Househappenings

I like to wax historical on occasion, so I couldn't help but wonder if Adam is the most unlikely season winner ever, if you think back to how things seemed, say, a week into the feeds. I'm thinking that the only other winners that come close to his level of unlikelihood were Will from Season 2 (we kept waiting the whole first half of the season for the inevitable Will eviction that never came) and Dick from the most recent season (before we realized the extent to which he'd be protected by America's Player, it looked inevitable that he'd rant his way out of the house pretty quickly).

Our initial impression of Adam, as seen way back on the first episode of the season, was that he was a little bit too in your face, a little too lacking in finesse, a LOT too nervous-making for the women in the house and in particular for the person who was supposed to be his soulmate, to get very far. If Big Brother had been a reality show filmed in entirety before it ever aired, we might have looked at that stuff as foreshadowing a great redemption for him, but I think the producers figured him the same way: as a guy who might be entertaining in the short run, but someone who would almost certainly be too weird to keep around long. But last season's Adam character, Zach, had a similar reversal of fortune and got one HoH win away from winning $500,000. Adam exceeded that effort. And he was sure the most fun to screencap all season, and remained so till the very end:

We can question whether or not the jury made the "right" decision or not, but I think his less direct style of gameplay is a valid strategy, especially because we've seen it work before. I always say that Big Brother is the most personal of all reality shows, and juries rarely vote on the basis of "who played the best game" unless the alternative is a cipher along the lines of Cowboy in BB5 or Erika in All-Stars. Ryan took most of the heat for making the jurors jurors in the first place, and his strategy of trying to protect himself with side deals, while sound enough, ended up costing him because the others all felt betrayed when their inability to win anything led to their evictions, because Ryan was never going to turn on Adam in the end.

And while Adam didn't have a stellar jury questioning session, he was better than Ryan, as I had assumed he would be. His bluster made him seem more believable somehow, and the only person who seemed offended by it merely ended up costing him a unanimous win. I think Adam will get over it. Ryan didn't seem prepared for the question about what he would do with the money, probably because his first instinct was what mine would have been, which is to say that it's none of your damn business. I don't know if the mention of Jen hurt him or not, but even though I was a bit surprised to see feelings about her still so raw over 2 months after she left the house, it might have been wise to keep that part to himself, and share the good news with Jen in person. I'm not sure why Natalie and Matt went with Adam in the end, but in Sharon's case the supposed betrayal no doubt hurt him (Ryan should have told her she was lucky to get all the way to fourth without ever winning HoH, something that's rare on BB and usually limited to strategic lightweights like Jameka).

I was disappointed that the live show left so little time for catching up that Julie never got to speak to Alex, Amanda, Jacob, or Parker, choosing to waste everyone's time with a revival of the Jen/Allison feud. Julie's attempt to get the jurors to please keep their speeches brief fell on deaf ears, as you sort of knew it would considering how much in love with their own voices people like Natalie and Joshuah are.

James won America's vote as favorite juror and an extra $25,000 to fund his cycling and whatever else he might choose to do in his spare time, which will all hopefully take place clothed, or without me watching it happen. I usually don't like these votes, which always seem to me to be contrived consolations prizes for people the producers fell in love with and tried to sell as fan favorites (e.g. Rupert on Survivor), but it was worth it to see Sheila, who already knows America would rather read James's as yet nonexistent book than the one she spent a season promoting on the feeds, find out that she lost out to James yet again.

Anyway, not a bad finish to a season that seemed odd in a lot of ways. Something about watching feeds, going out to shovel snow, and then watching more feeds didn't really compute with me psychologically. I'll be wrapping things up as the days progress, although given that a new season is only 11 weeks away, I won't be disappearing completely even after that. Perhaps we'll get some decent spoilers in the interim.

Posted by IA at 09:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

It's all over but the shouting, and I think Adam is taking care of that with his normal speaking voice.

The jury questioning took place yesterday, and I haven't gotten any real insight about where everyone is leaning...the guys grumbled about it when they got back, which is typical enough, but we haven't seen any indication that either is going to melt down or anything like that. I'm sticking with my Adam prediction--we'll know soon enough, but based on having watched these guys for 11 weeks, I would be stunned if Adam wasn't the one better prepared for the questions, or in the situations where he wasn't prepared, better able to BS his way through any problem areas. Eloquence is not Ryan's strong suit. Adam's Achilles heel could have been his temper, though. We shall see.

The feeds are currently being rerun on SuperPass, and they should last long enough to take us into BB10. Convenient how that works out.

Back after the show with a quick recap, followed by more goodies as the week progresses.

Posted by IA at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Natalie wasn't the best player in the BB9 house, but I have a sneaking suspicion she's going to be on the short list of non-winners who is remembered as the most colorful player of her season, despite only coming in fifth.

Because let's face it. We can be honest with each other here, right? Many of us have been looking forward for years to having a "European style" player in the house, someone with few personal boundaries when it comes to sharing personal information or naked flesh. Within a few days, it became clear that the "bikini barista" (does the Labor department track such things) was our girl. Still, in the early stages of the season when her sexual escapades were setting the BBverse ablaze with chatter, helping to make the early season feeds the best ever, it's not like people were speculating on the possibility that she might have much game, let alone have the chance to win. Natalie seemed to be in the tradition of past BB women who were mostly in the house to meet boys, and would be willing to put boys ahead of her game. But Natalie seemed to come alive gamewise after the eviction of Matt, and had she played a somewhat better social game with allies and non-allies alike down the stretch, she might have been well positioned to get to the final two (although actually winning, considering the hard feelings in the jury house from the likes of Chelsia, might have been a problem).

Our first impression of Natalie was formed early the night the feeds went up: she was the half-naked party girl who seemed oddly guileless about it all, possibly because her over-the-top sexuality was combined with what seemed to be a genuine (if somewhat muddled) Christian faith. On some level, you wonder how much the unusually uninhibited atmosphere in the house this season had to do with the tone that Natalie set in there (though James might have been James in any case)--if you're kept isolated from society and the typical standards that govern life out here, Natalie walking around in her G-string might start to seem normal after a while.

Natalie and Matt were part of the first house alliance, which also included the first two house couples that had any power: Jen and Parker (the "power couple") and the first heads of Household, Alex and Amanda. In truth, though, this always seemed more like an alliance only in the sense that they all got along, because there wasn't much in the way of game coordination here. This was proven when Matt and Natalie won the first veto and refused to use it to save Jen and Parker, possibly because Jen still seemed toxic at the time to the revelation of her previous relationship with Ryan. We began to notice something else about Natalie at this time: she really preferred male company to female. Despite their early alliance, she and Amanda quickly grew to dislike each other, and of course she and Chelsia eventually became the bitterest of enemies.

Matt/Natalie were nominated along with Alex/Amanda during the second week (James and Chelsia were the HoHs), and it was this week that set the tone for the rest of Natalie's tenure in the house. With Matt needing to campaign against Alex, who had till then been his best friend in the house, he began to gravitate towards Adam and Ryan a little more, and Natalie was along for the ride (Adam/Sheila were in the same bedroom as Matt/Natalie, continuing a long BB tradition whereby sleeping arrangements are the original motivator for alliances). While there was some wavering as the week progressed, Amanda's controversial nature made it inevitable that she and Alex were going to be jettisoned. The following week, the couple was nominated again although Ryan and Allison (really just Allison) were the true targets, and it became moot when Matt and Natalie won the veto anyway. This would be the last time Natalie would be in trouble until her eventual eviction, and the vote to allow Ryan to stay in the house when the couples format ended left Natalie's position truly strong for the first time, since she was no longer tied to the "threat" Matt, and wasn't getting much respect for her game skills or intellect.

Ryan won that first HoH after he was allowed to stay in the game, but the following week marked her one little bobble: when she was part of the vote to allow James back in the house after he had just been evicted. Matt and Ryan were caught on the other side of that vote, and when James, predictably, became the HoH, there was no way both Ryan and Matt could emerge intact. But the house then embarked on a long stretch where Natalie or one of her allies was HoH every week (in fact, that stretch would last the rest of the game). Natalie played a pretty shrewd social game in this stretch, particularly by keeping Ryan on her side even after Natalie had had to vote to evict him in order to try to save Matt. The whole "Team Christ" thing took shape during this period as well, and while she eventually took all that a little too seriously, it did help to forge a bond with Ryan and Adam (and by extension Sheila, who was along for the ride). Her goofy superstitions and number theories helped keep others from taking her very seriously.

Natalie created some issues for herself with the consecutive evictions of Chelsia, Joshuah, and James, none of whom left with any love lost for Team Christ. But as it became more likely that two members of that team would make it to the end, the social situation for her wasn't hopeless. And Natalie attempted to get herself a side deal with both Sheila and Sharon, one that would have served her in excellent stead had Sharon ever won HoH. But ironically, it was the Sheila HoH week--a HoH Natalie had agreed to give her--that ended up spelling her doom. Sheila had developed her own attitude about Natalie's denunciations of the so-called godless element in the house, and clearly worried that she wouldn't have any protection the following week, when she couldn't play for HoH. Natalie was forced to publicly reassert her loyalty to Adam and Ryan, but the boys weren't buying her act either by this time. Adam and Ryan engineered a tie vote and forced Sheila to dirty her hands and evict Natalie--something that I don't think either man would have been able to do at that stage of the game themselves as HoH.

As irritating as I find "God is on our side" talk on BB or any reality show typically, I thought Natalie was a good thing for BB9 and for our feed experience. She was typically animated and unusually cheerful by the standards of the game, and was without a doubt a unique personality. The casting people did well to find her. They need to spend less time hanging out in casting agencies and more time in northwestern coffee shops, apparently.

Posted by IA at 11:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

So Ryan wins again, in a final quiz that was awfully similar to last year's Dick/Zach showdown (in both cases the men disagreed on only one answer). And our long-awaited BB frat house has come to pass. These guys ought to have a little bit of fun in the short run, and perhaps even after the jury questioning--this cast doesn't strike me as especially bitter as BB casts go.

It will be interesting to know the likelihood that Ryan cost himself a lot of money with his decision to go to the end with Adam, but this could be as bad as Ivette's BB6 choice proved to be (final HoH almost always wins in the end, but BB6 was an exception).

So what does everyone think is the likely result here? One man's opinion:

James: Palled around a little with Adam early on before lines were truly drawn; never had any use for Ryan. A safe vote for Adam, I would think.

Sheila: Also solidly for Adam, though with less real bitterness toward Ryan.

Chelsia: Hard to know the extent to which she will be swayed by James. She obviously disliked the women who outlasted her, but mostly spared Ryan and Adam. Shot in the dark, but I'll guess Adam.

Joshuah: Well, he sort of had an alliance with Ryan, though it's all but impossible to imagine any real world scenario where they would ever be friends. But Ryan didn't really help him in the game at all. A tentative pick for Adam.

Sharon: Strikes me as the most likely to vote on a "played the best game" basis, although it's by no means clear to me what the answer to that is between Adam and Ryan--I would probably lean towards the former. She had a kind-of alliance with Ryan, but presumably now realizes that it was there to protect Ryan's flank should she ever win HoH, and not anything he intended to follow through on. Still, I'm going to guess she will vote for Ryan.

Matt: It's not always easy to guess what the earliest jurors will do, especially since the house was a very different place when he was still in there, with two reasonably well-matched sides. My guess is that since he seems to take pride in the fact that his old allies wound up on top, he'll vote for the person he gives primary credit for that happening: Ryan. Also, Ryan had his back with the vote not to bring back James.

Natalie: Who can guess? She seemed on good terms with both, but she struck me as someone who liked Adam slightly more. I see her as a vote for Adam, possibly on the grounds that (as Ryan himself foresaw could be an issue) Ryan has already won quite a bit.

So that's 5-2 for Adam, but it's not quite as much a slam dunk for Baller as I originally figured. A skillful jury performance could do it for Ryan, but the problem there is that Adam is more glib than Ryan is, if often incomprehensible.

Posted by IA at 10:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Adam took the second part of the HoH competition, so unless something very weird happens in the next 20 hours, we're going to have only the second all-male Final Two ever on BB (the sense that men are "threats" tends to make it less likely that they get farther in the game). There's one explanation for how it worked out this way: guys dominated the HoH competitions this year, with Sheila and Natalie the only women to win solo HoHs.

In fact, Ryan and Adam will have held 5 of the 8 solo HoH weeks between them, which is an awfully good way to keep an alliance together, especially when your best female allies are the only women winning those comps. It's a far cry from the feeling back when Ryan first won Head of Household, when the consensus was that it was going to be a nice bonus for a guy who had been in almost constant trouble during his early days in the house (thanks to the revelation of the Jen relationship and the partnership with the unpopular Allison), but probably wouldn't do much for him in the long run. He then survived the re-entry of James, the sort of bad break that has ruined a person's game life in the past. We never could have guessed then that Ryan's survival of that week, half a season ago, would be the last true hurdle between him and the final two.

But Adam will win, I expect. And since he's unemployed, it might even be for the best. Again, that would be an amazing story considering the early reaction to Adam in the house and among many fans was "ewwwww."

Posted by IA at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Only a few minutes after posting my little editorial just below, the feeds came back on to show that Sharon was indeed evicted, as had seemed to be the final decision from the boys earlier Monday. The smart move, in my opinion, since despite her failures at competitions so far, she is clearly better suited to win a potential mental challenge as part of the last HoH.

So my comments below are mostly moot now, although I'm now mystified as to why the endurance comp (which was won by Ryan, by the way) was blacked out, since my initial assumption was that it had to be to keep the identity of the evicted houseguest a secret. That secret is now out, as is the news that Ryan won the endurance. So no actual news was blacked out, only our ability to see the competition itself. I look forward to an explanation as to why this was necessary.

So, unless Sheila can win the final two parts of the HoH comp, the odds of which are about as good as this beast winning the Kentucky Derby, it looks like we're going to have another buddy-buddy final two along the lines of BB5. One of the guys could always turn on the other and go to the end with Sheila, which gamewise might be smart. But I think they're both looking forward to Sheila being gone (who could blame them), and I don't think either believes they're a goner against the other (although I would be pretty surprised if Ryan could beat Adam).

Posted by IA at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

As expected, there is a feed blackout in progress while the first part of the last HoH competition is under way. The only reason for this is to preserve the secret of who got evicted tonight, which means feeds will likely be off until the (COUGH) live show ends tomorrow--nearly a day . There's precedence for such a long blackout during a time when an eviction has taken place without an eviction show airing live.

But this seems different to me, for several reasons. First, it's very late in the season, and the chance to watch the last endurance is almost always the most anticipated part of feedwatching during the last couple of weeks, when few are still in the house and little of note is happening. Second, the last HoH endurance has become a tradition that links the seasons, and provides fans with memories to kick around. Some of the final comps have been letdowns (the one on All-Stars didn't even make it to the first commercial break after the competition started), but two have been certifiable classics: the floating challenge in Season Three and the Dick/Zach duel that lasted for several hours last season. Is something along those lines taking place right now? We may get to see it on feed delay tomorrow, but it won't be the same.

Not to rub the producers' noses in it, but this season is not going down as a grand success on ratings grounds. The secret being kept here is not one of wide curiosity; anyone coming online tonight to find out what happened is not likely to be dissuaded from watching the television show tomorrow night just because they have learned who was evicted. What entertainment enterprise can survive treating its most loyal fans in such a cavalier way? It's too bad that what has been for most of its length a better-than-average feeds season is ending in this way.

If I've hammered home one point in all my years writing about Big Brother, it's my belief that the people who produce the TV show need to stop looking at the Internet as their enemy, and figure out a way to exploit the medium where their most fervent fans--a shrinking club, some may have noticed--gather on a daily basis. The powers that be believe that they need to keep such secrets as "Sheila or Sharon" in order to save their show, and they will no doubt still believe it on the day the show is canceled.

Posted by IA at 09:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

As you may have already learned from the Real home page, Dick and Janelle are having a live chat Thursday at 9 Eastern/6 BB time. Yes, the room is big enough for both their egos.

There's apparently going to be an eviction tomorrow that will be aired as if live on Tuesday's show. What we don't know is, assuming the endurance portion of the final HoH competition starts tomorrow, whether any of it will be on the feeds. As I've said before, I don't completely understand what is gained by blacking stuff like this out, since feed subscribers are exactly the kinds of people that you would expect to watch the TV show no matter what. But whatever happens, I'll mention it here. I still can't tell if it's going to be Sharon or Sheila evicted tomorrow, though why any of them would want to boot Sheila, a bigger potential Final 2 goat than even Cowboy was, is an utter mystery.

Posted by IA at 11:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Ryan has turned into quite the challenge monster down the stretch, as Mike Boogie did two seasons back. By winning the veto today, he insures that the nominations will be left as is, meaning that Sharon's luck has just about run out, it seems. I doubt anyone wants to risk the only houseguest with decent relations with Joshuah, James, and (to a certain extent) Chelsia getting to the endgame. Ryan has had this secret alliance with Sharon, but its usefulness should have run its course for him at this point. He has little alliances with everyone, so there's no need to elevate the one that presents real dangers for him with the jury.

But Ryan has been talking up the idea of wanting Sheila gone, which to me doesn't make much sense considering she's highly beatable at the end (and yeah, I know she's an irritant and NO ONE wants to be alone in the house with her for even a few days). But Ryan doesn't have a vote, and I'm pretty certain both Sharon and Adam see the wisdom of keeping Sheila. If the nominations stay the same, Adam will be voting out Sharon regardless of anything Ryan asks of him.

But I wonder if Ryan hasn't worked it out so it's now going to be tough for him to win, unless he can win the last HoH and take Sheila. It's questionable that he can beat Adam in a vote, but I don't see any sign that he's thinking of having Adam put up (and even if he did, I'm not sure that Sheila or Sharon would then vote him out). The best bet for Ryan would be to get Adam evicted and hope he could win the last HoH (Sharon hasn't won and Sheila hasn't either without help). Ryan's played a solid game, but whereas someone like Dick had all his ducks in a row for the last several weeks of the game, Ryan needs some good fortune now to win.

Posted by IA at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Dingo has spent the last few weeks calling for changes in how Big Brother 10 will operate (her commentary on this issue has been mostly running in the right sidebar, although occasionally it appears in the main body of her daily posts). Dingo's main point is that Big Brother is successful in other countries because it's simply a more interesting game, with viewers deciding who stays and goes.

I suspect that this is too much to ask. Frankly, at this point, I would settle for a restoration of the BB we had in seasons two and three, where there no preexisting relationships among any houseguests, and there was a relative lack of contrived twists. My anecdotal opinion is that those are the seasons of BB most fondly remembered by fans, so why the producers seem reluctant to go back to that "throw 'em in there and see what happens" format is a mystery.

We're always told that we'll never again see a Season One-style BB because it was a major failure with viewers. There's just one problem with this theory: the current ratings for the show, which are nothing short of awful. The reasons why BB9 hasn't worked in the ratings probably begin with the unfamiliarity of the series in winter--fans have a certain relationship with BB and get into a certain rhythm, and the extra season threw everyone off. But it's also possible that the falling ratings are an inevitable result of a format which has gotten stale. There's nothing really wrong with this; that's the normal life cycle for a veteran series. But one has to assume another big reinvention is going to be needed, possibly as soon as this coming season. Summer show or not, the series can't go on much longer at this ratings level. The "risks" of letting viewers vote, or even of giving them a new additional role to keep them wrapped up in the season, are going to be outweighed before long by the need to find a way to increase the viewership.

Posted by IA at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

James and his porno future (and past) have left the house. Now, it's one of those endurance competitions that probably won't go on that long: Sharon is already out

And as soon as one more leaves, the horse trading can begin.

Ryan just gave thanks that he remembered his "nic patch." Now, try to quit fulltime!

Sheila is already appealing to everyone's goodwill, saying that she's the only one ho hasn't seen her family yet (been HoH), and her birthday is coming up to boot. The waterworks will start in earnest if one more drops out--and this is actually a good week to not have HoH if you can imagine it, because then you can play each of the last two weeks.

Update 6:48 PM house time: Nearly an hour now, and everyone still looks pretty strong. We're still a ways away from a potential new rule to speed up the endgame. Everyone seems in high spirits...but man, when all of these people are in the same spot, the voices really get to you. Sheila and Natalie in particular put me in mind of some sort of Monty Python skit.

Update 7:45 PM: I hadn't figured they would go this long, but the final three all seem very comfortable and chatty. This might actually last until After Dark time.

Update 9 PM: With Ryan out now, the negotiations are well under way, or rather, the begging from Sheila and Natalie's attempt to say "Sorry--not right for me!" There's mistrust here that's all implied, because Sheila would want to nominate Natalie and I suspect Natalie knows this. A deal that Sheila would stick to would mean a likely Ryan/Sharon nomination. But I think Natalie might try to outlast Sheila, and hope she has the alliance strength to survive next week.

Update 9:06: And it's over just like that. For the second time this season, Natalie comes in second in an endurance comp, and Sheila becomes one of the more unlikely HoHs ever--seriously, who would have thought she could win a 3 hour-plus endurance? It doesn't appear there was any deal, so now Natalie is going to be in serious trouble, for the first time, really.

Posted by IA at 06:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Just to clarify: what I posted yesterday doesn't really have much to do with any negative attitudes I might have towards James. I thought he was an interesting part of the mix early on--granted, male nudity isn't really my thing, but I appreciated that somebody was actually bringing it for once in the U.S.--he but he became more of an irritant during his HoH reign, and since he returned to the house he's spent most of his time wallowing in self pity. But I had ambivalent attitudes toward Jun and Drew, who won their seasons, and didn't really care at all for Maggie, the winner who followed them. The difference was that they won in ways that seemed to follow logically from the interactions of people inside that house.

Maybe I'm naive and scripting was going on back then, but if you look back at BB4, there's no script in the world that would have have had the likable (and first ever BB haver-of-sex) David evicted in the first month, and the charmless, homely Robert lasting all the way to the final week. And Maggie wasn't even very interesting by the low standards set by her alliance. Ivette and even April would have been more entertaining winners of BB6.

Do I think James was scripted to win BB at the start? Not exactly; in fact, I've mentioned that this season has followed a typical Big Brother pattern whereby the more colorful players tend to attract attention by virtue of all that color and wind up getting voted out, leaving a relatively drab crew behind. BB4 and even the halcyon BB6 are examples of that--Kaysar was evicted twice in the first half of the season, and the rest was anticlimactic, at least from a game perspective. I don't think Allison Grodner wanted Amanda, Allison, and Matt to leave when they did, but there weren't any shenanigans to keep it from happening either.

But I do think the producers see James as "colorful", if only in a superficial way (most of the color we've seen on the feeds has been left off the TV screen--it's hilarious that the TV people don't know the first thing about the one aspect of James that anyone who's seen him naked sort of noticed right away). I'd probably prefer Sharon and Ryan as neighbors, but there aren't many ways to make them good TV. More importantly, James is the main source of conflict left in the house. And for that reason, the powers that be were hoping to keep him in there and tried to arrange for that to happen (let's be real--James's fight to save himself is going to be edited into a nice little drama for Sunday's show, for the benefit of those who don't get the feeds).

This has been a pretty good season for feeds--better overall than last year, although this season doesn't have people staying up all night and doesn't have a single focus of attention like Dick. But the ratings haven't been there, whether because of (even considering the strike) increased non-summer competition, or people not being in the mood to watch BB outside the summer, or just fatigue with a show in its ninth season. Remove the last source of real conflict and drama, and the last few weeks will be even less exciting than usual. Thus, we got yesterday's apparent interference from the DR.

I think you can make a case that in the absence of anyone stepping in to keep James safe, there would still be a potentially interesting story to be told about the last days of the game--watching what has become a fairly close group have to turn on each other has potential that a BB6-like fixed battle may not have. And for all that effort that was put into keeping Dick safe last year because he was the star of the show, once it became clear that the viewers via Eric weren't letting him go anywhere, the last half of the season became a foregone conclusion from a game standpoint. But the producers of the show disagree with me there.

But enough of my whining, right? Ryan has won the veto, meaning that scripting obviously has its limits. James is likely to go back on the block, and once there is likely to leave. For now.Swaying one vote would be one thing, but he'd have to sway two. James leaving would make it Sharon vs. the house, and turning that into a struggle for the ages won't be all that easy.

Posted by IA at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The conspiracy theories are flying fast and furious after Adam's inexplicable decision to keep James off the block--or rather, it's inexplicable if you're under the impression that Big Brother is "pure" competition and not a television program designed to entertain people.

Truth is, the game aspect of BB has been flagging now for the better part of a month. It's not common on this show for the same alliance to win Head of Household three straight weeks, and it looked like we were in for another suspense-free week, or rather a week where the only suspense would be seeing if James would win the veto to prevent his sure demise. Until tonight, when James pleaded his pre-nomination case to Adam--at a time when Natalie had been conveniently called the Diary Room--and neither she nor Ryan really got the opportunity to talk Adam back out of it before the noms (Sheila and Sharon going up).

It's hard for me to see how this improves Adam's chances in the game, but it definitely improves James's, and given that the producers of this show seem to have a soft spot for tattooed bad boys, you don't have to be Oliver Stone to suspect that Adam's actions tonight were designed in part to create suspense, but more specifically to save James--the second time this season James has been "magically" saved. And James was not only the focus of Sunday's and Tuesday's show, but was edited in a ridiculously sympathetic way--let's face it, there are very few real saints or sinners on this show, and James was only in trouble to an inability of he or his closest allies to win HoH.

As I've pointed out before, things can interesting when it's down to six in the house, because control begins to shift away from the HoH and towards the voters--it only takes two voters with an agenda different than the HoH to control the eviction. That's not a problem for Adam yet, but if James wins the veto again and then breaks his promise not to use it and then vetoes Sharon, Adam will be forced to put up either Natalie or Ryan. I think Adam did think this through, but really believes he can trust James. I don't think he can, but I suppose we'll see soon enough. There's also the possibility James could still be backdoored if he doesn't win veto--if Sheila or Sharon win, Adam almost won't have a choice unless he wants to totally destroy his old alliance.

Anyway, here I am talking about it, so mission accomplished, I suppose. Doesn't mean I have to like it.

Posted by IA at 11:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I think I've posted something like this before, but it's always amusing how every Big Brother season seems to unfold in a logical way while you're actually watching it; but when you picture where we were at the beginning and compare it to where we are now, you wonder how much sense it really made.

Seriously, in mid-February I probably would have assumed Adam would have driven everyone crazy and been evicted long before; the seemingly game-less Ryan would have gone out meekly; Natalie would have left as the stereotypical victim of male treachery. Despite the lousy track record of older women on the show, Sheila I could have seen staying, based on "not a threat" considerations. James would have been hard to figure. Sharon is actually inheriting the role I had pegged for her all along: a good game player who is being underestimated. Certainly it would have seemed impossible that Sheila and Adam would be getting along swimmingly.

But a house that once seemed so filled with massive personalities is incredibly carefree right now, at the very point of the season where things tend to devolve into operatic drama. James is beaten down and is almost entirely keeping to himself now, resigned to his fate (though if he can win just one more veto this week, he ought to be able to try to exploit the inevitable fractures in the Adam/Ryan/Sheila/Natalie alliance). Sharon isn't much happier, although she's actually not in bad shape (again, if James doesn't win the veto), because Adam's alliance is one week away at the latest from having to turn on itself in some form. But not only is everyone else getting along, but with the exception of Sheila, the 4-person alliance is composed of personalities who are really easygoing by the standards of the show. With her major enemies mostly gone now, Natalie has become ridiculously cheerful, as her encounter with Julie Chen proved tonight. Ryan is an uncomplicated guy who just likes to eat, smoke, and drink beer. Adam is an enormous goofball. With Joshuah now gone, it's hard to see how we're going to get a lot of drama in the house, let alone any other sort of entertainment.

Joshuah continued the emerging house tradition of making a little speech after being evicted, and I suppose it was a nice gesture, although what he said seemed to be belied by his later comment to the effect that only James and Sharon are being genuine people in there (I think about 8 weeks, you pretty much always see the genuine person, which is why so many of us are so ambivalent towards the hamsters). I think when he looks back on it, Joshuah will see that the roots of his problems date back to his tenure as HoH. Despite his double secret alliance and his ambivalent feelings about his old "soulmate," I'm sure Ryan never fully forgot how Joshuah went after Allison, which seemed to be fueled by a misogyny he doesn't recognize. His bio segment came across as less of a puff piece than usual, unless I've forgotten another such segment where someone's parent called their BB kid a monster. Joshuah managed to channel a lot of his irritation in being voted out into passive-aggressiveness; he certainly had time to steel himself to what would happen and play the good loser.

So we have a week ahead of Natalie congratulating the forces of Jesus for winning again, and James moping around in his ridiculous self-pity--apparently he's already forgotten it was only a first-of-its-kind twist that even permitted him to stick around to begin with. What we need is a Sheila meltdown or some such.

Posted by IA at 11:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Where has this woman been all my life?

Sharon first caught my attention through her absence, as she was evicted before the feeds even went on. But she was soon allowed to re-enter due to Neil's departure, and it was soon made clear that Neil's misfortune was our gain--and no one has gained more than me. Sharon's bold strategizing, put forth in a quiet, deceptively artless style, was nothing short of brilliant. Her solicitude for the well being of the beebies marks her as a rare kindly soul in a cutthroat house, a modern day St. Francis of Assisi, except with a bitchin' rack. Her flirtations and occasional trips to second base with the likes of Alex...er, and Matt--well, I won't pretend those weren't hard to watch on some level. But they have worked, serving to paint her as just another BB sex bunny when she is fact so much more, and is getting so much done behind the scenes.

She haunts my every waking hour, and a good 90% of my sleep. There have been alluring females on Big Brother before, and I admit to having my special favorites. But all of that child's play compared to what Sharon has given me over these last 8 weeks. Frankly, it's hard to remember what life was like without her now. And the thought of life without her once she leaves BB as the winner or (God forbid!!) gets evicted is unthinkable now.

So unthinkable, in fact, that I can't give it up. As soon as Big Brother 9 ends or Sharon is evicted, this becomes an all-Sharon blog, all the time. You'll be updated on her comings and goings, her appearances in the online reality community, the houses she sells. And after I "arrange" to meet her myself, you'll be hearing more about the kind of person she really is, for under that gorgeous exterior no doubt lies an ever gorgeouser interior.

I just don't know what else to say. I think only one 2-word phrase really suffices...and I think you all know what that is, if you've been paying close attention.

Posted by IA at 11:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

Sharon is up on the block after James's use of the veto, but no one seems to think she's in much trouble. In fact, even though there are only eight people left in the house--it's getting to the point where you would think it would be hard to stay under the radar--she's still an afterthought in everyone's eviction scenarios.

Sunday's show depicted Sharon as suffering one of the more unusual cases of cabin fever we've ever seen on the show, as she got a segment regarding her curious attachment to her guinea pig "fur-riends." Well, they are kind of cute, and more to the point, they're living things that aren't scheming about how to keep her from winning $500,000. But it was amusing to see Sharon acting childlike in that house, since she hasn't really come across as sentimental in any way. And it was only a two minute segment, as opposed to the lengths she goes to on the feeds with those damn things.

I think it's interesting that Sharon was cast. Of all the people in the house, she and Ryan strike me as the two who really needed the twist in order to get on the show (and of course, these were the two who came into the house already knowing someone else). Sharon doesn't fit the usual young woman "types" that Big Brother likes to cast from. She's not boy crazy like a Chiara (or Natalie for that matter), not excessively outgoing or demonstrative like an Amanda, not a goofball like Holly or Jessica. In short, she's not much in the way of entertainment. Sharon reminds me a little bit of Rachel from Season Six, who was cast as Howie's very unlikely partner. Rachel was unusually serious and straightlaced for any reality show, much less BB, but she might have gone a ways had her side of the house not lost control of the numbers game.

But Rachel wasn't terribly interested in the game and it showed. Sharon is different--she knows exactly what she's doing in there, knows the value of being under the radar and works hard at maintaining it. She and Joshuah are still sort of working together after the dissolution of the soulmateship, and it's a good arrangement for both since Joshuah is more of a public personality (he also thinks he's really running the show and will be able to take Sharon out when the time comes. We'll see). But it's really surprising how little drama gets associated with her, because there's been no shortage of it in there, and because Sharon wasn't shy about stirring it up in the days after she re-entered the house. No one is on to her, though. She's like these people who rise to the top in Communist countries, by mastering the bureaucracy and grinding away. She and the guinea pigs will inherit the earth.

Well, maybe. I don't think her being on the block is going to cost her--it's hard to see a scenario by which Chelsia stays, unless the guinea pig talk drives the rest of them insane--but still, volunteering to go on the block is never a good idea. But this is twice as a nominee for her and I'm not sure anyone in the house has even noticed. Another positive sign.

Posted by IA at 11:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

There's no need to revisit the Dick Wars of 2007--they weren't as dramatic on this site as on some others--but the Evel One came back to conduct the veto competition and apparently provided some to-be-expected insults as well. I don't have a problem with seeing old houseguests again (supposedly they were going to go back to giving us updates about the former hamsters again this year), but I think sometimes the show assumes that every fan feels the same way about those they bring back. And so we get Janelle as America's heroine last year, and we'l no doubt get gruff but deep-down-not-so-bad Dick on Tuesday.

And: James won the veto yet again! He's starting to show a Dick-like ability to pull out wins when he needs them. His prowess at competitions makes you think that they're going to have to keep nominating him in order that they might get lucky again (as happened the first time he was evicted). It's going to get too late to backdoor someone in another couple of weeks. Anyway, the smart thing for everyone else would be to take out his partner in Chelsia, and as of right now it's hard to see anything standing in the way of that. I'm not sure Chelsia has the game to save herself, and James has enough trouble on his own these days to lend much of a hand. But weirder things have happened on Big Brother--hell, they usually do.

Posted by IA at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's hard to have yourself a "free week" once you get deep enough into the season that future jurors are getting voted out, but if anyone could have found a way in season nine, it would have been Adam. He's not my favorite houseguest by any stretch and I'd probably like him even less outside the house--most of the time he's just kind of gross--but I sort of admire his determination to just hang out, smoke, read the Old Testament and not get involved in heavy gaming.

Maybe Adam's safest route would have been to nominate Sheila, with whom there's never been any love lost even though they've sort of wound up on the same side (they both voted to keep Matt last week, which was the opposite last week of what James wanted). But even though he did his best to steer clear of the drama James kicked up last week, to the point where I suspect his vote was made intentionally to force the ultimate decision onto the Head of Household, it looks like he's been paying attention after all. The only thing to do logically was nominate James along with Chelsia, and that's exactly what he did. Joshuah and Sharon, who have pulled off the Chilltown feat of getting everyone to believe they're not the primary threats even though they have alliances or understandings with literally everyone, have stayed off the block again (though this might not stick if a nominee wins a veto). And Adam seems to still be on decent terms with Ryan, even though it was James's closest allies (and James himself) who are the reason Ryan is still in the house.

James's ability to win challenges was always going to make him pretty visible, but he really climbed up on his high horse after getting voted back into the house (I wonder if he was chastened at all by the revelation that many of them would have picked Alex over him had they known that was the choice--and that's even assuming no one lied because they didn't want to offend the houseguest who still had some power in the game). He might have been nominated as a threat anyway, but now he's up because he's a threat and because he made enemies where he didn't have them before, not even when he was being voted out the first time.

I'll be interested to see who emerges as the leader of the not-quite-an-alliance alliance of Adam, Ryan, Natalie, and Sheila (Sharon and Joshuah as standby members). It's a curious combination because while there are some forceful personalities there, the better game players seem to be in the other group. With Matt still around it's obvious where the anti-James sentiment would have began and ended, and that might mean that Natalie, of all people, might be the de facto leader, the person Chelsia and/or James go after first if and when they get back in power. Somehow I think Adam will come out of this week OK.

Posted by IA at 11:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I think the offseason BB is impacting my memory for show trivia, because this is the sort of thing I should know by heart, but during tonight's show it occurred to me that tie votes this early in the season (at something other than 1-1 or 2-2) are pretty rare, because there's so much incentive to not be stuck in the house with a surviving player that you voted against. But Matt's campaigning worked about as well as it could have, and he persuaded both Sheila and Adam to vote to keep him. Unfortunately, Chelsia was a lost cause as James's ally and Joshuah and Sharon stuck with Ryan, which left James to cast the decisive vote.

One common Big Brother cliche is that whenever it looks like there might be a tie vote, he head of household always talks big about how they're going to make a dramatic speech and send their choice out the door in a way that will make everyone forget the Gettysburg Address. But James, who definitely enjoyed the power of the HoH office, was the model of simplicity by simply saying "I vote to evict Matt." Perhaps he finally realized towards the end of his tenure that all of his trash talking wasn't helping his game, satisfying as it might be in the short run.

I thought the first segment was more of that famous Big Brother misdirection, leading us to believe Matt had a shot to stay when he really didn't, but it played out pretty close to indicating what would happen, as Sheila really did shift over to Matt's side. I don't think his incessant complaining about being alone on his birthday (what is he, 10?) had anything to do with the change of heart, though. Matt's protests about not having done anything to anyone weren't fooling people; he might not be the biggest gamer in there, but he's not as subtle about it as someone like a Sharon. His overpromising, which James called him out for a couple of weeks ago, was the epitome of unsubtle; and while he wasn't really very malicious, I don't think anyone in there saw him as someone who was going to be a faithful partner--with the possible exception of Natalie, who apparently does think they have a shot outside the house. Matt's groan when he heard her say that in the Diary Room was the night's highlight.

The head of household competition, which was borrowed from last year, asked pairs of houseguests questions about the evicted, with the prize being that whoever won the question (by answering right or having their opposite number answer wrong) got to pick the next two who had to try answering. This sort of competition is designed to be won by someone who is outside the main house rivalries, which is why the midgame of the season is the ideal time to try it. Jessica won it last year because no one was really gunning for her, and so it proved to be the case this year. Of the five people who were chosen to compete in the competition (7 overall houseguests competed, and Joshuah and Chelsia started out by random draw), Adam was the fourth picked, indicating that no one really cared if he won HoH or not (Natalie, who figured to be the most upset about Matt leaving, was picked to play right away).

And so Adam is HoH, and who knows what he'll do in there. He isn't especially popular with anyone, but hasn't made any enemies either, treating BB as an opportunity to eat, smoke, and read the Bible. All that is going to end, but it will be interesting to see if Adam has an independent game of his own, or if he'll be manipulated by others. Most of the heavy duty string-pullers are out of the house now, so this provides a chance for Joshuah, James, and Sharon to try to maintain control. My guess is that all three will be able to keep off the block.

Oh, and in other BB news: Dick knows the guy from Suicidal Tendencies. Evel, how can I be as cool as you?

Posted by IA at 11:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's Natalie and Adam, noted theology students both, reading the Bible and actually discussing the meaning of individual verses one by one:

BB houseguests have always been allowed the use of Bibles as reading material--aside from the house rules manual, it's the only reading material they are permitted--but unless I'm getting forgetful this is by far the most we've ever seen them used, or at least the most we've ever seen the houseguests read them in groups and discuss them. You really have to find this amusing: after all, it's also been by far the raunchiest cast ever. Maybe this means they think they have more need for the Bible, who can say.

It's stuff like the Bible study that keeps me interested in the house, because it's something that arose out of the particular personalities of these houseguests and has nothing to do with the game--it's just people trying to stay sane in an insane environment. Adam has been the major Bible reader in the house, to the point where he was the star of his own segment the other night (it was good for them to find a new use for the Jameka chant music). His deconstruction of trivia such as how big Goliath really was is priceless, and another reason why I'm sort of glad Adam is in there, disgusting as he can often be.

Because as the Bible said, to everything there is a season. A time to hot tub, and a time to shower. A time to masturbate your partner under the covers, and a time to scratch yourself. A time to eat slop, and a time to chug beers. A time to veto, and a time to refrain using the veto. A time to sleep, and a time to...well, since this is BB, it's sleep time pretty much all the time, isn't it?

Posted by IA at 12:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

When talking about the last live show and Ryan's ascension to the post of HoH, I mentioned that I thought I had sold Ryan a bit short. My first impression of him was that he was merely Jen's appendage, didn't really know what he was doing in there, and would be a sitting duck.

But as it happens, all of Jen's alleged knowledge of the game didn't do her much good; in fact, other than winning the $10,000 at the start it's hard to think of a single thing that she did well. Ryan's game might have been seen as under-the-radar, but he conducted himself pretty well considering his two nominations and spent the previous week looking like a sure goner, thanks entirely to the behavior of his partner Allison.

And now as HoH, I think he's conducting himself pretty well and is making inroads towards doing what he needs: making alliance support for himself. As the first HoH of the solo era, he's the first with real leeway to build an alliance in the classic BB sense. Matt and Adam seem to be solidly on board, and wherever Matt goes Natalie will follow. One thing I wonder, though: is it too late for a solid alliance to hold together? These players have gotten used to a house without them, as they've been forced to navigate along with a partner. We've seen players and teams "make alliances" because they know that's what you're supposed to do on Big Brother, and then proceed along as if nothing had changed. But if Ryan can pull in Sheila on an as-needed basis (he seems to have written off James and Chelsia, and I don't think Sheila is a good fit in the proposed "women's alliance), he could have himself a little protection.

Posted by IA at 11:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

No sooner did Thursday's show end that the message boards buzzed with the question of who "we" should vote back into the house. I never really understood the "we" part of it; the notion that fans of Big Brother should all think alike and/or act as a unit doesn't make a lot of sense. Different viewers will have different priorities.

If you're into maximum drama, than the only real choices are Amanda or (better yet) Allison. If you want to reward someone who was as blameless in his own eviction as anyone who has ever played, then the pick should be Parker. If you root for showmances, then a good pick would probably be Alex, who definitely had chemistry with Sharon during his final days in the house. (this is assuming Sharon is still in there after next Wednesday, which is no sure thing as of right now). We know what Jen would bring back to the house; it's just too bad she wouldn't be bringing it while Ryan still had the private room (Ryan no doubt is hoping we don't do that; he's much safer with his possible ex safely outdoors). And I suppose you'd vote for Jacob if you think the house has been entirely too exciting thus far and needs to be toned down some. No offense to you Jacob fans out there, but...c'mon.

From my standpoint as a feedwatcher, it's always hard to know how the TV-only people are seeing the game. They would have seen Amanda as the subject of an amazing beatdown from Joshuah and Chelsia--now, did they see that as over the top (and thus look at Amanda as a figure of sympathy who should come back), or figure Amanda got what was coming? Feedwatchers would be more likely to see it as a little of both. Will they back Allison, who was in the game longer than all the others and thus might have made more fans for that reason? Or will they be more likely to support Parker or Alex, who came across as blameless in their evictions?

There's nothing about my role as a chronicler of the game that prevents me from casting a vote myself, and I think I'm going to support Amanda or Allison, simply because it's beginning to shape up as a male-dominated game and there's a good chance a woman will leave Wednesday. The houseguests won't be too thrilled, but their discomfort is a minor consideration for me.

Posted by IA at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

First things first: has there ever been a more embarrassing exit from the show than the one endured by Allison? Let's go through the roller coaster she was on over the course of about ten minutes: she was told she was evicted (along with Ryan), something she had obviously expected and thoroughly processed. The announcement of the vote is fairly routine, and the departing houseguests say their goodbyes...when Allison finds the door locked and the siren sounding. She's saved! She's giddy! Julie gives the good news: you're now playing as singles. Allison obviously gets the idea that the eviction is completely nullified...until Julie gives the word that there is going to be a re-vote, and either Ryan or Allison will still be leaving the house. This was like the moment in a "too good to be true" sales pitch when you realize exactly why something is too good to be true. Allison's grin turned upside down, because she knew what was coming.

With a good deal more enthusiasm than we usually see on this show, six of the houseguests, joined this time by Natalie and Matt, trooped in to vote to evict Allison. When she got the word--no time or privacy to coordinate a sympathy vote, in the unlikely event anyone would have wanted to give her one--Allison got a brief hug from Ryan but was then left to walk to the door with no condolences. The hamsters had already moved on to talk among themselves before she even left the house, which I'm pretty sure we've never seen before. Even if you didn't like Allison, it all seemed a bit excessive and nasty without a purpose. Even the most controversial houseguests generally get a pro forma sendoff.

Having said all this, I don't think the TV show really conveyed how annoying Allison became to the people in the house, let along those watching on feeds. They gave off the strong impression that the lesbian ruse was the main reason she left, and while I no longer think that the anger over this was purely an invention of the producers--I've seen Joshuah gripe about it without any prompting--it was really just a small piece of the irritating puzzle that was Allison. But I think she telling the truth when she told Julie that making up that story was just an attempt to create a little diversion in a boring environment, and she wasn't thinking about the game at all. The reasons why she came on this show in the first place are still a mystery, but I'll get into this more at the time of her postmortem.

I don't know that the others were really all that surprised by the twist; James outright predicted it and it seems all of them taped goodbye messages to individuals, which should have tipped them off that solo evictions would be happening eventually. But I think it was time; aside from the fact that the show wouldn't have made it to the end of the month with two players leaving at a time, there just wasn't anything happening gamewise. Now, there are the possibilities of new alliances, and the interesting prospect of some pairs continuing to hang together while others come apart (Sheila and Adam, try to handle the breakup with class). The one little negative is that with Ryan not only still in the house but as the HoH, it seems that we're almost assured of getting one of those dull "young man alliances", with Adam and possibly James (if he's not too tied to Chelsia) joining in. There was no way Allison ever would have stayed, but it would have made for a more interesting mix in there if she had.

And so Ryan is Head of Household, and is going to be a member of the jury at the very least: not bad for someone who never would have gotten on this show or even tried to except for Jen. I was sort of hard on him early in the season because I didn't think he was adding anything to the entertainment value. He didn't seem especially smart or good looking or dramatic or even very interested in being on the show, and that's the type of player you would think would get easily frustrated under pressure. Yet he's borne up pretty well considering he's been under the gun almost constantly as both Jen's boyfriend and Allison's partner. Now he has the opportunity to make his own way in the game, and he has the major advantage of having not really mad any enemies yet (being nominated as much as he has, it's not like he's had the chance to get people upset). Head of Household could be a double-edged sword for him though, because the easy evictions are finished now (possibly Sheila would qualify). He might not want to take sides, but there's a decent chance the house will be divided by the end of his week anyway.

Posted by IA at 11:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Everyone is all fired up about the siren, which the houseguests were warned about nearly a week ago. What we suspect (although can't be sure of) is that something could happen during the live show tomorrow.

But it got me thinking: wouldn't be almost more interesting if the siren didn't mean anything at all? Warn the houseguests about an alarm that forced them to drop what they were doing and gather in one place...and then not tell them anything. Or better yet, tell them about a siren that would then never come. Seeing them a little shaken up and paranoid about the prospect of a big change in the game serves to remind us of where this show originally got its title from. I think Big Brother could use more random messing with people's minds, especially since there's nothing else to do in that house but obsess on minutiae.

The unloved and abandoned first season of BB tried something like this when Josh was ordered to mess with the one clock in the house, to see how long it would take the others to wonder what was going on. This happened fairly deep into the season as I recall, at a time when someone trapped in that house (and it was the most on edge house in BB history) might honestly feel they were losing track of time, and that if the sun was rising at 2:30 in the morning it must be because of something they did. Big Brother has come to seem far too chummy (we're overdue for a "rewards" veto competition).

But this sort of thing has mostly been removed from BB; most twists are telegraphed ahead of time. Heck, bring back the mime. Let's see something random! This cast has been pretty entertaining on its own, but so far it's been only a few of them that are really crazy, and that population is endangered. This show is at its most fun when it's at its most paranoid.

Posted by IA at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In a season where the houseguests are getting along better as a group than usual (yeah, there have been arguments, but it's not tense all the time in there), it's funny that the evictions have been personal thus far. True, the nominations of Parker/Jen and Allison/Ryan were due to a perceived need to split the teams up, but the house preference for Jen was purely personal.

And so it proved to be with the eviction of Alex and Amanda. Frankly, their eviction embarrassed me because I spent the first few days of the game talking Amanda up as a power player, a rare BB alpha female. As the first HoHs, they should have been in a strong position to, if not set themselves up as dominant, at the very least insure they didn't get voted out the very next week. But if the best possible thing to be in Big Brother is an under-the-radar personality with a keen appreciation of how the game works--Danielle Reyes being the best ever example on this show--Amanda and Alex were just the opposite, above-the-radar players who didn't seem very interested in the game. This season is hard to judge by traditional standards because of the soulmates, but there were some very basic elements that were ignored by this couple.

One of the first things we realized when the feeds came on is that there had been a 6-person alliance formed in the very early stages: Alex/Amanda, Parker/Jen, and Matt/Natalie. That's a pretty good alliance for starting purposes, providing good protection for HoH and veto competitions. The revelation that Jen and Ryan were a couple outside the house created the impetus for splitting them up as the first order of business in the house. I thought it made sense as a means of giving the house the proverbial easy week--everyone understood why the nominations were made, including the nominees themselves--but there should have been a way to insure that the team you were allied with was the one that stayed. Even after the nominations were made, Matt and Natalie could have vetoed Jen and Parker, forcing no worse than a 2-2 vote tie with Alex and Amanda themselves breaking the tie. This move might have divided the house earlier than anyone would have liked, but not dividing the house didn't protect Alex/Amanda and Matt/Natalie, since both went up the next time around anyway.

We could also second guess whether it was really all that important to break up Jen and Ryan anyway. if they had been co-opted, there might have been a long term issue of having that couple within a 4-team alliance (not to mention that an alliance containing Amanda, Allison, and Jen might have spontaneously combusted). But having both Jen/Parker and Ryan/Allison within the big alliance would insure that if someone else got HoH, those two would be the nominees rather than Alex/Amanda.

In the end though, Amanda and Alex got voted out because no one liked or trusted Amanda in the end, and even her collapse could not engender enough sympathy to keep her around (the first reaction when she hit the floor, both inside and outside the house, was that the drama queen extraordinaire was at it again, protesting slop in her own way). Amanda liked to talk in there, and liked to hear herself talk. The image I like to use is that the house is a Petri dish of intrigue and gossip, but what you want to be doing is listening, not talking (as I've said before, this is where Sharon is doing well--rolling grenades into the room and then sitting back and witnessing the damage).

Julie made a big deal about Alex's refusal to campaign for the team (and against Matt), and while I doubt it would have made much difference considering Amanda's toxicity, not campaigning can never really be excused--especially since Matt had no such qualms. He turned out to be a solid citizen by BB standards; even if he got a little gross in the pool with Sharon. But he seemed like a rarity for this show: someone with leadership ability who wasn't completely overbearing. Like Parker, he was dealt a bad hand by the twist.

Most reality shows have a tension between the two different ways you can make yourself memorable: either by winning, or by becoming a "personality." Amanda certainly insured she'll be remembered longer than the average 3-week survivor of the Big Brother house, but my guess is she would probably have liked the money more.

Posted by IA at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I seem to recall that in Joshuah's pre-show publicity, he made a lot of noise about stirring things up, gleefully backstabbing, etc. Anyone who's even a mild fan of the show knows that we eat that sort of thing up, even though I've learned not to expect much.

After a few days of feeds, I had Joshuah and Sharon pegged as the shrewdest people in that house, players who were accidentally thrown together but seemed to have complementary skills anyway, with Joshuah coming across as witty and ingratiating, while Sharon was more of a provocateur: raising little game concerns and then backing away to let the information settle in. This all changed in a big way when Joshuah went on his rampage against Amanda, an outburst that was so sudden and violent and profane that I honesty hoped he was acting for the cameras, because otherwise it would have just seemed way too over the top. He actually reminded me a lot of Dick Donato, although there wasn't the same hint that there might be a physical confrontation that was never far below the surface with Dick. By the time Joshuah won HoH, it seemed clear there was the potential for some real dramatics if he ever got in there.

And he hasn't disappointed. The issues with Allison built up at the end of last week, when Allison decided to shift her vote, forcing Joshuah to switch also so as not to be on the outs of a 2-1 majority. By this time Allison had irritated pretty much everyone and probably would have been nominated by any HoH, but only Joshuah would have turned it into a holy crusade. We're used to seeing the gay men in the Big Brother house getting along pretty well with women, but Joshuah seems to have some deep-seated misogyny issues (again, not unlike Dick). I won't pretend to be shocked or even offended by profanity, but his continual use of that word...well, it's an issue for me. That's a place you shouldn't go, certainly not because of any sort of provocation from a television show.

The television show is giving a lot of play to the idea that Joshuah's anger against Allison started because of the lesbian goof with Sheila. I have seen him mention it in the house, but I question whether he's being fed this argument by the producers to explain his antipathy towards Allison (since the lesbian lie always appeared to be a bigger deal to the TV people than to us). While I don't want to discount what Joshuah said about feeling that the lesbian stuff was disrespectful of the struggles of gay people, it seemed to me that Allison and Sheila meant nothing at all by it and certainly never tried to gain any sort of game advantage from the lie. They were bored, the house was already more than a bit paranoid thanks to the Jen/Parker stuff, and they thought it would be fun for a little while to stoke the embers a bit. Anyway, Josh has decided that Allison is evil incarnate and needs to go. That's fine; it happens every year. But man, I really can't wait till this guy becomes a civilian again.

One more thing: there seems to be some consternation about the Sunday TV show ending a few minutes early. My guess is that it has something to do with Dexter at 10 on CBS, a show whose episodes are being edited down from their original airings on Showtime, which were commercial free. It looks like they're taking a few minutes out of BB and giving them to Dexter in order to limit how much they cut out of the latter show Maybe that's the twist and Dexter will be turned loose in the house...?

Posted by IA at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A few days ago in comments, Balzac mentioned that the season seemed weird in an indefinable way. I guess I have to agree, and i think the difference is in the gameplay, or the lack of traditional strategy. As I've said before, I don't think Big Brother should be all strategy all the time; in fact I've criticized the production of the TV show for focusing too much on the game and the competitions (this can be especially deadly in seasons where the veto is rarely used, since it tends to render the Tuesday show pretty useless).

But things are just coming across as random. Compare it to last year: after a couple of weeks, you knew that Kail's attempt to form an alliance to protect her was doomed to failure, you knew that Dick was going to be a huge lightning rod who would be targeted frequently, you knew Daniele had a strong collection of allies and was likely to go far, and you knew that Jameka was way under the radar and had a chance to go a long way for that reason. There were still a lot of things we didn't know or would have been mistaken about (Zach's eventual strength, for example), but there was a general structure. But where is the structure to this season? Three teams start out the game saying they are in an alliance but never act in a way that would reflect that. By this stage of the season, voting is usually taking place along alliance lines for virtually everybody in the house, but so far teams have been voted out based pretty much on just animosity.

That leads me to Allison (Ryan is on her team but is sort of the bystander here), who in the space of a few days has gone from what looked like an enviable position to being a heavy favorite as of now to be voted out Wednesday. A few different things seem to have happened here. First, Allison caught some bad luck with Joshuah getting Head of Household, since the serious animosity between these two started just before the last live show, when Joshuah blamed Allison for scuttling his secret plan to evict Matt and Natalie (this was the first sign I had that Josh might be the proverbial BB "overplayer," but I'll deal with that later). With Joshuah in power and on the warpath, it made sen