Rant & Rave (& Theorise)

(I'm very sorry to all you international or otherwise non-Big Brother fans out there who clearly aren't interested in my posts on this subject, but I promise I'll get back to other matters tomorrow.)

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I'm so angry with the show's producers at the moment.

As stated in Monday's post, I feel quite strongly that if the Housemates are all meant to be there with an equal chance at winning, putting one Housemate's chances ahead of or behind the others' is - simply put - unfair. It's against the spirit of the game, and in a show where Big Brother fines and punishes Housemates for being 'unsportsmanlike', this is extremely hypocritical behaviour to say the least.

Michael entered the House and had two days as himself; ever since he's had the unenviable task of being Big Brother's 'lackey' (the term 'Insider' hasn't really been an apt one, IMHO, as it's not like he's been in BB's good graces or anything - unless he passed BB's missions, which were not easy and therefore meant he was nothing like an 'insider' at all). The 'decision' he was faced with was a ludicrous one. To agree to being the Insider or be evicted immediately. Yes, strictly speaking he was given a 'choice', but after five months of prepping for the show and hoping to do well, being evicted after three days because of the 'offer' being put to him is not really a choice at all. Some of the other Housemates, now having learnt of Michael's secret role for the past three weeks, are angry with Michael and saying that he did have a choice, but that's not a fair thing to put on him either. Of course he didn't.

So being emotionally-blackmailed into accepting the role of The Insider was bad enough (sure, I know BB's options were limited to basically threatening Michael with eviction if he didn't accept the role ... because he couldn't say no and then return to the House knowing what BB had asked of him ... and having BB enlist someone else while Michael had that knowledge - I get that). But to make matters worse, BB had Michael complete tasks that weren't 'insider' tasks at all. BB doesn't need an insider anyway; he has mics and cameras everywhere. He doesn't need a spy, he needed a mole, and that's what Michael was. (I think 'Insider' is a misnomer.) So Michael had to spoil everything for the other Housemates so tension could arise and people would get upset.

Then, as discussed previously, for his efforts (which I know weren't too subtle or brilliant, but that's not his fault either), the Housemates started to question how annoying he was being, and Gretel, Ryan and Bree began to 'pay him out' on their respective shows. To be fair, Gretel has since changed her tune (probably under instruction - it will be interesting to see if Bree and Ryan are similarly sympathetic and give the company line on Friday night), but even Rove has been more scathing of Michael than any other Housemate on Rove Live. How is that helpful?

So now, through no real fault of his own, Michael has entered the House hoping to be universally loved and maybe win the money, but due to factors outside his control he has become a national joke, with resentment and frustration leveled at him from Housemates and even the show's hosts. The public then absorbed all this information (consciously or subconsciously) and when he finds himself up for eviction next Monday (as he invariably will each week, now, I'm sure), they will be suitably irritated by his earlier behaviour, and/or bored with his apparent 'uselessness' now that he is no longer the Insider, to vote him out.

The whole notion and method of revealing him as the Insider last night was atrociously handled from the very start. What a frickin' stupid way to do it. Don't come on screen afterwards, Gretel, and pretend it went down much worse than you'd ever expected. Of course it was going to be an absolute mess! There was no doubt in my mind (or in anyone's mind who has mentioned it to me) that it was going to be anything other than a massive eruption of anger at (and trouble for) Michael.

Wifey and I were as angry as hell when we were watching the show last night. Not enough air-time was given to the fall-out that followed the Insider revelation (which almost makes me believe that they hadn't actually anticipated how badly it would go down - but what are they, dumb?), and throwing the Intruders in was completely uninteresting. We wanted to see if Michael had a chance to clear his name and put his case across to the angry, upset and shell-shocked Housemates about his situation, before it was overshadowed by the Intruders arriving. It also meant that the really upset Housemates had a good excuse to avoid Michael, which would allow their resentment towards him cement itself in their minds, where it would be almost impossible for him to counteract it later, whenever he finally got a chance to talk to those individuals. And whether you're a grudge-holder or not, once someone has perceivingly 'wronged' you (and let's not forget that they're all thinking they've been publicly humiliated all across the nation with this one), then it's very difficult to entirely reverse or erase those basic feelings of betrayal.

So instead of revealing Michael's Insider role in a way that would exonerate him to (or even amuse) the other Housemates, the producers decided it would be a great idea to further alienate him from the rest of the House by being even more unfair to him and his chances of winning the game than they already had.

I was actually seething with anger as I watched it.

Was it good television? I don't think so. As I said, I had no interest in the Intruders (I may have if they'd gone into the House on a different night), and I was too angry with the people who arranged the way it unfolded to enjoy it. Sure, it was controversial, but that didn't make it enjoyable to watch. And the controversy was with the cruelty and stupidity of the people behind the scenes; not with the Housemates themselves (the ones we're there to watch).

And to add insult to injury (injury that was directly attributable to BB's actions), when we had the live cross to the Big Brother House during Rove Live, he kept making anti-Michael comments (and worse). Gretel even had to try to lessen the damage ("Oh, come on, now"), but with people laughing like it's the way everyone else thinks, he and the other hosts who've done it are only making the easily-swayed public (who succumb to peer pressure and vote the way other people vote ... and let's face it, that's how most teenagers think, and they're the voters) feel that that's the way they should cast their vote. And we have another unfair 'ganging-up' on Michael.

I think the instigation of a new Insider in tonight's show will be a step in the right direction (in that it might help to take some of the heat off Michael), but it's certainly not going to be enough to undo the trouble it's caused him. I hope he's exempt from nomination somehow (at least for this coming week, while it's all still very raw for his fellow Housemates), but I doubt that'll happen. Hopefully he has the chance to bring everyone over to his side before Monday's nominations.

But that just leaves us with one question: What's going on here?? (Check out the listing marked "23:10". Very interesting ... It would appear that all of Michael's secrets may not yet be known, after all ...


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