when life is fiction and tv reality

[darren_stranger]

Watching Big Brother has long been one of my not so secret guilty pleasures.

Despite opinions on the lack of 'reality' in people putting on a front in an artificial situation, i do find it interesting as there's some degree of unscripted human interaction there, and people can't put on an act 24 hours a day. At any rate it's better than most of the other drek we're getting served on tv of late, though that's not saying much.

I also find it useful to highlight my own prejudices. Every year i start out disliking the latest crew, dismissing them as mouthbreathing bogans. But after a few weeks they usually grow on me and i'm reminded that even mouthbreathing bogans are capable of human warmth, friendship and intelligent conversation, and that i could probably learn not to be so much of a fucking snob.

But this year's lot - i don't know. One minute i'm buying all the "love ya mate, it's all right" platitudes, then the next i'm watching the reality bitchslap of a group of people gleefully relishing the abject emotional distress of one of their companions (the designated underdog, of course).

Oh well, if i want something resembling reality, i shouldn't expect to be spared reminders of people's capacity for wilful cuntishness. Still, it pissed me off enough to post Big Brother shit on my el-Jay, so it's obviously touched on a sore point.

Comments

[hbdeath.livejournal.com]

i'm reminded that even mouthbreathing bogans are capable of human warmth, friendship and intelligent conversation

...and then they do something that reminds you why you considered them to be mouthbreathing bogans in the first place. Like that twat Hotdogs (as if calling himself that weren't bad enough).
I loathe the whole Big Brother phenomenon but, my best efforts notwithstanding, I still manage to pick up on what's happening via osmosis from other sources. However, I will confess to finding Kate immensely attractive.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

However, I will confess to finding Kate immensely attractive.

She looks like that actress, played Galadrial. Kate Winslett?

After having seen her in the police uniform, I tip an FHM/whatever shoot.

[strang-er.livejournal.com]

Cate Blanchett?

I actually spent ages trying to think who Kate reminded me of. I was convinced it was someone i knew personally, but now i think it's actually Claudia Karvan in Secret Life of Us.

After a while, i think the BB people start reminding me of themselves, so it's hard to tell.

[strang-er.livejournal.com]

The 'mouthbreathing bogans' bit was probably a bit of red herring on my part (more to do with always feeling i have to justify watching the show in the first place).

I think what bugged me about the incident in question was that it's something you see in real life all too often (group bitchiness and bullying) and isn't by any stretch restricted to bogans. (Hell, even i don't live in enough of a fantasy world to pretend that goths etc aren't every bit as bad for that, if not worse). It just highlighted one of humanity's less attractive tendencies, the inherent nastiness people are capable of in a herd mentality, thrown up in a setting where the people usually show they can get along okay when forced to coexist (even despite manipulations to bring them into conflict).

[baralier.livejournal.com]

I don't watch it and have actively avoided watching it since after the first series (though I think I watched the first episode of *celebrity* big brother to work out who the supposed celebrities were).

I can only go by what I've heard over the antics of waving penisis about and something about master and slave and warming of toilet seats.

If I want to watch yobbos carrying on like complete twats I'll catch a train down to Dandenong or Frankston station and hang out there for a couple of hours.

[blackjewls.livejournal.com]

Usualy there is nothing else to watch. I too watch BB if I am home, amusing what bugs people when there is nothing else to interact with. That sausage guy is a real ass.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Usualy there is nothing else to watch. I too watch BB if I am home, amusing what bugs people when there is nothing else to interact with

The ABC news?

[blackjewls.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that is after BB, 7.30PM

[agent-riotdot.livejournal.com]

this years housemates are really really crap lol.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

I agree.
I share the same reaction each year, and each year I come to change my mind after a spell, to some degree.

This year, I had high hopes briefly with Tim, but he seems to have turned into "one of the boys", and I don't think there's been a decent conversation at all.

It is a fascinating drama, if nothing else.

I am feeling distinct distate for Christie and the masters pushing Vesna like that.
Its quite uncomfortable to watch too.

[strang-er.livejournal.com]

What got me about the Vesna incident is they way people can be so crap when they get into the group mentality. It was really disheartening watching four or five people gleefully enjoying someone's suffering, actually laughing at the fact they'd reduced her to a sobbing wreck. On their own, any one of them (except perhaps one or two of the boys) might have had some compassion for her, but together in a pack it was like a group of schoolkids picking on the unpopular kid, or a cage full of budgies attacking a sick one and pecking it to death. The nastiness people are capable of in a herd really disgusts me, and i can't decide if it makes me more angry or miserable.

[pvcboy.livejournal.com]

"However, I will confess to finding Kate immensely attractive"
I think Kate is a two faced dog....bring back RAUNCHY RACHAEL i say :P

[strang-er.livejournal.com]

Mmm, she did have a cute brattishness to her. Or was it a brattish cuteness?

I find it hard to lust for any of the remaining inmates - most of them have Rooted Personality Syndrome.

[velvetclaw.livejournal.com]

Yes, obivously I'm scrolling through your LJ.

Have you read Ben Elton's - oh hell and bother - Dead Famous?
An English Big Brother show, complete with all the "I love you's" and 'She's a slag", and someone ends up murdered, although there are cameras everywhere, and all on all the time. (no, not poisoned)
More of a social commentary than mystery, given it's Ben E, but if you enjoy BB, do read this - I think you'll die laughing.
Enough LJ reading!