brother enthusiasm, last week I was verging on giving up the show for good. Three weeks in and I'm now wondering what on earth I am watching. So far, all I do know is that the show I am currently watching does not feel like Big Brother.
It goes without saying that this year's series had quickly become boring and predictable, with the majority of housemates under-performing. Big Brother's hasty decision to reverse last week's nominations and evict four housemates in one go showed no shame in sticking a finger up at every loyal Big Brother viewer who watch the show for its routine concept that has come to be iconic over the years. Whilst the house required an immediate shake up, I couldn't help but feel incredibly sorry for the unlucky evictees that had been used, abuse and spat out of the Big Brother house before even having the chance. I thought of myself as unlucky last year, being evicted after a short four weeks, following a bias nominations skew. A year on and I didn't realise how lucky I had it.
The modern Big Brother has no problem in making itself explicitly clear that they do not care about pleasing viewers ethically, showcasing 'nice' people and giving people a fair chance at winning a life changing sum of money. If you are cast as a housemate, the producers owe you nothing. It is an entertainment show and if anything they are out to piss off viewers rather than gratify them. Behave like a half-way house delinquent, walk around start b*llock naked and have rampant sex on national television - you are most likely to prevail. As a former housemate, I can't say I was happy upon this realisation, but as a viewer it's all I have interest in seeing really.
New housemate Marc optimises nearly everything hideous in an average human being. Although he is entirely egotistical, manipulative, ruthless and sordid, Marc's panto-villain bravado has already made him the star of the show. It goes without saying that he entirely disgusts me with his continual sex schmooze with Sam and relentless character assassination of Jade, but Marc has already provided the viewers with golden moments of interest and controversy. It seems whilst most original housemates coast their way through the show, Marc's game-playing tactics and cunning scheme to ruffle as many feathers as possible have already rewarded him with instant popularity.
After Marc, the second key character remains Jade - the biggest villain until Marc shoved her out the spotlight. Ironically, now that a bigger panto-villain has stepped in, the hatred towards Jade has taken a lower priority for viewers. Ironically, whilst Jade and Marc are both heavily disliked by a large proportion of viewers, their mutual dislike of one another has done themselves favours and increased their individual popularity rankings by playing up to their constructed feud. With the absence of the twins and Harriet who continually spoke ill of Jade, I don't view Jade as half as vile as I did last week, mainly because I can view her as a character now rather than person. Now that the catty drama has gone out the window, the lines between genuine and panto-drama have been completely blurred.
Currently the only housemate I severely dislike is the pathetic, over dramatic, attention-seeking Mr SHOWBIZ!, whose sheer presence in the house is as unwanted as an STI. Anyone can accept that the producers attempt to massively piss-off the viewers has sufficed. After being evicted on launch night and having two weeks to watch the show from home, he is now deluded enough to believe he is the producers dream and understand exactly what the show needs. I'm certain that his downfall will be his own sense of conviction and hideous self confidence that he will indeed be another legendary housemate.
Sadly for Simon, his forced persona, exaggerated catch phrases, over emotional tendencies and entirely deluded judgements have already led to him become one of the most irritating housemates of all time. Whilst Marc plays the role of a panto-villain and pulls it off cleverly enough to remain likeable, Simon sadly falls short of this role and for his own good would have been better off staying out of the Big Brother house following his untimely eviction on night one.
Touching on the rest of the new housemates, I've warmed to Sam although we've not seen much. She does not resemble any previous Big Brother archetype nor exhibit herself too falsely. Whilst Harry-Amelia seems like a fairly decent human being, anyone to enter the house in an Alice in Wonderland fancy dress costume and flash themselves nude on camera three days in loses themselves enough credibility in my eyes. Surely if she was wise, she'd use her brain properly and offer something more (than her trashy image) to an audience that loath the stereotype that Big Brother recycles nearly every series and has done once again with Harry-Amelia.
Nick and Joel remain my favourites, but with more controversial characters receiving airtime I fear they are starting to fall below the radar. Mediocrity has proven to be unwanted in this years series and with the majority of other characters being present but non-effervescent, I can only hope that Big Brother will continue to throw a number of additional spanners into lethal works of this years series.