Good vs Evil
It seems the game has broken down into a two-sided, good-vs-evil dynamic. Each week, one side wins and makes a strike on the other side and then, in the next HOH competition, the power shifts to the other side and we start again. I personally don’t care for this two party system of BB because it means that, at any time, one side could end up losing HOH two weeks in a row and the game is basically over because they lose the numbers.
If we look back to BB6, we see the exact same pattern. The Sovereign 6 and the NerdHerd did battle each week and took out each other’s key players. Then the NerdHerd eventually became the majority in the house and all the cool people ended up getting voted out. This left us with Maggie (most boring HG ever!) and Ivette in the final two while all the good players (and more entertaining characters) like Janelle and Kaysar were gone.
I worry that this season could be the same way since the Neo-NerdHerd (Adam, Ryan, Natalie and Sheila) could easily take over the house for another week, sending the more entertaining HGs packing and leaving us with an extremely boring final few weeks.
Interestingly enough, both this season and the legendary BB6 had twists involving partners. This season it was “soul mates” and in BB6 it was secret partners, people who knew each other outside of the game playing as if they’d never met.
While partner twists make the first few weeks entertaining as the duos form interconnecting alliances, the couple aspect can lead to a dreadfully boring final round. Inevitably, the partnerships lead to forming a two-sided house and we get the tense back-and-forth struggle until eventually, one side takes over and eliminates the other side entirely. The back-and-forth might be exciting, but the final episodes are destined to majorly suck when it gets super obvious who will be sitting in the last two seats.
Maybe I’m just scarred from the horrible NerdHerd winning BB6, but I think the best seasons have been ones where multiple smaller alliances were formed and it seemed to be a free for all in the last few weeks. Think about last years exciting final HOH competition… Evel Dick Donato stood out there holding onto his key, trying to secure that he and his daughter Danielle would be the final two, but ended up losing part I to Zach. Would Zach end up winning the final HOH and possibly the game? Would Dick be able to pull through for his daughter in the next round? The uncertainty made the last couple episodes engaging and exciting. Everything was still up in the air to the bitter end before the Donatos ended up making it all the way to the final two.
I hope that next year we get to see some real solid game play out of people. I’m talking strategic moves, shaking things up, playing selfish instead of going “with the house” on every single nomination or eviction. I for one am so tired of people claiming they’re doing “what’s best for the house” when making any moves in this game. That’s a cop out and anyone who honestly does what’s best for the house needs to remember that there is only one winner in Big Brother. I hate to quote James Rhine from BB6 but “Big Brother is not a team sport.”
I sincerely hope James or Josh wins HOH tonight because, if we’re gonna be stuck in the two party system, I’d like to see the annoying members of the NeoNerdHerd (especially Natalie and Sheila) take a hit this coming week. Then there would be a chance that the final 4 could include wild cards like James or Josh who could turn on each other or on their own alliances to get to the last seats. Tell me a James/Josh/Ryan/Adam final 4 wouldn’t be entertaining! Josh would try to team up with Ryan and James to get Adam, but James and Adam could easily team up and eliminate Josh… the scheming would be totally wild.
I guess we’ll know in a few hours when the live eviction/HOH episode airs.
It looks like you were right. I see Natalie is the HoH and she has nominated people from the evil team. I am surprised that the entire house is pranking Shelia though since she is on the team on which the HoH resides on. But I am guessing the people doing most of the pranking are your James and Adam.
What happened to Dick? Did he appear already? I am guessing if he did and you aren’t writing about it, it must have been only a guest appearance. I can’t believe I am saying this but its a shame he wasn’t there longer. I imagine he would have really stirred up things.
Dick did return, but just to wake the HGs up by banging pots and pans and then to host the competition. It was the challenge where they have to drink a series of really disgusting things and, since he was the champ last year, he hosted this year.
He also ended up winning a Les Paul. The HGs had to drink a certain number to win it, but if they couldn’t beat Dick’s score than he would win it. No one beat Dick’s score, so he won.
I think it would have been so awesome if he’d stayed in there for a day or something or suddenly become HOH. That could have made this game entertaining again, since it’s been painfully dull lately.
It was interesting to see who Dick liked and who he hated. He liked James and he made fun of Josh a lot, but not in a mean way. Sheila was all over him and I think he made a couple cracks about her, which was hilarious because she thinks he’s in love with her.
Anyway, his appearance was so short that it just wasn’t worth posting a whole blog over. If you missed it and you still wanna catch it, you can always watch the full episode he was on on CBS.com for free, by the way.
Wow, Big Brother episodes are online? Thats good to know. Thank you for the update about Dick. Your idea about making him guest HoH would have been a lot of fun. Even if he could not stick around, the idea of having a non-housemate as a HoH definitely would have stirred the pot a bit.