Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Crowded House: Terri Evicts 2

Just announced by BB:

Corey was supposed to choose 2 of the Gatecrasher HMs to be evicted from the House by sunrise. He declined the task, and BB passed it on to Terri. The choice is a lot more difficult for her as she will possibly (probably) become a permanent HM again after this week, and will have to stand by her decision.

With the task of voting these guys into the House given to the Australian public, and such a big deal being made out of it, I can't see this being a permanent eviction either. I think BB has plans for the 2 that are chosen and it will become next week's twist. It is likely that BB will put them into the "house next door" that seems to be when the old White Room was, with its own backyard where the farmyard used to be with full size pool and cubby house.

I haven't had a chance to see much of the new guys, but I'm not that fond of Michael. Nathan seems to be the "nice guy", and if Barney hangs around much longer he and Alice could get a bit of romance happening. Given that I don't know exactly what will happen to the chosen 2, I will choose from either end and say I want her to pick Michael and Nathan for whatever lies in store for them.

I just hope they don't cut the live streams off again tomorrow to keep this decision a secret until the Daily Show airs.

Corey: Altruistic and Helpful

Corey is already proving the media, and Bianca, wrong. So far in the House, as well as showing he likes a joke and a bit of fun, he has been the model Housemate.

Despite being a guest in the BB House, Corey helped the HMs clean the backyard at dawn as part of their weekly task. When HMs ruined the bread recipe Corey showed his kitchen skills, fixing the dough and cooking 3 loaves of bread for the House. When offered the choice between a selfish reward of a hair straightener or a reward for the whole House of chocolates and soft drinks, Corey rewarded his HMs for making him feel so welcome.

Corey's good behaviour is making Terri's task even more difficult because she has to show BB that she can punish him for mistakes and steer him along the right path. So far Corey is just being hindered by Terri's task because she is reprimanding him for smaller things making him resent her more. Therefore his backlash on Terri will make her task harder because he won't have respect for her.

Plus the media's scramble for an anti-BB story saying this is a "publicity stunt", sending the wrong message to kids, and "child abuse" have again been rubbished by Corey's acceptance in the House and his good behaviour so far.

Role Model Bianca

Bianca didn't even give Corey a moment to prove himself to her. She hated him instantly and went around telling everyone what she thought of him.

It finally culminated in her telling Corey to his face that she wants to be everything he is not. Without making a personal attack, Bianca told Corey he had become a figure of teenage rebellion and made it look cool to ignore all the rules. She told him her goal in the House was to prove to kids they didn't have to drink, smoke, and do drugs to be cool, and not to be disobedient.

So is Bianca saying she is everything a teenager should be? Is this the persona she is going to play in the House just to make a point? Is she really as perfect as she is making herself out to be? And if she is just playing a character, will it shorten her stay in the House?

Big Mouth: Uncut for Grown Ups

The one thing we missed out on last year in BB was anything above a PG rating. Even though the Premium web content was rated MA15+, live streams were heavily censored and video packages for download rarely got into M-rated territory. It was BB for kids.

But really the series is about observation of a group of adults with a diverse range of ideas, beliefs, experiences, and morals. And more often than not, these are made up of adult-oriented themes-- they are part of life. And it's not just sex and nudity as the politicians who don't watch the show would have you believe. It can be about sexuality, safe sex, drugs, religion, race, family situations, abuse, crime, war, conflict, scandal. Add to that mix Gen-X and Gen-Y's favour of 4-letter words to enhance a conversation, and you have all the stuff that priests and pollies don't want to be seen on TV. But they are the things some adults (including some young adults) should be made aware of, hear opinions of, formulate their own opinions of, and discuss with other mature adults.

Uncut in the early years used to provide an insight into some of these adult oriented topics from the HMs' points of view, and would also reveal parts of their personalities that could be completely hidden in the PG-rated Daily Shows. I'm sure in BB01 Andy, the dominatrix, would have seemed like a regular Carol Brady in the Daily Shows if she didn't take out her whip and candle wax on Thursday nights.

But as the series became more popular, Uncut, and later Adults Only, turned into a series of naughty treats for any kid with a TV in their bedroom. The clips shown were made more juvenile and tacky, the week's evicted HM was no longer invited to discuss the topics of the show with Gretel, and in BB05 the show sunk to a new low with Gretel playing the up-tight school marm disciplining the naughty viewers for watching each clip as she presented them. The show got more and more bad press (including a statement from PM John Howard that was made a mockery of in this year's teasers), and the show was eventually cancelled in 2006 before it even broadcast the turkey slap incident that broke the camel's back.

This year, some of the adult themes are back, and are being presented in a mature format by Tony Squires and Rebecca Wilson: two respected and experienced journalists, on Big Mouth. The first episode went to air last night and included commentary by 3 of the most intelligent ex-HMs to ever walk out of the BB House: Tim Brunero, Paul Dyer, and Chrissie Swan. Most of the show was just a panel discussion on events straight out of the Daily Show, but they did cross over into adult territory, and managed to do it in a way that was informative to viewers who had not seen the events, but not so gratuitous to offend the easily-offendable.

The show included discussion of:
  • Rory accusing Travis of being gay just because of the type of sunglasses he chooses to wear-- a clip that shows Rory's intolerance of gays, and making judgements based on appearance alone, and refusing to listen to anything other than his own opinion-- aspects of Rory we would not have seen otherwise; and also showed Travis' will to express himself by the way he dresses and his opposition to Rory's beliefs, and being comfortable with who he chooses to be and what he looks like.
  • A discussion about sexual experiences (and exaggerations) of some of the HMs-- providing insight into the the types of relationships HMs have had outside the House, including Travis' religious beliefs about sex before marriage.
  • Nobbi getting naked in front of the other HMs-- well he's just a bit of a show-off, isn't he?
  • The media calling the HMs freaks-- followed by a discussion of social inclusion of people who are different, and Paul's retalliation at the media.
It is the happy medium BB needs to suit those who don't know how to change the channel when they don't like what they see.

We Nominate, Housemates Evict

This year, the live Nominations show has been cancelled due to Kyle and Jackie O's schedule, and the process has been changed to suit, which may see the HMs that are flying low get evicted early.

Now, much like Idol or SYTYCD, the public will have the whole week to vote for the HMs they like best. On Sunday the bottom 3 will be announced to the HMs. The FNL winner for the week will get some special privilege based on these votes (to be annouced either Friday or Sunday), and then the HMs will vote 2 points and 1 point for who they want to be evicted that night. Based on the HMs' own votes, one of them will be evicted.

First of all, this has excellent fund raising potential for BB. Previously regular voters would only need to send in votes in the weeks their favourite HMs had been nominated. Now voters will need to save their faves every week throughout the series. Also, instead of 3 HMs receiving votes, there are 12, and next week there will be more. So plenty of revenue coming in from there.

The next thing is, with the public only voting to save, the ones who don't get noticed, won't get votes. The under the radar HMs will have more chance of ending up in the bottom 3 each week. Housemates who stirred things up used to get all the nomination points from the HMs and the public would have to vote out on of 3 interesting characters. Now the ones who stir things up will get more airtime on the DS, become more popular, and get more save votes, while the boring ones will get nominated.

So then the HMs get a choice of 3 to evict. No word yet on whether they evict during the day with the results announced live, or if the whole eviction process is live. Also will they have to give reasons for their nominations this year? This was the only real insight into what they were thinking about the others we used to get, so hopefully it is done in some way.

A new aspect of the nomination process we have already been shown is the Danger Zone, where each weeknight we are shown the list of the bottom 5 HMs. This will get interest in voting up for those wanting to save the HMs trailing in votes, and also shows us how the votes change day by day.

The 2 things left to be revealed are:
  • What power the FNL winner will get over the nominees.
  • How the Strategy Room will work.