Unfairness Part 2 - Big Brother

Celebrity Big Brother has been gracing our screens recently, in case you hadn't noticed. I have kept quiet in this blog about it, mainly because I don't want to be a CBB bore. All that changes today. Channel 4 have persisted with this format and made it a continuing success, bringing consistently high ratings and successfully entertaining he general public.

So, well done Channel 4.

I have found it very interesting indeed watching people who rely heavily on telling different versions of events to different people, in order to keep “in” with them. Of course, in the house there is nowhere to hide. As viewers, we see everything - so when someone deliberately tells lies about an encounter, we see the hypocrisy, and it is reflected in our voting when they are up for eviction.

I suspect that it is impossible to stay fully aware of the implications of having everything watched by a nation of addicts. This could be why people continually fall into the same traps. Ultimately, I like the way that good people are shown for what they are, and bad people cannot hide forever, they succeed for a while, but they are not permitted to win. I particularly like the way they still try. I like that a lot.

Of course, along the way, the producers have to construct devices to achieve variety and keep viewers interested. There is a need, in all television, to ring the changes and keep it fresh. I understand this very well.

I just have a complaint about the abuse of supposed privacy that I feel is very unfair indeed, and is done for no other reason than to cause division. I am referring, of course, to those moments in the diary room where Big Brother has chosen to show the other group members without telling the house-mates concerned.

As far as I am concerned, the diary room is explained to the house-mates as a place of safety, where they can talk freely to Big Brother, and the viewers. Anything said there can be seen by the other members of the group, but not until they leave the house. That way, what is said there does not impact on the happening in the house.

In breaking this understanding, Big Brother has exploited a sense of safety specifically created for the house-mates' comfort. There is precious little humanity in the Big Brother experience, I believe they are removing a good part of what is left.

It leaves the Big Brother House a bleak and loveless place, where everyone is fighting only for themselves, and where even the basic tenants of safety put there by Big Brother cannot be relied upon.

I pity the forthcoming house-mates this Summer, but will be watching whenever possible.

Comments

[Ian]

Being brief, I think it's rubbish.

[Mr. Mavin]

I feel false by saying it is rubbish as I live outside the broadcast range of Channel 4. I can only go on what I see in blogs, read in papers and listen to people talk about it.

However, maybe you can say that CBB and BB itself stimulates conversation amongst friends, collegues and the public unlike anything else .... so maybe it does indeed have a purpose ....