Big Brother UK Series 8 - some thoughts
Over the weekend, Julianne and I finally watched the last few episodes of BBUK 8, a series we absolutely loved.
We're new to the whole BBUK thing. I'd seen and heard it mentioned online on numerous occasions that it is so much better than the Australian Big Brother. Having now seen one entire series of the British version I must concur. BBUK 8 shat all over AusBB 7. And 6. And 5. And probably 4, though my memory gets a bit hazy that far back.
We were quite taken aback when Julianne went browsing BBUK forums after we watched the finale to find predominantly negative comments. Apparently the series was really boring and the worst yet. We can't comment on previous series of course (the most I've seen is a few clips on YouTube of Nasty Nick in Series 1, and the hilarious box task in Season 6) but we didn't find it at all boring.
If that really was the worst series of BBUK then Britain has been getting it good. Davina kicks Gretel's arse as a host. Her style is so much lighter and funnier than Gretel's. I can see that perhaps it might get tiresome after 8 seasons, but we thought she was great.
Similarly the Big Brothers - and there are so many more UK BB voices - are also much funnier and more good humoured than the Australian versions. One of the gimmicks of the Aus BB house is the stern task master that Big Brother is. He does occasionally crack a joke with the housemates and it's good fun when he does it, but it doesn't happen nearly often enough.
Having said that, the benefit of a predominantly humourless Big Brother lording it over the housemates is discipline. We found that the BBUK housemates - Ziggy in particular - were more inclined to break the rules by discussing nominations. I don't know whether Ziggy and others though too much about it, or didn't care, but the punishments handed out by the British BBs for the rule breaches was generally fairly lame.
One of my biggest dislikes about BBUK is smoking. In the Australian house, housemates are not allowed to smoke. We never even see housemates discussing smoking, which they must do as there have certainly been smokers in each series. Whether this comes down to the laws governing what can be shown on television in each country, or what can be shown in certain time slots, I don't know, but I'm still a big advocate of banning smoking in BB. On the other hand, had BBUK banned smoking, maybe Tracey wouldn't have auditioned at all and we would have missed out on her 'avin it.
I think what it comes down to in the end is fun. The more enjoyment we get out of watching Big Brother, the more we like it. In the BBUK house it was a combination of fun produced by the tasks (soooo much better, well conceived, and hilarious than most Aus BB tasks), by the characters, and quite often both together. Brian in particular was a riot. He was definitely (or should I say "defo") our favourite housemate because we found him so funny. Looking back on it, a lot of the time we were laughing at him, rather than with him, and I'm not sure if I should be comfortable with that.
So much did I love Brian's antics that I actually edited together some of his funnier moments into a half hour piece that I plan to show the next time I host the 1TLC (the 1st Tuesday Laughs Club is where our group of friends gather at a designated host's house on the first Tuesday of each month for an evening of fun and laughter). Taking pride of place in this package is Brian's quiz - the quiz that showed how much we love laughing at stupid people. Not that Brian is particularly stupid - but he certainly acts that way sometimes. This quiz featured Brian being asked three questions: he had to complete lyrics to YMCA, identify which play was not by William Shakespeare (I still find it hard to believe he hadn't heard of the Bard), and answer yes or no to the question "Do women poo?". Top viewing. Here's hoping Brian gets all the cyder he can drink and avoids becoming a yoghurt top.
Like many people we hated Charley. She was immensely frustrating to watch as we just kept yelling for her to shut the hell up. I've never seen such an argumentative and downright nasty bitch. My friend qeyla loved her for that because she made good viewing. Perhaps. As far as Julianne and I were concerned we wanted to see her get evicted much earlier than she was. We were usually chanting "Get Charley Out!" just as fervently as the crowd.
And that's another thing. The BBUK eviction crowd is harsh. Very harsh. Booing Charley is one thing - imho she deserved it - but booing other housemates just because they weren't crowd favourites was shameful. It doesn't matter how loved or hated the Aus BB housemates are, they all get cheered.
As a total package, BBUK is substantially better than AusBB. We loved it. We can't wait for BBUK Series 9.
We're new to the whole BBUK thing. I'd seen and heard it mentioned online on numerous occasions that it is so much better than the Australian Big Brother. Having now seen one entire series of the British version I must concur. BBUK 8 shat all over AusBB 7. And 6. And 5. And probably 4, though my memory gets a bit hazy that far back.
We were quite taken aback when Julianne went browsing BBUK forums after we watched the finale to find predominantly negative comments. Apparently the series was really boring and the worst yet. We can't comment on previous series of course (the most I've seen is a few clips on YouTube of Nasty Nick in Series 1, and the hilarious box task in Season 6) but we didn't find it at all boring.
If that really was the worst series of BBUK then Britain has been getting it good. Davina kicks Gretel's arse as a host. Her style is so much lighter and funnier than Gretel's. I can see that perhaps it might get tiresome after 8 seasons, but we thought she was great.
Similarly the Big Brothers - and there are so many more UK BB voices - are also much funnier and more good humoured than the Australian versions. One of the gimmicks of the Aus BB house is the stern task master that Big Brother is. He does occasionally crack a joke with the housemates and it's good fun when he does it, but it doesn't happen nearly often enough.
Having said that, the benefit of a predominantly humourless Big Brother lording it over the housemates is discipline. We found that the BBUK housemates - Ziggy in particular - were more inclined to break the rules by discussing nominations. I don't know whether Ziggy and others though too much about it, or didn't care, but the punishments handed out by the British BBs for the rule breaches was generally fairly lame.
One of my biggest dislikes about BBUK is smoking. In the Australian house, housemates are not allowed to smoke. We never even see housemates discussing smoking, which they must do as there have certainly been smokers in each series. Whether this comes down to the laws governing what can be shown on television in each country, or what can be shown in certain time slots, I don't know, but I'm still a big advocate of banning smoking in BB. On the other hand, had BBUK banned smoking, maybe Tracey wouldn't have auditioned at all and we would have missed out on her 'avin it.
I think what it comes down to in the end is fun. The more enjoyment we get out of watching Big Brother, the more we like it. In the BBUK house it was a combination of fun produced by the tasks (soooo much better, well conceived, and hilarious than most Aus BB tasks), by the characters, and quite often both together. Brian in particular was a riot. He was definitely (or should I say "defo") our favourite housemate because we found him so funny. Looking back on it, a lot of the time we were laughing at him, rather than with him, and I'm not sure if I should be comfortable with that.
So much did I love Brian's antics that I actually edited together some of his funnier moments into a half hour piece that I plan to show the next time I host the 1TLC (the 1st Tuesday Laughs Club is where our group of friends gather at a designated host's house on the first Tuesday of each month for an evening of fun and laughter). Taking pride of place in this package is Brian's quiz - the quiz that showed how much we love laughing at stupid people. Not that Brian is particularly stupid - but he certainly acts that way sometimes. This quiz featured Brian being asked three questions: he had to complete lyrics to YMCA, identify which play was not by William Shakespeare (I still find it hard to believe he hadn't heard of the Bard), and answer yes or no to the question "Do women poo?". Top viewing. Here's hoping Brian gets all the cyder he can drink and avoids becoming a yoghurt top.
Like many people we hated Charley. She was immensely frustrating to watch as we just kept yelling for her to shut the hell up. I've never seen such an argumentative and downright nasty bitch. My friend qeyla loved her for that because she made good viewing. Perhaps. As far as Julianne and I were concerned we wanted to see her get evicted much earlier than she was. We were usually chanting "Get Charley Out!" just as fervently as the crowd.
And that's another thing. The BBUK eviction crowd is harsh. Very harsh. Booing Charley is one thing - imho she deserved it - but booing other housemates just because they weren't crowd favourites was shameful. It doesn't matter how loved or hated the Aus BB housemates are, they all get cheered.
As a total package, BBUK is substantially better than AusBB. We loved it. We can't wait for BBUK Series 9.