Big Brother

Last fall I got a job outside of London and all I ever heard people talking about was the newest episode of "Big Brother." I was already familiar with the US series, but in America they broadcast an hour time slot, edited, and don't print what's going on in the newspapers.

I couldn't believe it when the last season's series managed to break front headlines news. I know the Daily Mail is tabloid, but even then, you'd think maybe real stuff going on would be featured - not the lives of people living in a house being exposed to television.

The show is a pain, mainly because everyone in England loves it, even older people, and you can't really go anywhere without hearing about it. Countless films I wanted to see were canceled only to display this message: "Big Brother is running over schedule, our film tonight will be rescheduled." The show broadcasts from about 12 at night to 6 in the morning sometimes, which is insane. I once stumbled across it while flipping channels late at night, only to see people sitting on chairs talking nonsense, the audio occasionally shutting off by error.

I just don't get it. WHAT'S THE POINT?! I'm one of those people who enjoys watching people when I'm out and about - just seeing how people interact, go about their lives, etc. (I get it from my mother's side) - but this is plain voyeurism, and BORING voyeurism. Who cares what some loser thinks about some guy living in a house? GET A LIFE! And I thought my social life wasn't the best! At least I don't revolve my conversations around the conversations of random people occupying a house together! Good grief! A few years ago I didn't like "The Truman Show" because it was too far fetched. I watched it again a few nights ago and it's not looking so far away anymore.

STAR RATING: ***** Unmissable **** Very Good *** Okay ** You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead * Avoid At All Costs

Every summer, 13 members of the public, who's personalities stand out the best in the eyes of the producers, are selected from a selection of video entries to compete in a live reality TV show in a specially built house, equipped with video cameras and trendy Ikea furnishings, to see who is the last person to be voted out by the public and win the prize money.

When BB was first introduced to the world in the summer of 2000, it seemed like a fresh, original, fun concept in my eyes. A good social experiment, shall we say. I was 16 at the time, on holiday in Cornwall with my family and there was something that was at least partially engaging about watching the antics of 'nasty' Nick the banker and warm-hearted scally Craig the builder (who'd only entered so he could win the money to pay for a heart operation for the little girl of a friend or something!), even if I didn't think it was the greatest thing since sliced bread and I could ultimately give-or-take it. And, looking back on it now, I could see that the house was occupied by 'real' people, genuine, real people who were believable and you could buy were really like that probably if you met them in the street. Which is certainly not what it's come to now.

In my mind, in one way or the other, things rapidly went downhill from there. The first show was so successful that there had to be a follow-up. The emphasis on voyeurism and adult content began around here, and everyone could see this as a really see-through attempt to pander to people's baser instincts and win ratings. But I just found a lot of the contestants on the second series to be really annoying and up their own arses and that put me off. I suppose the same could be said for the third series, even though Jade Goody was entertaining in as much as she was genuinely thick, thinking Cambridge was in London and such, and I don't think she was putting on an act but just genuinely, un-self-consciously that much of a show-boat. I think series four pretty much just came and went (that was the big Asian guy, wasn't it? And Jon Tickle?) but by series five everything had, as I said, just lost perspective. That's not to mention the assault of spin-off shows we've had from it like Celebrity Big Brother or even Teen Big Brother (and we all know what went on there.)

The people entering aren't genuine, honest and 'real' anymore. They're just making as big an exhibition of themselves as they can in order to get on there in the first place and to make a big enough impression on the public that they will come out as the winners. No-one that shallow and super-ficial really deserves any of our time or attention, but it's likely that our 'baser instincts' may take us over again and we'll tune in just to pander to them. I could never have been a contestant myself, but by now it's unlikely I'd even know how to make a big enough show-boat of myself to have come out the winner on there anyway. Besides that, all objectivity in the game has been lost. The winner of the show who gets all the money is superfluous in the eyes of all the other contestants as they know that if they make a big enough impression on the public, they will be famous enough to attend a film premiere or two for a while afterwards and no doubt get paid a fair bit to endorse certain products or services (hence why Jade Goody's name still garners recognition three years after losing!) This show has come out, more than anything, as a huge testament to Andy Warhol's unforgettably famous claim that "in the future, everyone will enjoy their 15 minutes of fame", irrespective of how untalented, vulgar or desperate they are.

Aside from the contestants, there's the presenter, Davina McCall. A no doubt very pleasant, in her day, very attractive lady who just suffers from that very irritating habit of feeling the need to bellow out everything she says. She's served the show well, but she's a woman in her 30s who's a mother to at least one child who's having to try to keep up with the pace of 'youth TV', the majority of which are in their late teens or early 20s and there's been coverage in the media lately of how it may all be taking it's toll on her. I've heard rumours she's planning to retire and become a mid-wife (imagine an already delirious woman about to give birth being calmed by Davina McCall!) and, if that's true, I'm sure, as my mother said, she'll give it her 100% and no doubt be very good at it, because everyone has their day and everyone has to move on in life. But I wonder how much shelf-life the actual show has left and, if it's a lot, just where it'll go to from here. It's not a show showing 'real' people anymore who's personalities you can relate to, it's just a show showing people eager for instant fame and gratification who are prepared to make as much of an exhibition of themselves and even degrade themselves as it takes to get their names and faces in tabloid rags like The News of the World for their outrageous, degrading behaviour. No truly decent person can relate to people like that and, if they're the only type of people who are going to stand a chance of winning from here, one can only wonder what lies ahead for the show and, the future of humanity for that matter. **

Each summer in the UK a group of people (6 men & 6 women) are removed from normal society and placed in a house, cut off from outside communication. They are given a shopping budget to buy food and complete weekly challenges to win more money or other treats. On a weekly basis the housemates (as they are called) must pick tow of their number to nominate to be removed from the house. When the nominations are tallied up, those with the most nominations face a public vote to remove them. Each Friday one is removed until only one is left to claim the cash prize.

Too many people are very snobbish about this programme and simply dismiss it as rubbish and attack those who watch it as simple minded, fools and idiots.

That is snobbery in my mind and it is unfair to assume that the millions who make this programme successful are just muppets – you know what? maybe they just find it entertaining? I have watched Big Brother each series it has been on in the UK – however I will dip into it occasionally over it's weeks rather than watch religiously, I reckon I watch about a quarter at most. I don't read the tabloids (Times man I'm afraid) and I don't gossip at work about 'did you see what such and such did' etc but I do easily get addicted to this show – and that's its power. It may be inane but it is real people and you keep watching because everybody loves to judge and gossip and this show gives us all the power to judge and to have people to shake our heads about and gossip about. It is easy to watch because the 30 minutes shows will be eventful (after all, they summarise 24 hours of 'action') and, of course, it is very easy television to watch – it is simple and allows viewers to veg. I have no problem with this because not all TV or films should be high art or make you think – sometimes we all need to just chill out and not think!

Of course it is trash and the fact that it is often just a bunch of students getting drunk for a few months means that it can easily become dull (as series 3 in the UK showed). Thus we have come to see the reason why BB was a worrying trend at the start; it has started to become more and more of a worry and has made me wonder what the makers are willing to do in the name of entertainment. Of course they pick people who will rub each other the wrong way but generally people are polite and channel 4 has been forced to continually spice it up to try and make it more eventful than last year. And that's the problem for me is that it is no longer 'real', it is full of people looking for tabloid deals, who have been selected because they are extremes of personalities. The most recent series in the UK shows this – it doesn't have gay people it has flaming queens; it doesn't have lesbian characters it has angry, left wing feminist lesbians; it doesn't have strippers it has bi-sexual strippers; it doesn't have black characters it has angry alpha-male black men and so forth – this series is the worst for it (they all are extreme stereotypes) but generally they are. At times it is funny (look at Kitten thinking she's some sort of individual when really she's a walking cliché) but generally it is just to try and manufacture fights and tension the best they can.

Now that we (the viewers) have gotten used to that it has been forced to continually up the ante. In the US they put people in with their ex's but in the UK the current series was billed as being 'evil'. They made the house smaller, put them all in one bedroom, make the tasks harder etc. In one regard it has made it more interesting and made these people work for their 15 minutes but in another it is very worrying and quite off putting. One task was funny – BB threw the housemates a kids party and fed them all cake and jelly, then hours later made them all sit on a roundabout until a task was completed – needless to say they all went green and some puked! However recently we had a situation where tow people were placed in another part of the house and allowed to spy on the others, who thought they had been evicted for good. After a week of these two seeing the others backstab them, BB reintroduced them back into the house and gave everyone lots and lots of booze. Needless to say they all got drunk and a fight ensued which security staff had to come and stop because men were about to start hitting the women (not good – even if the girls in question were inviting it something rotten). This is my problem with this show now – it is no longer just veg and gossip TV: it needs to shock and create talking points to keep it's audience and the tabloid headlines. With the UK's problems of binge drinking and after hours, drunken violence, is it right to basically stage a fight – which by the setup and the alcohol, the makers of BB essentially did. They are pushing people as far as they can all in the name of winning ratings.

I watched Battle Royale once and thought it was exaggerated, but now I have a point of reference to see what it is spoofing. How much more violent and cruel will TV get in order to win ratings? This series is not even a third gone and already the makers have been very cruel all in the name of breaking people and creating things for us to gossip about – as the contestants become more savvy and eager for fame, it is all they can do to keep it interesting. I didn't watch this series but I tuned in to see it all 'kick off' a few weeks ago, only to be disturbed by what I saw. I saw people put in a situation where tension would be high and then I saw them fed large amounts of alcohol. Can it be morally right to do this to people simply to 'entertain' others? I know many of us will say these people deserve what they get but it is a worrying thing to have on TV and will only serve to further erode our national morals – ie we don't see others as 'people' on the same level as us.

I am not snobby and I know how easy it is to watch this show: calling it rubbish and insulting those that enjoy it is childish and smacks of superiority that is not there. However even fans will acknowledge that it is rubbish – but it can be entertaining rubbish if all you want to do is have something to gossip about and distract you without taxing your brain – something we all want in some way (nobody watches arty foreign films all the time!). However the format of this (and other reality shows) is becoming increasingly cruel to win ratings – and how far are they willing to go. Things like Fear Factor and eating bugs in 'I'm a Celebrity…' are bad and so is the most recent BB. I accept people will watch these things and I understand why they do but for me I have tuning out as I cannot allow myself to be part of it anymore. BB is the only reality show I have ever bothered with but now it has gone where we feared it would – into the usual ratings-chasing spectacle where it is all very forced, manufactured and cruel. I will not watch people be made to fight and suffer for my enjoyment and I can only hold my head in fear about what we will be watching in 5 years time once our sense have become further hardened to drunken fights and flirting.

Overall this is an awful show but one that I can watch easily as it doesn't require me to think and it can be quite enjoyable and addictive. However the road it (and others) have led us down is a worrying one and even BB supporters are beginning to wonder what on earth is going on. Everything is manufactured to create talking points and the contestants are very aware of what they are doing (playing for the camera, thinking of the newspaper deals etc) – it is no longer 'real' and the novelty has worn off. There are much better things on TV and I think I shall watch them as few of them turn my stomach in quite the same way as this show has started to do.

'Big Brother' has now run for five seasons with 'real' people (i.e. ordinary Joes and Janes who were not celebrities) and has just begun a third season 'celebrity' version.

The trouble is that what was originally an idea of some originality and promise - shut a few contrasting personalities in a house with no contact with the outside world, intrusive cameras, and unusual tasks, for a few weeks and see what happens - after season 1 had passed future house-mates knew what to expect.

Subsequent seasons have seen the house-mates exploit their new-found 'fame' (for doing what, exactly?) not only after leaving the house, but while they are in there. So the challenges get ever more tedious, the tabloid and gossip mag column inches get longer, and the nation for some reason continues to watch.

Another nail in the coffin of British TV, an indication that poor taste and high ratings go hand in hand (that or the TV-viewing public at large really will watch anything and they get what they deserve).

Big Brother. Sure, so the concept has been sold to practically every country on the planet, (much like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire). And each time it's shown it takes the nation by storm. Everyone seems to be able to pick a member of the house with which they can identify with, and who they root for until, inevitably, they're voted out.

The first series was historical. It had every Brit watching in awe as a group of people feed chickens and talk about their lives. It was, for most, compulsive viewing. The 'inmates' became national celebrities and icons who were forgotten within six months, but were, for the summer they were in the house, heralded as heroes.

Some guy has commented, saying it's merely a copy of the American format, which to my knowledge, is quite untrue. The series was created and broadcast in a European country (Probably the Netherlands) and then sold worldwide. The British and American versions were screened at the same time, but that's not what this is about.

The thing with Big Brother, here in the UK, is this; If you watch it you wonder why you feel the need to view other people's lives (It's Blumner and Katz voyeuristic entertainment theory) and if you don't watch it you're catergorized as a pariah because no conversation is complete without a mention of the latest going-ons inside the Big Brother house.

As I've said before, the first series was classic, with the memorable 'Nasty' Nick Bateman, who scammed and cheated his way through until the house-mates caught on to his actions. This really was compulsive viewing, and yet the other two series failed to make a connection with myself, personally. Maybe I just crave the sheer drama.

In ending, you can't escape this show, no matter where you are in the country. The antics are front-page news and everyone's talking about it. And you know, there really is something in watching people in a house they are locked in. And then there's the chicken....