Mid-series review

BB08 mid-series review (a bit lengthy and quite negative - apologies)

June 7th, 2008 at 4:15pm, EST, by Ridge Rogue

With half of the series gone, it's time for my annual mid-series review of BB. At the end of some past seasons of BB Oz, I have declared in my end-of-series review that the series was either poor or good on a scale from 'Best series ever' down to 'Worst series ever'. Since I started that a few years ago, I have never declared any series since then to be the best ever; only poor or average. I suspect this year that I'm going to declare that BB08 will be the worst series ever. Why? We were lied to again this year in a big way (but I'll admit that there were some good points in BB08). Let me explain this with the cast and the weekly tasks as examples, plus a few other pros and cons of this series (and I won't even bother to mention the weak pre-series promo campaign because I've said enough about that already).

Casting

We were shown nothing but contempt in an even worse manner than ever before. The result of running our favourite show into the ground like this is the lowest ratings ever seen. That laziness on the part of producers has to stop! The casting is again responsible for the show's failure this year. Choosing a few "freaks" in amongst the dummies we were assured wouldn't be there, is not the type of changes viewers wanted. The results over the last 6 weeks is that some HMs didn't want to be there; some were bullied; one broke a leg and left; one was just using the show for a Zoo contract (as they all do every year) and on and on the casting disaster went.

It's funny how I and plenty of others knew countless people at the group auditions that would've been a far better choice for this cast, but again the producers took the lazy option and chose the same old same old, plus a few token "extreme" choices they thought would stop us fans from complaining. Too many dummies and people that haven't lived up to their gimmick (don't tell me, it's the same old story each year, I know). I'll admit that Nobbi and Bianca have been good to watch, but the rest? Get stuffed! OK, Terrence has tried a little bit to keep viewers amused but, like Terri, even he didn't live up to his own promises of sticking it to the younger HMs.

Gimmicks, you ask? It looks increasingly like many of the HMs were told by producers what their little gimmick is: Bianca the smart bookworm; Terri the outspoken one; Saxon the UFO believer and so on. Many of them either failed to consistently play up to their gimmick or most of it was edited out. The whole first half of this series was like a daytime soap: you could go overseas for a while and when you come back the storyline arcs are still the same. That's why the ratings were a flop.

They may as well have hired James E Reily - the former Head Writer of Passions and Days of Our Lives - because he came up with the most bizarre and laughable storylines in the history of those shows until people finally woke up to the fact that he's obviously better suited to sci-fi writing than daytime drama. In fact, Saxon probably would've been right at home with that sci-fi script writing if his little gimmick was to be believed. And let's not forget that these HMs were supposed to be dynamic. We're still waiting to see any hint of these HMs being dynamic six weeks later, and most of them are an embarrassment to their generation.

A lesson about Gen Y

If we have learnt anything from this series, it's that the Liberal government, not only sat on their hands for a range of urgent issues facing this country today but, they failed to appropriately fund the education system over the 11 and a half years when they were in power. It is a damning indictment on a goverment whose leader labelled this show as "stupid" just two years ago. As a result, Generation Y cannot spell properly; doesn't know what 'audacity' and 'indefintely' means'; haven't got a clue where New York or India is; didn't know that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor (except in a movie); have little other knowledge of Australian history and are so out of touch with the world that it is shocking.

They are like that rich girl that recently threw a party (announced on Facebook) in her mother's mansion. The spelling errors in her invitation show that Generation Y can't spell even one word in a sentence correctly. Ironically, given the big deal made about Corey's piss up, and despite thousands of dollars of jewels being stolen at this rich girl's party, a TV ending up in the pool and the coppers being called in, the media made less of a stink about this party (it's the ratings season now, and there are more important news stories breaking supposedly – most of it filler to hide the real stories out there).

And, so, while I'm relaxing on a beach in Maui one day in the future - dreaming of what could've been if Gorgeous Gretel had gone on from BB to be our Prime Minister, Generation Y are the people that will one day run this great land. Be afraid people, be very afraid! In fact, it seems that plenty of them are involved in the production of BB this year, if this series is anything to go by. There's your problem right there. You fu**ing kids have ruined my favourite show and the low ratings prove it. Screw you, bastards Seriously though, the whole series really has been aimed squarely at showing up Generation Y for the bunch of failures we're led to believe they are (even public opinion about Corey didn't really change in that failed attempt to at least try to be positive about his generation). But, of course, it has failed in itself to make entertaining TV and was obviously not a good theme to follow.

Celebrity guests and weekly tasks

Thankfully, I can admit that there were some highlights of sorts in the last 6 weeks, of course. I've been calling for celebrity guests to get those ratings up and Carson did just that. Having Corey there was also something I didn't mind and this site supported his appearance on the show. Peter Powers, though, was quite a bad choice. Most people on the official forum spotted the acting straight away in his special show. I - having studied psychology a bit in uni (not that it makes me an expert) - am a strong disbeliever in hypnosis (it's the scientist's analytical side of me that sees it as crap).

I, quite naturally, saw it as complete bunkum from the start (in the same way I see psychics - as crooks). But, after this debacle, Ollie the seeing-eye dog was probably a welcome addition. This site has been calling for a pet in the house again since 2005. Obviously the HMs mostly weren't interested but viewers saw it as a good task. The “ignore the obvious” task this week was the only other decent one this year. The rest of the tasks failed to hold the short attention span of the 5-year-old viewers the show is aimed at. Even the HMs have seen the tasks as a boring annoyance, like the dog and everything else thrown at them this year. But it seems that the HMs mostly weren't interested in anything this year.

Are we missing Gen Y?

I think that's the problem with choosing too many Generation Y kiddies to be HMs. Most of them don't seem to have a clue about anything and it really makes for dull viewing by comparison to the cast in series one and two (Generation X). It is the Generation X HMs of earlier years that people miss. In fact, a regular visitor at this site for years recently suggested in this site's forum that maybe those of us that fondly remember the earlier years have grown up and moved on a lot more and BB doesn't interest us as much now.

A lot of people this year have seen me around on the official site's forum (I haven't posted there in years but have tried to make an effort this time) and they've remembered me from "the old days" as they call it. Yes, folks, I'm now the senior citizen of the BB Oz internet family of fans. (Many of these new people that have turned up on the various sites this year were just a twinkle in their daddy's eye not long ago and have no idea about the history of BB, or these BB Oz fan and slam sites.) But, I digress.

Maybe it's really that we don't so much miss watching our own generation, because we are tired of these completely clueless Generation Y tossers, it's because we are not engaged enough as viewers through the weekly tasks on the show; the mind games with the HMs (these guys are having a holiday); the missing Gretel effect (the boycott by her fans has had a bigger impact than even I thought) and just having intelligent, real people to watch to start with.

I've mentioned before that we need a Gordon Ramsay; a Simon Cowell; a Lisa Oldfield; a Jeremy Clarkson and a Gretel Killeen through to a Vesna (BB5), and even people like you get in other reality shows that BB just never seems to be interested in having on offer in the cast. It is most frustrating for me and my fellow fans of BB when we don't see these types of people on BB. Most of this year's cast have failed to find any fans out there. It's completely unacceptable casting and it is directly responsible for the failed ratings (failed by my standards, but I'm probably still living in the past when BB had 3 million plus viewers). I feel vindicated in a way that Gretel chose to leave this humiliation. Even John Howard must be feeling vindicated after his "stupid program" comments two years ago.

Out with the old ideas and in with the new

It could've been so much better and put the critics to shame but the opportunity has been completely wasted. What the producers really needed to do before launching this crap this year, was to think of what the real fans would think about their inane ideas (not the slam site critics, but us genuine fans because we're the best judge). The producers probably do genuinely believe, like I said here a while ago, that their ideas look good on paper but they don't seem to put much thought into the execution of them. But the ideas on paper are what they need to look at to ditch in the planning.

If they thought of having a Kombi, get rid of that idea immediately. If thought thought that a tree with a kiddy swing was going to be a magnet for secret HM discussions, get rid of the idea. If they thought anything else that appeals to 5-year-old viewers instead of the audience of original fans as well as newer ones just out of nappies, then they needed to drop those ideas. If they stop catering just to the kiddies and start catering to adults then the ratings will increase. The storyline arcs each week still won't fool us adults, because we've seen it all before, but the kiddies fleeced in the voting will fall for it all hook, line and sinker like they always do.

If they aim the show at adults, then adults benefit from a better show while we leave the voting to younger ones (with the excuse that it's training them to make "responsible" decisions, of course. Not!). If the dumbasses that vote stuff it up by voting out the larger breasted beauty then we'll curse at our TV screen but we'll get over it if there are heaps of entertaining other HMs left there. It would help if all female HMs were decent looking and had 10GG whoppers, or at least ones that weigh 4.3kg each (if Dixie is to be believed about her set), because then us viewers wouldn't have to worry about which big-breasted beauty gets voted out because there'll still be plenty of others left But I'm just being silly, of course (sort of).

Seriously, though, I think the casting needs to step away from having a dumb blonde that sets the women's movement back many years but appeals to 5-year-olds, plus people being told what their gimmick is and "freaks", and instead should concentrate on finding real people for once - with intelligence. Remember Sharna (BB 1)? I didn't like her that much but can you imagine if she was on the show now? What about Sahra (BB2)? I love bi-sexual cuties like her. How would she go down (pardon the pun) in this day and age on BB? God I miss those days.

What about Daniel (BB3); Fryzie (BB4); Vesna (BB5)? These were among the most entertaining HMs we've ever seen. Can you imagine the dream team cast if they were all there together? I'm sure that in a parallel universe, these HMs and Gorgeous Gretel are all enjoying ratings of 3-4 million viewers, but that's not here like it should be. Is the "talent" pool really that dried up in Oz that they've all fu**ed off to get themselves obese, or learn to sing, or whatever is required to be exploited on other reality shows? There must still be at least some people left that the public is willing to watch on BB?

If there is, and the producers can get them next year and the ratings improve, then we won't have to be subjected to late night mobile phone fraud scams (perfectly legal ones) being advertised in earlier timeslots when BB is on. You know the show's in big trouble when that happens. Many of us fans keep saying that the show needs to be moved to a later timeslot and aimed at adults, but without all of the scams thrown in during the show or the ad breaks One day I dream of seeing BB going back to being event TV with premium ad rates on Ten because of the massive ratings. I must be dreaming too much but I still hold out hope that it can still happen one day.

What else?

Oh well, we can only dream of better days perhaps and you can't blame me for being a fan like that (with high hopes for BB). But moving on and I'd like to look at a few other cons of this series. Probably the most laughable moment in the last 6 weeks was when they pulled out the old lie detector crap again. As I said in my commentary, I lead in way in exposing this nonsense two years ago (and I don't mind bragging that no one did a better job than me in that because no one did - I felt that strongly about it at the time and my readers praised my efforts and agreed with me that it was the best expose). So this time, I didn't even bother to say much more about it, it was that much of a pathetic joke.

What about the lockers with the removable backing? Isn't the crew supposed to be grabbing clothes from them so we get to see some jugs when they've got nothing to wear? What became of that idea? Big Mouth desperately needs some footage of boobs because I'm getting fed up with seeing penises in every episode. I see this show not returning in 2009, and we already know that Tony and Rebecca won't be reprising their role as hosts if it did return anyway. There really hasn't been anything to discuss on Big Mouth, so Paul made the right decision in getting out straight away.

Conclusion

It really has been a most dismal series indeed, I'm really sad to say. I think we need to send Stephen Tate back to Idol and Virginia back to Hi-5 or wherever she came from at Nine (like Kris Noble did with their kids shows). This clearly hasn't worked. We need people that aren't hellbent on running the show into the ground. I swear that it's still a great concept for a show but the format is underutilsed so much that you wouldn't believe how frustrating it is for us genuine fans to see it go under so badly like this.

The casting needs significant improvement next time. They also need to come up with better weekly tasks. They really should scrap FNL now that it's obviously no longer required and bring back Up Late and Uncut. The daily show desperately needs to be moved to a later timeslot (8:30pm at the earliest) and I think we probably do need to find a new host (someone of Gorgeous Gretel's calibre, because King Kyle and Jackie O are no match for Gretel's greatness). But most importantly, we need an EP and other producers that actually have a clue and some common sense. And we've got 6 more weeks of this crap to go. God help us all!

Let me borrow a line from the pre-series promos and say: BB08 - I Don't Think So! Surely the producers must've known we'd all use that to criticise the series? If not, it just shows how stupid they really are.