We are going back to High School!
Hey everyone. As may have noticed, I am not Alexis, I am Dean, an avid follower of Big Brother and of trashwire.com. This season Alexis has allowed me to post my thoughts on Big Brother with all of you and I am really excited about it! A couple of things to note before I get started: 1. I am a full-time student and I do work. While I would like to watch every episode as it happens, it doesn’t always work out that way. I will likely see every episode but its unlikely to happen on the day it airs. 2. I am not a super-fan. There was a time when I wanted to watch the live feeds and see whats going on in the house 24/7 but not anymore. Lets be honest, the quality of the show and contestants have gone down a bit in the last few years. I think thats it. Read my recap of episode one “after the jump.”
*Note: if it isn’t immediately apparent, I wrote this as I was watching the show.
Welcome to season 11 of Big Brother. Cliques is the theme of this year’s season. Julie goes out of our way to mention that it will be similar to high school cliques and immediately half of the viewing audience is taken back to a bad place. The cliques I think I heard Julie mention are ‘the brains,’ ‘the atheletes,’ and the odd balls. As we are introduced to the house guests, Julie dares us to try and guess which clique each house guest would fall under. If Big Brother is anything like the last five seasons, the house guests will be transparent enough that this should be an easy task.
We now meet the “suprised” house guests. I am not sure why they are suprised though. I would think being filmed by a tv camera would be a giveaway that they will be on the show but who knows, maybe these people applied to multiple reality shows and aren’t sure which one they got picked for. Here are your contestants:
Jeff – He is athletic and appears to be a man’s man. They record him playing football and so far he seems pretty down to earth. I like him.
Ronnie – He is a computer geek. I can’t get a fix if he should be in the brains or odd ball’s clique though based on how he explained his computer setup I am going to say he was an odd ball. Being a computer geek myself, I wonder if CBS asked him to use as simple terms as possible to explain his processor and such. While thats in doubt, what isn’t is that like in high school, Ronnie will be picked on and ridiculed while he is in the house. I wonder how many days before he has a breakdown and to what magnitude?
Jordan – She is so chipper! Can’t stand it. I am going to guess she is going to be grouped with the atheletes because she seems like she would have been a cheerleader in high school. She seems like a nice person. She came off confident but not arrogant.
Natalie – She is big into karate and is a small woman (she admitted to this) but I don’t think she will be part of the athlete clique. I am thinking she only got into karate later in life because of her size and she didn’t want to feel as small inside as she looks from the outside. She is a cutie though and thus because I am a man that is enough for me to like her.
Kevin – He is gay. Stereotypically gay. He likes art so he probably wasn’t a brain. He likely was an odd ball.
Chima – Pronounced ‘Cheema’ is likely a brain and had collagen injections in her lips. She came off to me as a bit haughty but who knows, maybe I feel that way because without even meeting her, I know she won’t give me the time of day.
Braden – Athlete or odd ball. This is my reasoning. The guy is big into surfing so I want to say athlete but then he said surfing was better than sex and I have never met a male athelete who enjoyed their sport more than sex. Its at least 1a and 1b.
Michelle – She reeks of inferiority complex. She was definitely a brain in high school and is a scientist now. There is nothing wrong abou that but she kinda hinted that this show will be her opportunity to kind of relive high school in the way she wanted to originally live it. I wonder who will take advantage of that first?
Russell – Russell is either a boxer or a MMA fighter. He definitely was an athelete in high school. Dude reeks or testosterone and comes off really macho but the jury hasn’t come back with a verdict yet.
Laura – Laura is a professional bimbo with implants that are way too big for her body. She is insecure but portrays herself as secure. Being in the Big Brother house has a way of breaking down false facades so I am curious how long it will take to break down hers. I am going to shock you here – she was probably a brain in high school. Actually, she wrote down that she was a brain but in actuallity she was one of the “cool kids.” I am wondering if Julie was completely open about how many cliques there actually will be in the big brother house?
Lydia – Is a professional tatoo artist and obviously was an oddball in high school. She will likely be the fan favorite early on. My favorite…hmmm…I am not so sure.
Casey – He is a teacher and probably is the oldest house guest in the house. He still DJs so he is trying to hold onto his youth. Hmm, being a teacher should mean that he is a brain but being a 35+ year old amateur DJ says he probably was an odd ball.
We now return back to the set with the house guests in three rows of four. The first four house guests to enter the house are Ronnie, Laura, Russell, and Kevin. I wasn’t originally going to mention this part of the show but I noticed something. Ronnie put his bags down in one room and everyone else seem to move as quickly away from that room. The foundation for him being the house outcast is quickly starting to take shape.
The next four to enter the house are Casey, Braden, Chima, and Natalie. We learn here that Casey will make every attempt to relive his youth through Braden.
The last four to enter are Lydia, Michelle, Jeff, and Jordan. They get the plastic room which looks like the deep-end of a swimming pool. Michelle indirectly suggests she will violate her marriage vows by sneaking a kiss from Jeff to prove that even though there would be no chance of a guy like Jeff thinking of her romantically while in high school, he would now since they are all grown up and he will see her inner beauty.
The house guests now gather in the living room for the traditional “getting to know each other” part of the first episode. Like in previous years some people are honest others are not. Here are my highlights:
- Apparently I am not the only one who thinks Chima is a bit stuck up.
- Natalie said she was 18. That kind of freaked me out because I shouldn’t think of someone that young to be attractive but then she said in the diary room she is actually 24 and she just wants people to think she is young and naive. Personaly, I am just happy to know I am not a predator.
- Kevin is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. Dude reminds me so much of Marcellas, which as we will all can agree, was one of the top 5 house guests of all time.
- Jeff comes off again as a ‘man’s man.’ He isn’t like douchebag Roddy from season 3. Like Roddy, all the female house guests are drooling over him yet he still comes of as likeable to the other male house guests.
- Casey has it written all over his face that he will do anything to avoid becoming the father figure in the house. Not because its a stereotype but because it would force him to accept that he is 40 years old.
- Russel comes off as an arrogant prick. I have no problem with that because I think he knows that and is okay with it.
The next segment of the show, Julie introduces the names of the cliques again. I missed one: Popular. So there are four cliques: Athletes, Brains, Popular, and Off-Beat. Here are my updated predictions of who will be in which clique:
Athletes – Jeff, Natalie, Russell
Brains – Ronnie, Michelle, Chima
Popular – Jordan, Laura, Braden
Off-Beat - Lydia, Casey, Kevin
Julie tells the house guests that they will be playing as members of cliques. Because 95% of reality show contestants are insecure about themselves, there is a noticeable hush from the house guests. When she mentions though that if a member of your clique is the head of household, no one in your clique can be nominated, everyone seems to be okay because even though in moments they will be revealed for what they were considered as in high school, it may lead to protection in the game.
To make the situation even better, Julie said she will not reveal the cliques until later in the show. What that means is the house guests get to obsess about how they will be labeled. These mind games would make Dr. Will proud!
I probably should mention this now since Julie has already mentioned it several times. There will be a suprise 13th housemate. The house guests don’t know this yet but they were warned to ‘expect the unexpected.’ I wonder if CBS has copyrighted that phrase?
We now return from commercial break and the house guests go out to the backyard to find out which clique they will be a part of. I am considering changing my predictions again because I should expect the unexpected. Maybe the cliques are just in name only and don’t actually reflect who or what the house guests were in high school. Turns out though its not just in name. Here are your teams:
Athletes: Natalie, Russell, Jeff
Offbeat: Lydia, Kevin, Casey
Popular: Jordan, Laura, Braden
Brains: Chima, Ronnie, Michelle
Hey, I got it all right. I am not really cheerful because it wasn’t that hard to figure it out.
The next part of the show is the HoH competition. I guess we are about to find out who is the mysterious house guest because no one in the yard will be HoH. I think thats a good thing. In past years, those who shouldn’t be in the house are usually targetted first. At least this garuntees them a place in the house for one week.
We find out who maybe returning to the house: its either Cowboy from season 5, Jessica from season 8, Brian from season 10, and Jesse from season 10. I am really not excited about any of them returning to the house but if I was forced to choose, I would choose either Brian or Jessica. Brian because he was evicted so early (even though he deserved it) and Jessica because…well, did I mention I was a guy? Ok.
Jesse turned out to be the former house guest to return to the house. Basically what happened was each of the four former house guests were assigned to teams (which should be obvious who was assigned to which teams). The athletes won the backyard competition which required the house guests to be suspended in air holding onto a toliet seat while receiving a wedgie. The team which held on the longest won a spot in the house for one of the former house guests. Since the athletes won and Jesse was assigned to the athlete team, Jesse won the right to return to the house.
Thats where we left off. Normally at the end I like to make predictions but I don’t know enough about the contestants to make any judgements. Even Laura seems like a different person in the diary room than when we first met her. My early favorites, not to win but people I like, are Lydia and Kevin. Fortunately they seem to like each other so hopefully that will be to their benefit.
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