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| Sometimes it's tough to know what's real... |
The problem of course is that anyone with half a brain who watches this stuff will quickly realize that there's nothing unscripted about it. With clever editing and a well-timed off-camera hint or two (do you really think Russell Hantz magically found all those Immunity Idols on his own?), producers can twist the words and actions they capture on video into whatever narrative suits their purposes. That disconnect even became the basis for one intentionally fake "reality" show that inadvertently gave us one of the most authentic moments in the format's history.
Though I take all this for granted when I'm watching most reality shows, I expect a little more from Big Brother.
Because Houseguests are stuck in the BB House 24/7 and the live feed cameras are almost always available to fans, producers have a lot less leeway to create false perceptions of the players. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, in fact I discussed the show's history of covering up ugly behavior just a couple of weeks ago, but in general it's a lot tougher for them to pull a fast one on viewers.
If Aaryn Gries was a Real Housewife or a Bachelorette, it's very likely the world would never know just how narrowly she views it (or just how ironic she can be!) But as the show's history-making disclaimer stated Sunday night, the whole point of BB is the lack of privacy, and interested parties get to witness as much of Aaryn's awful behavior as they can stomach.
Beyond the big money prize and the quirky competitions, the revelatory nature of this social experiment has always been the best part of Big Brother for me, and I think for most of the show's hardcore fans. I love seeing the way the players use their powers of conversation and companionship for good and/or evil, and how priorities evolve throughout the summer as Houseguests get forced into tough decisions on whether to keep their friends or their enemies in the game.
It's why the Fan Favorite players tend to be those who just love the game and would probably play even if it wasn't a TV show. Like I read somewhere in BB Blog land this week, BB tends to *really* get good once the HGs become so comfortable they forget they're on a TV show at all (which, like other BB tropes, seems to have happened earlier than ever this season).
Unfortunately, many in this year's cast seem more enamored of their potential airtime than they are excited to participate in this ultimate strategy game, and that's a damn shame.
Of course it's possible that that's always been the case and I just never realized it because I never followed any previous group of Houseguests this closely, but here's a rundown of things that reveal how members of the current cast are harboring aspirations far beyond being last person standing in the House:
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| Never hurts to reset a classic |
- Aaryn came into the game with a modeling contract and a talent agency. She's talked openly to her roomates about looking to parlay her turn on this show into a job as a TV host. I think we all know how that plan is going to work out.
- Although Candice's Diary Room name fonts will tell you that she's a Pediatric Speech Therapist (and maybe she really is), her true claim to fame is as a former Miss Louisiana, NFL Cheerleader, and OWN Network darling, and she still runs a pageant-coaching business in Houston.
- GinaMarie may spend most of her days in the House redefining the term Hot Mess (especially since Nick's eviction), but she actually looks pretty good in her real-world job as a Maxim and Playboy model who also appeared on an episode of The Sopranos
- Speaking of Nick, he has his own modeling career to thank for getting him into the Big Brother House. Fittingly, standing there looking good and saying nothing (to Elissa in the kitchen last week) is what eventually got him kicked out.
- Speaking of "fittingly," Kaitlin appeared as a Booty Girl in this video from MaLLy & the Sundance Kid.
- Jeremy the Boat Shop Associate has an IMDB page, mostly for his behind-the-scenes work in production (wanna hire him?), but with one credit as an actor for playing, somewhat ironically, the secret boyfriend of James Marsden's in-the-closet homophobe Rex in the 2008 classic Sex Drive.
Everybody had fades but
Howard's thinkin' bout braids
- Howard also did some modeling after wrapping up his career as a college football player. He looks better with short hair, I think.
- David was not a model before his BB experience but has been pretty open since he left in saying that he hopes to be one soon.
- Before finding her way to the family real estate biz down in Boca, Amanda went to L.A. a few years back to be in a web series called Big Shot Live that promised to turn no-names into stars in just 24 hours. She also has an IMDB page with one credit as a production assistant. She also mentioned the other day that while in SoCal, she briefly dated a bartender named Jax, who's now following his own star on the Bravo show Vanderpump Rules.
- And even our beloved dorky superfan, McRae, has a bit of the fame bug. He may tell the cameras he's happy as a career pizza boy, but his LinkedIn, MySpace, and of course, IMDB pages say different. It does seem like he's more into audio production than trying to become an actor, but it's still another case of a BB player not being fully honest with fans.
And that's just the ones I know about!
Now obviously, three and a half weeks into a Big Brother season, it's a little late to complain about people not being who they say they are, and I'm not really complaining, I'm just saying.
But while I can handle a little bio manipulation on the part of the contestants, I like to think the contest is fair. Much more disturbing than the list of bullet points above, was a conversation I watched Helen have with Elissa the other day:
BB fans on Twitter absolutely FREAKED at this. It's bad enough that producers created the MVP twist then put in one and only one Houseguest who had ties to the fan community and so was guaranteed to win every week. But if they are truly using the DR to tell players who to nominate and who to vote out every week, then the game loses all appeal to me.
There's also circumstantial evidence that show runners "strongly suggested" Amanda go have that little talk with Aaryn last week about her racist remarks. If that's the case, how do we even know that Aaryn is truly the bigoted idiot we all think she is...maybe she's just a really committed actress who didn't mind taking on a role that would make everyone hate her. When the mechanics of the game can't be trusted, nothing can.
Again, fans with a lot more BB watching experience than I have will probably find all of the above to be incredibly naive, but I enjoy this show and this game so much that I've been more than willing to just accept any somewhat questionable voting flip-flops that have happened over the years. But Helen may've just created more disbelief than I can suspend...it's something I'll be paying close attention to over the rest of the season, as I continue to evaluate whether my Big Brother fandom is really worth holding onto.
For now though, I'm still here, and still doing Power Rankings, so here we go:Bottom Tier - Adios, Mofos
14. GinaMarie
13. Jeremy
12. Aaryn
11. Kaitlin
Aaryn and Kaitlin are on the block, Jeremy is the main target (Helen's looking to backdoor him post-Veto), and all three still have more power in the House than GinaMarie.
While no one has F'd up their real world life while in the House more than Aaryn has, GM certainly hasn't done herself any favors. Besides showing herself capable of being just as racist and vile as Little Miss Bobcat, the Staten Island Stalker completely embarrassed herself over Nick's eviction. Amazingly Nick has said since leaving that he still plans to take GinaMarie out on a date and that his feelings for her were genuine. This is pretty shocking news to anyone who saw the look of abject terror that used to come over his face anytime she was near, and especially when she'd try and get frisky with him. On top of all that, since entering the House she has not expressed one single strategic thought about how she might advance in this game, GM won't go home this week but you can expect her to stay pretty near the bottom of this list until she does.
As for Aaryn, she'll also be safe on Thursday, I think, putting off for at least one more week what's sure to be an absolute must-see, her exit interview with Julie Chen. Aaryn's reputation may have found a way to recover from the original exposure of her racist thoughts and actions two weeks ago, but after #Bedgate and "Whatchu gon' do, gurrrl?," she has no chance. She's been so bad that people in the House have openly discussed how she's disqualified herself from the "keep the villain around til Final 2" factor. She'll be gone right after Jeremy.
Jeremy isn't on the block this week, yet, but Helen and crew have already talked about doing whatever it takes to get him there, even if it means throwing the Veto comp to make sure a nominee wins who'll take themselves off. Jeremy knows all this of course and he's been campaigning...I mentioned last post how impressive his damage control game was immediately after the Nick vote...but it's not going to be enough. He's going to be a backdoor nominee and unless something crazy happens, he'll be going home next.
Kaitlin has been reluctant to drop her boy-toy but his exit and the presence of other targets in front of her will give her the opportunity to re-invent herself and increase her power. It remains to be seen if she's capable of long-term success in that endeavor.
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| Aaryn's racism has taken center stage in BB15, but don't sleep on Spencer's misogyny! |
10. Spencer
9. Candice
8. Andy
7. Jessie
6. Howard
Spencer and Howard are each others' closest ally at this point, and they played a dangerous game in the last round of voting by throwing a vote against Elissa even though they both knew Nick was going home. I believe the plan was to try and pin this vote on Jessie to create suspicion around her, but they underestimated just how far she made it into Helen's circle of trust last week.
The backfired as everyone knew it was one of either Howie or Spence, and now they're the two guy dogging the "untrustworthy" label. Funnily, even though it was Howard who actually voted to evict Elissa, Spencer has suffered the most from it - he's on the block after El won the MVP yet again.
This is mostly because Howard earned major points from almost everyone in the house (and almost everyone watching the show) with the way he stood up for Candice in the face of the Mean Girls' attack. Howard's social game is not terrible but could use some work, he tends to overpromise things that he can't really deliver, and not keep very good track of his lies. But as other physicial threats keep saying goodbye, he becomes more and more of a favorite to win competitions...that is when he's not throwing them by literally throwing sour milk in Aaryn's face.
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| Funniest moment of the season so far! |
Andy finds himself here too, even though I am pretty sure he's going to be close to the end. He moves between rooms constantly, talks (and listens) to everyone, and seems to have Final 4 or Final 5 deals with just about every remaining power player in the House. But at the same time, I don't think he has a Final 2 deal with anyone, and his shiftiness is starting to draw the wrong kind of attention. He needs an HOH stat or someone will move against him soon after the Bottom Tier is gone.
Meanwhile no one has changed the fate of their game more in the past week than Jessie, who was a pathetic, powerless joke while Aaryn ruled the House but found new strength once she flipped and joined the effort to boot Nick. Now she's standing up to the Mean Girls and may have even finally found the showmance she wants so badly, with Judd. I still don't like Jessie to win, but I like her a lot better to go deep than I did for most of the game so far.
Top Tier - Welcome to the Jungle
5. Helen
I plan to write more about this after Wednesday's episode, but suffice it to say for now that Helen is totally blowing her HOH...not in an Aaryn way, but still. She's powerful for now, but may not be holding onto that power for long.
4./3. Amanda/McRae
Still in a good position, but not as good as they could be. "McRanda" have stayed tight with each other and made the right moves. I loved the scene Sunday night when McRae spilled his guts about the Moving Company and called her his Queen...dude just seems smitten.
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| Amanda certainly has her fans...wonder why??? |
2. Elissa
Still in the game despite being the main target of the last two HOH's, and now the current HOH is her best friend in the House! Based on the margins of the votes so far, I doubt anyone can knock Elissa off the MVP throne in Week 4, so she's going to remain one of the big power players now that the people who hated her are all on the bottom of the pile.
Better still, Elissa's finally starting to show a little more spine. Even though a few folks tried to push her to put Howard on the block with this week's MVP power because he had lied about being in the Moving Company, she felt less trust with Spencer, wanted to put him up, and did so against the wishes of her alliance. I don't know that that was the best strategic move (I actually think that for a lot of these players, this week would be a great time to get rid of Howard), but at least it was a move that she made instead of being a pawn to other players.
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| Mr. J |
"J-U-Double-D Party Daugherty" may be a pretty unwieldy nickname to wrap your mouth around, but Judd's game has finally started speaking for itself (even if it's in mumbled gibberish at times). Overlooked by Jeremy and the Mean Girls when they were in power, he built strong bonds with the other side of the House, and even picked up a rock-solid Final 2 partner (and bed buddy) in Jessie. His "this is my house too" line to Kaitlin on Sunday night was priceless.
I don't think there's anyone in the House who could come up with a legitimate bad word to speak against Judd, and when 10-person "Jury Alliance" that he's joined up with inevitably splits, he's well-poised to jump to whichever side wins out. He may also be the only person who has no need to win HOH right now because no one is going to put him up. Just short of one-third of the way through this game, Judd is my pick to win it all.
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| Ladies Love Cool Judd |
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