Sunday, July 30, 2006
Big Brother Blues
Lately Kaysar, my favorite as you all know, has been feeling down in the dumps. It’s really a shame because I know we all like to see him when he’s happy, twirling his hair, and planning out that perfect strategy. Now, the hair is gone, the strategy is shaky at best, and he sleeps all day and never smiles. Poor Kaysar. I wonder what’s going on with him. This bout of depression reminded me of other Big Brother breakdowns through out the history of the game.
One of my favorites was in Big Brother 2 when Hardy, who played with integrity like Kaysar, became really depressed because he felt like the game was bringing out the worst in him. He went around the house telling everyone not to talk strategy with him anymore and he cried to Nicole that he felt like plotting against others made him feel like an ugly person. The truth is, that’s why it’s on TV. Plotting against people is just the name of the game and no one can make it out completely clean. Even last year’s assassin Janelle has had a tough time of keeping emotions out of the game.
Nearly everyone in Big Brother 1 had a breakdown while in the house. They were the guinea pigs of the network and they didn’t realize how the boredom and new relationships would affect them so deeply. I remember tons of tears that season about many things, in particular Brittany’s issues with Josh, her in-house crush at the time. The friendships people form are real and intensified so emotions are running high. It’s rough, but that just so happens to be the formula for good TV.
The players have to understand: at some point, you’re gonna feel like crap. Being locked in a house for months with people who are all trying to backstab you and “throw you under the bus” to save their own asses is not a perfect scenario for a good time. Even the “just circuitry and wires” Evil Doctor went through a brief sad period when he talked about wanting to leave.
Even worse, some of the houseguests have real emotional bonds to each other. BB6, Woogie, and a few others are lucky because they got to enter the house with people who have become their actual friends. Still, it’s probably in the back of all of their minds that there can only be one winner of BB7 and, as James said countless times, “Big Brother is not a team sport.” Maybe that’s what’s troubling Kaysar and the rest of the Big Brother 6 alliance. Though the power’s been in their favor the entire game so far, they know that at some point that will stop and one of them will have to go home. The tension in their group is amazing because they know the party is eventually going to be over. For me, and a lot of other viewers I’m sure, that’s going to be one sad day. It’s no secret that BB6 is the fan favorite and it’s going to be a real bummer to see some Yoko come in and break up the band.
That being said, I do think there’s some merit to what Jase said about decompression time. Everyone else in the house has had some time to go back to their normal lives in the years since their season. With the BB6 crew, they went directly from one season to another; it’s become like their summer job. They haven’t had enough time back in the real world to be able to put the game into proper perspective. The game, right now, is all they have and it’s all they live for. This makes them the toughest competitors in the house, but it also sends their stress levels through the roof. They fight with each other more during their own HoH weeks than they did last year when they were getting picked off. They’re used to being the underdogs after battling the Nerd Herd, so they’re a bit shaky with the enormous power they’ve had this season. Even their strategic moves of eliminating floaters show that they want to return the game to the way it was last season. They want a polarized house with two teams going head to head as opposed to small groups and floaters. That’s the game they know.
On top of the game stuff, the only glimpse of the outside world they’ve seen for the past two years has been publicity for the season they were just on, or the one they were promoting for this summer. They know they’re fan favorites and we all count on them to make the game entertaining, but sometimes they can’t understand that it IS just a game and that there’s a whole world outside of the Big Brother walls.
Anyway, it was my birthday on the 23rd and I haven’t been glued to the feeds this week, so I have a lot of catching up to do. I’d love to hear your theories on Big Brother blues and all the rest.
One of my favorites was in Big Brother 2 when Hardy, who played with integrity like Kaysar, became really depressed because he felt like the game was bringing out the worst in him. He went around the house telling everyone not to talk strategy with him anymore and he cried to Nicole that he felt like plotting against others made him feel like an ugly person. The truth is, that’s why it’s on TV. Plotting against people is just the name of the game and no one can make it out completely clean. Even last year’s assassin Janelle has had a tough time of keeping emotions out of the game.
Nearly everyone in Big Brother 1 had a breakdown while in the house. They were the guinea pigs of the network and they didn’t realize how the boredom and new relationships would affect them so deeply. I remember tons of tears that season about many things, in particular Brittany’s issues with Josh, her in-house crush at the time. The friendships people form are real and intensified so emotions are running high. It’s rough, but that just so happens to be the formula for good TV.
The players have to understand: at some point, you’re gonna feel like crap. Being locked in a house for months with people who are all trying to backstab you and “throw you under the bus” to save their own asses is not a perfect scenario for a good time. Even the “just circuitry and wires” Evil Doctor went through a brief sad period when he talked about wanting to leave.
Even worse, some of the houseguests have real emotional bonds to each other. BB6, Woogie, and a few others are lucky because they got to enter the house with people who have become their actual friends. Still, it’s probably in the back of all of their minds that there can only be one winner of BB7 and, as James said countless times, “Big Brother is not a team sport.” Maybe that’s what’s troubling Kaysar and the rest of the Big Brother 6 alliance. Though the power’s been in their favor the entire game so far, they know that at some point that will stop and one of them will have to go home. The tension in their group is amazing because they know the party is eventually going to be over. For me, and a lot of other viewers I’m sure, that’s going to be one sad day. It’s no secret that BB6 is the fan favorite and it’s going to be a real bummer to see some Yoko come in and break up the band.That being said, I do think there’s some merit to what Jase said about decompression time. Everyone else in the house has had some time to go back to their normal lives in the years since their season. With the BB6 crew, they went directly from one season to another; it’s become like their summer job. They haven’t had enough time back in the real world to be able to put the game into proper perspective. The game, right now, is all they have and it’s all they live for. This makes them the toughest competitors in the house, but it also sends their stress levels through the roof. They fight with each other more during their own HoH weeks than they did last year when they were getting picked off. They’re used to being the underdogs after battling the Nerd Herd, so they’re a bit shaky with the enormous power they’ve had this season. Even their strategic moves of eliminating floaters show that they want to return the game to the way it was last season. They want a polarized house with two teams going head to head as opposed to small groups and floaters. That’s the game they know.
On top of the game stuff, the only glimpse of the outside world they’ve seen for the past two years has been publicity for the season they were just on, or the one they were promoting for this summer. They know they’re fan favorites and we all count on them to make the game entertaining, but sometimes they can’t understand that it IS just a game and that there’s a whole world outside of the Big Brother walls.
Anyway, it was my birthday on the 23rd and I haven’t been glued to the feeds this week, so I have a lot of catching up to do. I’d love to hear your theories on Big Brother blues and all the rest.
# posted by Alexis @ 11:15 AM 
