This week has been Big Brother‘s much trumpeted ’10th Birthday’ – except of course, it’s the ninth birthday and the tenth series (i.e. it’s the tenth year, but it began nine years ago). Of course, celebrating it all in series eleven (if there even is one, at least in its standard form) wouldn’t quite feel right, so quibbles over terminology aside, how has this week been, and how is the much maligned tenth series faring overall?
The task this week has generally been fun for long-term fans of the show, with ex-housemates returning to challenge the current crop in tasks from across the series’ run. We’ve seen the likes of the box task, the assault course and the infamous ‘Pie Jesu’ singalong returning, which has been a nice nod to the anniversary. However, the choice of housemates has been a little dubious. Dean could, I suppose, be vaguely justified by the fact that the task chosen was his WORLD RECORD BEATING one, but Craig? And still-a-cock-all-these-years-on-Federico?? There’s also been the discussions about what it was like in the BB house between old and new housemates. Those have been kind of nice, but also kind of defeated the whole thing of doing it in isolation – although Federico revealing the Jackson news broke that spell even more.
As for the series itself, it has really suffered from a lack of likeable or interesting characters. Angel, Freddie/Halfwit, Karly and Rodrigo have all had some promise, but they all have massive flaws (not to mention that Angel’s gone now and Karly isn’t likely to last much longer). The rest of them have pretty much nothing in the way of redeeming or interesting features – apart from Siavash, and any other series he’d be the Gos or Elizabeth type character who isn’t really disliked, but doesn’t have a chance of winning because there are other, more popular characters. The divide between the house in the early days didn’t really help matters, nor did the continual putting Freddie up for eviction, which endeared him to the public far more than would have otherwise happened.
The ‘You’re Fired’ format of the eviction show has been mostly rubbish, with the evictee often getting very little airtime, and we’ve also seen very little of nominations this year (even though they are the best bit). The tasks have been hit and miss – a few gems, but mostly forgettable. It’s also telling that, for the first time I can ever remember, people have been wanting new housemates for weeks now. Normally new housemates are seen as an irritant – this year, they’re much needed to spice things up (and should arrive tomorrow).
Is it the death knell of BB? Who knows. Is it the worst series ever? That’s a matter of opinion, but given that it most resembles BB6 (horrible housemates) and BB4 (nothing happening) than any other series, it’s hardly a classic…
