Big Brother by Trashwire.com

Initially, I was just going to reflect after I saw both shows but I got drawn in so I decided to write down some of my feelings as I was watching the show.

I know Alexis is frustrated with Big Brother 11 but I wonder if she saw the veto episode?  There weren’t too many suprises but the events that took place were entertaining.  The show starts off where the nominations ceremony ended and I was suprised to see how hard Lydia took it.  I thought with all the tatoos she would have a tougher exterior but apparently she does not.  She took the nomination hard and for her it really reminded her of being an outcast in high school.  As a guy, I never really understood why women are so sensitive when it comes to how people feel about them.  I was by no measure a popular kid in high school but at the same time, I rarely ever have thoughts about what a horrible time high school was.  For women, it just seems to be the exact opposite.  Whatever.

For those new to the show, you cannot just observe game play but you also have to observe the production timing of the show.  For instance, last episode there was little hint of Jeff being an outsider to the athlete’s clique but in this episode they made sure to emphasize that early in the episode.  They hinted at it last episode but not this much.  Clearly there is going to be serious reprecussions coming out of this later in the episode or season.  Second, Braden gets his own segment.  Last week Big Brother did a good job of profiling a few of the house guests but not Braden.  Why do they make sure to profile him now and really give him his own special segment?  Braden is in trouble.

Back to the game play.  I wonder how much of a fan of the show Chima really is?  Michelle was on point when she wondered why Chima would select Natalie for the veto competition?  Why select a member from the team that nominated you?  If the other house guests didn’t know the brains and the athletes are in cohoots before, they do now.  Rookie mistake.

We are now in the veto competition and about fifteen minutes into the show.  Lydia has gotten a lot of air time so far but Chima has not.  Chima is likely safe for this week.  Lydia might still be in some danger.  Its either that or CBS is pushing hard for her to be the viewer’s favorite this year.  Who knows, maybe its a bit of both.  The veto ceremony was interesting to me. The most interesting part was the strategies the players used.  Chima, Lydia, and Jesse were targeting words while Russell just wanted to keep letters away.  I have given Russell flack in the past but I have to admit, that was not a bad idea on his part.  By the way, haters of Jesse, give him credit.  He missed the first ‘u’ in continuously but be honest, how many of you haven’t missed one of those ‘u’s or even knew that was a word?  Russell took the early lead in the veto competition by spelling shotgun.  Was I the only one who wasn’t surprised yet was a bit scared that he used that word?  In the real world that guy is no threat to me but I will not go out of my way to ever tick him off!  Jeff tried to spell the brand technotronics.  I wasn’t even going to mention this but it was highlighted on ‘The Soup’ this week and I thought it was unfair.  Though its not a word, it is a brand.  By the laughter it received, I guess not many people are familiar with the brand.  In the end, Lydia did not win and as climatic as CBS tried to make it, it should have been obvious she wasn’t going to win.  She waited until the last second to slam down her lid yet she had a word in mind.  If she had a word in mind but needed all the time to complete the competition, obviously she didn’t find all her letters.  Your winner of the veto competition: Russell.

For the viewers who watched this episode in real time they probably were a bit dissapointed but since I know Braden was evicted, I was even more more curious to see what happened next.  Russell seemed to like the nominations (even though he would love to put Jeff up on the block) so who goes down so Braden can go up?

Before we get to that we get our first confrontation of the season.  Russell comes at Jeff hard in front of the entire house because he tried to spell the brand technotronics.  Russell’s intent was to embarrass Jeff and to show the rest of the house how phonie he is.  I don’t even know what the outcome of this will be yet but I know Russell made a mistake.  The idea wasn’t a bad one but his execution was.  By him confronting Jeff without provication it might embarrass Jeff but it certainly won’t overshadow the likely opinion in the house that Russell is a hothead and unstable.  That is going to put a big target on his back.  Anyway, it ends up with Russell storming out of the backyard leaving Jeff with the rest of the house guests.  I become torn here because Jeff then gets into it with Natalie and you know how much I like that woman (but I do like Jeff too, just not in the same way).  Jeff made a mistake here by getting into it with Natalie.  He should have let the awkward silence continue or at least wait for someone besides himself to break it.  I don’t think Natalie was going to be as confrontational as Russell.  She may have followed up but it would not have gotten as heated as it did with Russell.  It ends with Natalie really getting into Jeff about his lack of commitment to his team.  It wasn’t as heated of an argument as it was with Russell but it was pretty heated.  I walked away from this segment of the show with two thoughts.  One, even though I do not think Russell planned it out this way, his plan to alienate Jeff worked to some degree.  Him and Natalie definitely made it clear that he is on the ‘athletes’ team in name only but because of how they attacked him it probably will rally the other house guests around him.  Jeff is still considered a jock and thus one of the strongest players in the house.  Also, he isn’t all in your face like the other members of his team so the other house guests (except Laura who is essentially Erica but more insecure and more self absorbed) will see him as a tool to take down the athletes.  My other thought is Jeff could have handled this better.  If he lets Natalie say what she wanted and just apologize for the bad word selection, all of this would have been squashed and Russell would have been made to look like a fool.  Jeff’s temper got the best of him and made some what of a target on his back.  I have no negative words for Natalie…yet.

So the rest of the episode focusses on the backdooring of Braden.  Some people are going to credit Lydia solely for putting this plan into action but I am going to give some of the credit to Jesse as well.  First, please remember what was said during the days upcoming to the nomination ceremony.  It wasn’t Jesse and Natalie who were all about evicting Lydia, it was Braden and Natalie.  Yes, Jesse did nominate her but I am not sure if it wasn’t to appease Braden and Natalie.  Now with both of them seeming to be on board with saving Natalie and backdooring Braden, Jesse played the game right, rolled with the punches and allowed this plan to go into effect without doing much of the heavy work.

The veto ceremony went as planned and Lydia was taken off the block and Braden was put on the block.  Very uneventful but its worth noting that Ronnie made a mistake by lying to Russell that he didn’t tell Braden about being backdoored.  The right play (lol, like I know the right play) was to tell him, I told Jordan and a couple of others to see if they would endorse it.  Technically thats not a lie because Braden walked in on him telling Jordan and Jeff.  Ronnie is in the sights of Russell now and thats not a good thing.  If Russell can control his anger, Ronnie is in danger.  Some might say that might be difficult for Russell but I disagree.  This is a tangent but its worth noting.  CBS is under the same media umbrella as SpikeTV.  I believe that if Russell keeps his emotions under control, the folks at CBS will try to get him on the Ultimate Fighter which airs on Spike.  While anger and fury makes for a better MMA fighter to the public, UFC is very clear that all their fighters have controlled anger and controlled fury.  If Russell gets kicked out by the producers for losing his temper, his shot at the UFC is done.

Wow, this turned out a lot longer than I thought it would be.  Stay tuned to part II – the eviction show!

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