Oh Big Brother, Where Art Thine Justice?
... or ...
An Outrageous Outcome
I watched the finale of Australian Big Brother 5 last night. I sat down, knowing it was apparently close, but fully-expecting Tim to win, regardless. He deserved it. He'd earned it. But he didn't get it.
Now, I'm entitled to complain about this because I voted for him (by SMSing to evict Greg; although I wonder how many others out there voted for the wrong person by SMSing the name of the person they wanted to win??), so allow me to fall into a slight diatribe on this for a moment. My apologies to my overseas (or otherwise BB-disinterested) readers, but I'm sure the two of you can chat amongst yourselves for a few minutes.
Please don't get me wrong; I think Greg is a good guy who came a long way throughout the show - he started out as just another sport-obsessed twin with poor manners, bad communication skills and a terrible understanding and knowledge of women ... and finished the show as a relatively gentle guy with poor manners, better communication skills and a good understanding and knowledge that he'll never have a good understanding or knowledge of women.
Jokes aside, he grew in such a way as to be a much better person - one who is in touch with his feelings more than he was before the BB experience (and I mean that in a good way), and who was responsible for that growth? Tim! Greg said so himself, on many occasions. Greg has said that he intends to go out and get to know his family and friends on a much deeper level than the superficial way he's known them until this point in his life. He realised how much he's missed seeing his mates and his family so much that he wasn't afraid to admit he wants to hug them when he sees them next, regrets not taking any photos of them inside the house with him, and looks forward to sitting down with each of his mates to discuss their goals in life, their thoughts and opinions, etc. Stuff he's never known about even his closest friends, because all he's ever talked about with them has been beer, babes and balls (footballs).
While I'm happy to see that he's learnt so much and (purportedly) plans to take this on board from this point in his life, the real reason he learnt all of this was Tim. After putting up with so much crap for three months (an embarrassing unrequited love, trying to bolster his physique - successful? Methinks not - being bullied non-stop for ages - I don't care what he reckons, that's what it was - and being the glue who held everyone together through his intelligence, good humour, patience and kindness), it's a crime that Tim didn't win.
For mine, it's not so much that Greg didn't deserve to win; it's just that Tim deserved it so much more.
And 'bloodnut' David certainly didn't deserve to win.
Here's a few things that have annoyed me about the ending to this season of Big Brother:
(1) This tosser getting half the money by rights.
He was second-to-one in the bullying stakes and was a filthy mongrel to watch on TV. Keep your fingers out of your nose, boy! He really knew how to shove them right up there. Pity he didn't stab his brain (more often than he did, anyway). David was one of Tim's main aggressors, and although Greg was initially part of that, once Dean left, both boys came to see Tim in a different light; one not overshadowed by Dean's manipulative and arrogant opinion of him. Greg came to know Tim more and they became closer friends. But I don't think Tim would have stood for any of their crap in the real world.
(2) Dumbass (some of you may know her under her trading name, 'Christie') hoping to get her brain-dead, hypocritical, self-obsessed immature claws on some of the money by emotionally blackmailing Greg into hanging out with her "at least for a little while".
You know she's going to expect gifts and stuff.
(3) This tosspot gloating over Tim not winning the prize money.
You just know he's laughing about it to his friends and the media and his fellow House Mates behind Tim's back. Tim would have nothing but nice things to say about Dean if it was the other way around. That's the primary difference between the two. I also hate that this tosspot will probably also benefit from the prize money via his second-tosser-in-command, David. I hate it when bullies prosper. It upsets nature and goes against the grain and causes massive holes in the space-time continuum to open up and swallow whole continents.
(4) The fact that Tim can't now be a lesson to jerks out there that sometimes nice guys don't finish last.
Where's the real-life lesson that bullies don't get rewarded? We're not meant to be reinforcing the idea that nastiness is the best bahaviour, people! I mean, sure - Tim's going to have his pick of all the girls in the country now, and his career will skyrocket, and his own personal media coverage and personality will be nothing but positive, ... but after you take away the freebies he won, the great press he'll receive, all the chicks he'll bag, the jobs he'll land, the respect he's earned, the ... actually, you know what? Maybe this outcome will endear him to us even more than if he'd suddenly become a rich snob.
And to be fair, the 'Logan Bogans' do hail from a drought-infested farm, so hopefully the prize money will be put to good use there, and not squandered on drinking and women and football and cars (well, not all of it, anyway) ... and please not on Dean and Dumbass.
In a way, Tim's above all of this. Sure, it's still an insult that he didn't get the most votes by an absolute landslide, but hopefully by the time he becomes President of Australia, he'll have forgiven us.
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OK now, tell me seriously, if you watched any of the show this year at all, tell me honestly: Who would you have preferred to win out of the Logan brothers and Tim? And why? And did you vote?
Leave your answers in the comments section. Even if you hate Big Brother, feel free to say so, but also give an opinion based on whatever limited knowledge you have about it all on which of the boys should have won.
All opinions welcomed. If you're a Logan fan, please explain to me why. There's got to be lots of you out there; help me understand why you voted the way you did.
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In three days ...
IT ARRIVES
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posted by BEVIS @ 11:10 am
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7 Comments:
One of your major arguments in this piece relates to the bullying of Tim by serveral housemates including Dean and half winner Logan David. May I just point out - Tim never stood up for himself once in that department. It was left up to the overly pierced Michael to stand up and make it stop. It was also left to Big Brother to try and put a stop to it. Tim even said himself he is willing to forego his dignity to allow it to keep happening. The bullies only 'prospered' because Tim allowed them to. Why? Because it kept the cameras on him.
Same with the whole body building notion. The number of times this guy looked at himself in the mirror, flexed his muscles and licked his biceps, he could have easily been mistaken for Hotdogs for the amount of times he did that.
You talk about Timothys patience and kindness...most of which was aimed at poor Kate. Everything Tim did was an attempt to try and win this girl over, no matter how many times she said "yes I like you, but not in that way" What Tim did was close to harrasment, and I'm surprised no one has even brought this up yet. The guy did not know that NO means NO. Remember, there is always an underside to every good deed.
I am a Logan supporter. I believed Greg was going on Sunday night. I am a Logan supporter. I believed Tim was going to win on Monday night. It turns out there are alot of us out there, we just kept a bit more quiet than the Timmy/Vesna fans.
I enjoyed the logans from thier relationship rebuilding to the Kate/Christie scenario, to the following Dean around like a sheep, to the Vesna arguments, to the being revealed as twins, to a logan eviction to Greg learning how to communicate and understand and express better. Sure Greg/Logan had the teenage girl/gay guy votes, i just feel that Tim turned more people off.
To finish off this 'rant' that could easily have been a full post on it's own - !! - I am being honest, I am a fan of this series and I do hate Dean. I'll give Tim credit though...did you notice when they were re-meeting all the housemates, Tim approached Dean, hugged him and said something about appreciating what Dean said in his evcition message about him (I don't remember what it was though) even after all the fighting that happened between the two.
Thanks, Coppertone, for your thoughtful and measured response. I trust my reply here will also prove to be rational rather than heated. :)
The comment Tim made to Dean last night was along the lines of what Dean had said to him in his farewell message was spot on, and very good of him, and Tim felt the same way exactly towards Dean. (Dean had said in his message that although the pair didn't see eye-to-eye all the time, he thought Tim was a very intelligent and 'good' person, that he respected him for who he was and his beliefs, and that he wished him well in the future, or something along those lines.)
The bullying wasn't the only thing I mentioned, but it was certainly a hot topic in the house and something they had plenty of footage of. I meant to indicate that Greg in particular had fairly little to do with this (although at first, almost all the guys were involved in this), and it's my opinion that Tim knew that if he was to cry to Big Brother or bleat about his treatment, he would be instantly ostracised by the House Mates and voted out by the public for being such an 'un-Australian dobber'. He would surely have felt - and this is pure speculation, I know - that such a complaint would have been the death-knoll on his stay in the house. And I can totally understand that; even if it's a paranoid view to have. It would still have been a legitimate fear to have about the voting public. He had to 'tough it out' to eventually win over the House Mates and the public. I think I mentioned how much I actually credit Greg for being a good guy, and one who intends to better himself after the Big Brother experience.
As with Tim's body-building thing, I haven't and won't defend that. It was boring to me and a little embarrassing. But hey, it gave him something to do and meant he could bond with the guys, rather than not being there in the gym with them at all and having them view him as an outsider.
With the obsessing-over-Kate thing, I wouldn't say it was harassment, but I certainly understand it was awkward beyond belief and came to be too much for her. But that's the nature of locking them all in there together. He tried dealing with it as best he could, which unfortunately meant re-hashing it with her time and again (because he's the sort of person who talks his problems through), much to her obvious discomfort. But they were still great friends and she was able to rise above the weirdness factor; so more power to her. I agree that it would have been better if he'd dropped the bone, so to speak, but the poor boy was love-torn.
I'm not a blind Tim supporter, I hope you can tell. He certainly had his faults, but I felt he definitely had more positives than the others.
One other thing: When I spoke of Tim's kindness, I was referring to when he spoke so well and graciously to people like Christie, Dean, Rachael and Vesna - most of whom had 'wronged' him to varying degrees - and overall he was the most level-headed of those who got into arguments. Tim befriending Rachael when she went loopy and fought with everyone and found herself on the outer; Tim talking graciously to self-focused, completely hypocritical Christie over the powdered milk incident (although she didn't see at the time how good he was being to her), Tim being gracious (time and again!) with Vesna's mood swings and temper, Tim being happy to confront Dean (after admittedly being caught lying!) about the latter's behaviour, despite his continued self-denial. That sort of thing. I actually wasn't even thinking of Kate in relation to his patience and kindness. That was his lovesick behaviour at work, which I saw as a determinedly different personality trait (with determinedly different motivations) to the way the treated the troublesome and/or ostracised House Mates.
Thanks for telling me what you liked about the Logans. I agree that their ride was more episodic and eventful (even just looking at the twin scam thing at the start, let along all the girl-related incidences thereafter!), so it's good to have that perspective. Thanks again.
:)
Well, I liked Tim but, yeah, he was a bit of a pussy when it came to Kate. But I don't think that's why he didn't win. In the end, it was very close, after all.
Meanwhile, I was not a huge fan of the Logans, but Greg seemed like a 'good bloke' and, really, it's pretty amazing that someone like Tim was even put on the show, let alone made it through to the end.
Thankyou Bevis for taking the time to read my response and not getting heated! I actually wanted to point out in regards to Timothy not 'dobbing' on the boys when he was being bullied, did he not 'dob' on the boys when it came to 'the reverse kanga?
I say congrats to bot the Logans and Timothy for getting as far as they did. oh btw - am I the only Gianna fan out there?!
i watched most of it, i think from about the week michelle got evicted, and ive been with tim al the way. greg did turn into a much better person because of tim, but i still wouldnt vote for him, which i didnt. i voted for tim. not many times, but enough i thought
is there any mention of what the voting tally was in the end? and do you think the extra half an hour was a bit sneaky? perhaps tim was winning up until then?
I am a Tim fan. I liked him from the moment I saw his audition video and he was wearing a union t-shirt. He is a leftie, and he is thoughtful. He's one of the only people in the house who has ever thought about the world in a way that is not completely self-obsessed. He's *good*. He woulda taken that money and done something nice with it; given it to refugees or something.
The Kate thing was cringeful, and it showed a lack of judgement that was absent from the rest of his personality. She's such a duplicitous, snide, smug, arrogant, right-wing snob, and she doesn't deserve to have someone so kind-hearted be interested in her. Luckily for Tim, she was too shallow and up herself to reciprocate his interest. Good. It is *her* loss. And someone else's gain.
The bullying thing was uncool, but I see Tim as a peacemaker. He is willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good. There was enough conflict in the house without him creating more (even if it *was* the bullies who were *actually* creating it), and it was of no real detriment to his health or happiness, so he just copped it on the cin to keep the peace. I do not agree with Bevis' cynical view that he cared about how it would make him look to the voting public - I just don't think that they think about that stuff in there. It's so intense that they don't have time to be strategic. They just react. What was great about Tim was that he reacted in a way that took other people's needs, and the needs of the Household, into consideration.
I especially liked how he befriended the outcasts in the House. I have always been a social outcast (no, I don't have three eyes, or a tic, or a skin disease - I'm just a pain in the arse until you get to know me, which doesn't happen unless you can be bothered getting past all the defences, which doesn't happen unless you can stand the pain-in-the-arseness), and I have always had someone who bothered to take the time to find out who I am, and those people have been really live-changing for me. So I think that how Tim treated those outcasts does him credit - he cared enough to see past the crap, risking becoming an outsider himself. That's a Good Person.
Anyway, I like Tim. The Logans were just boring, but that's the voting public for you - 13-year-old girls with a great big crush who have no concept of what makes a Good Person good.
P.S. LOOK! I looked at your Blog! Now you can stop giving me a hard time at work about it. I have proven that I care about my colleague - now, when do I get my gold star?
Daniel Hegder: You're right, they said it was close. I don't know if they told us how close it was, but either way, I'm sure it was touch-and-go. And I also agree that it's amazing Tim even made it onto the show. He must have shone through in those auditions! Because he didn't look like all that much at the start. He was my first favourite, though - from the Opening Night show.
Coppertone: You make a good point, re: 'dobbing' on the boys. I can't argue with that. But yes, you may be the only Gianna fan. :)
CL Magazine: What an injustice it would be if the misleading website is what cost Tim the money! But either way, Tim will probably be remembered more fondly now for not having won the money when so many believe he should have, than if he'd won it and was considered 'a wealthy bastard' by the rest of the population.
Channy: Thanks for your feedback and welcome. If there's a BB06, I hope a blogger gets into the house - bring some public recognition to this whole blogsphere we've got going on! Maybe you should apply.
Little Faerie: It might be a bit much to get all 'conspiracy theory' about the extra half hour. After all, maybe that extra half hour helped Tim to close the gap a bit and nearly overtake Greg, who could have been in the lead all along! There's no way of knowing, so speculating will get us nowhere. However, as far as extending the phone lines by half an hour is concerned, that's just because the show was going longer than scheduled, and why not extend the voting time to cause voters to panic and continue SMSing if each SMS brings in money to Channel 10? (Which it does, of course.) I guess we should just look at it as we were given an extra half hour to save Tim but still weren't able to do it. Why? Because the Logan lovers were too interested in their looks? Or was it an anti-left political thing? Either way, it's a pretty superficial way of voting, when 'the quality of the person' and 'the most entertaining House Mate' were the most important factors.
Her Radicalness: Tuesday.
mnkymelbourne: Feel free to disagree with us! Alternate opinions are always welcome (and if delivered politely, like you did, all the more so!), and I thank you for your input. I don't know about them 'acting' for the whole series, though. Have you ever tried to act like someone you're not - even just for 24 hours? I mean, literally, twenty-four continuous hours, without letting your facade down for a second. It's not possible, and with the sleep deprivation and tasks and challenges and fights and emotional highs and lows the House Mates go through for three months, they can go into the house intending to be someone else, but I'm convinced they wouldn't be able to keep it up. No - without meaning to argue with you - I don't believe it's possible for them to be in there for even a week and not be 100% themselves. However, I agree that Vesna was nothing if not honest. She was who she always is, and although that meant emotional and irrational, thousands of Australians loved her for it. She's like the Sara-Marie from Season 1. Voted out before her time. Did her supporters assume she was 'safe as houses' and not bother to vote in her favour? Perhaps that's what cost her the win. Same with Tim's supporter's on Monday night. As for David being allowed to vote for himself, I don't see much difference between that, and all members of his family being able to vote for him throughout the entire process. Seems OK to me, and despite not being much of a Logan fan, I can see a big problem with that. Maybe someone would like to explain the problem to me if I'm missing something there.
Keep the opinions coming, people!
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