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Sunday, July 24, 2005
Big Brother 6 Kicks Into High Gear
Big Brother 6 has just gotten more interesting as Muslim graphic designer Kaysar (who was up for eviction the first week) became Head of Household and has formed a troika with egomaniacal meteorology student Howie and chess playing VIP waitress Janelle. The astounding part is I think these three are the smartest, most strategically minded players in the group.
Kaysar was kind of obvious in that regard, as he tends to weigh all the different sides of an issue and deliberate slowly on what to do; Janelle is a stealth player, using her looks to dupe those who want to think she's just a dumb blonde. But Howie! Jesus, he's been a clown with some ridiculously funny lines ("I've never seen kung fu porn before. But I want to.") and a clear love of his sheer wonderfulness. In other words, he's a big doofus himbo. Who knew he had hidden depths? But that's the whole point, isn't it?
When the troika are talking among themselves, they're speaking strictly in terms of strategy: forget the people they personally don't like, take out a major player and stir up the alliance poised against these three outsiders. And who they deem as major players is surprisingly astute: bland EMT tech Maggie is the link to aggressively bossy fireman Eric, while sneaky nice guy James is still trying to hide his bond to girlfriend in the outside world Sarah. The amazing part is that the people they've chosen do not have any personal beefs with anybody in the troika, especially not Kaysar - rather, they're choices that splinter the alliance between James and Eric, forcing them to take sides against each other...
Unless, of course, the Power of Veto overturns it.
Also, a special cheer to Janelle. At one point she's talking to Lisa Kudrow lookalike April about how April doesn't like her. April tries to fuss her way out of this by saying that she knows people behave differently in the house than they do on the outside - meaning April would like Janelle on the outside, under different circumstances... But Janelle says flat out, "I think I am like this on the outside." That actually takes some guts and honesty. Not that everybody - or even most people - behave the same under the glare of reality television than they would in everyday life. But some people do, and to not use "we're on TV" as an easy out is actually pretty gutsy to me.
I'm sure much of this doesn't make sense to those not watching the show. But hey, it's just another pop culture frame of reference, like speaking fanboy or otaku.
Kaysar was kind of obvious in that regard, as he tends to weigh all the different sides of an issue and deliberate slowly on what to do; Janelle is a stealth player, using her looks to dupe those who want to think she's just a dumb blonde. But Howie! Jesus, he's been a clown with some ridiculously funny lines ("I've never seen kung fu porn before. But I want to.") and a clear love of his sheer wonderfulness. In other words, he's a big doofus himbo. Who knew he had hidden depths? But that's the whole point, isn't it?
When the troika are talking among themselves, they're speaking strictly in terms of strategy: forget the people they personally don't like, take out a major player and stir up the alliance poised against these three outsiders. And who they deem as major players is surprisingly astute: bland EMT tech Maggie is the link to aggressively bossy fireman Eric, while sneaky nice guy James is still trying to hide his bond to girlfriend in the outside world Sarah. The amazing part is that the people they've chosen do not have any personal beefs with anybody in the troika, especially not Kaysar - rather, they're choices that splinter the alliance between James and Eric, forcing them to take sides against each other...
Unless, of course, the Power of Veto overturns it.
Also, a special cheer to Janelle. At one point she's talking to Lisa Kudrow lookalike April about how April doesn't like her. April tries to fuss her way out of this by saying that she knows people behave differently in the house than they do on the outside - meaning April would like Janelle on the outside, under different circumstances... But Janelle says flat out, "I think I am like this on the outside." That actually takes some guts and honesty. Not that everybody - or even most people - behave the same under the glare of reality television than they would in everyday life. But some people do, and to not use "we're on TV" as an easy out is actually pretty gutsy to me.
I'm sure much of this doesn't make sense to those not watching the show. But hey, it's just another pop culture frame of reference, like speaking fanboy or otaku.
