Big brother house...this is Davina, please do not swear! (Big Brother (TV Series))

Member Name: wendz86

Product:	Big Brother (TV Series)
Date:	10/06/09 (71 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Can be very entertaining

Disadvantages: Getting a bit boring now

Well it is that time of year again when Big Brother takes over channel 4. Big Brother is a bit like marmite you are going to love it or hate it. I have been a big lover of it since the first series back in 1998. I haven't always enjoyed every series as much as each other but have tended to watch at least some of each one.

As I said Big Brother began in 2000 on Channel 4. The idea was quite original and out there at the time. They were going to put a group of members of the general public in to a house together. This house was going to have cameras everywhere and we were going to be able to watch these people's every moves. This simple idea was quite amazing alone for the first series. The kinds of people they put in the house were fairly normal and not a lot tended to happen. It was still great TV though. Unfortunately it is not going to be fun watching a bunch of people sit in a house for 10 years so they have had to spice it up a bit with some ideas being more successful than others.

The actual house is one of the best bits. Each year they do the house up and change it. It is always quite exciting to see what the house looks like each year. When the show began they had separate bedrooms for the boys and girls and all the beds were single as well. Over the years the bedrooms have merged into one, mainly due to the fact that the producers probably want the housemates to get it on. They also have added double beds to spice things up a bit. The house normally has a lounge and kitchen area. The housemates are normally expected to cook their own food. They are given a budget and they have to write a shopping list which gets delivered. This is one of the things that normally causes the most arguments as people do get very hungry. Some years they have even done tasks so that the housemates can try and win a luxury shopping budget or be left with hardly anything. The lounge usually has interesting seating that change year to year. The housemates do not have a TV or anything like this for entertainment so they have to provide this their selves most the time. There is a bathroom, this has become more of a focus in recent years. The only place the housemates have some privacy is when they are on the toilet. They still get filmed in the shower etc! The most important room in the house is the diary room. This is a room that the housemates can go in to speak to 'Big Brother'. There is a big chair in this room for the housemates to sit on, the colours and style of this change every year. There is a button outside which the housemates must press and then they will be granted access to the room. In some years there have been hidden rooms that housemates only find out about at later dates.

The housemates are probably the most important part to the programme. They are chosen during auditions around the country and then are introduced to the house, usually all in the beginning but sometimes for various reasons they enter later. They have a video played of clips of them before they go in. This usually involves them saying something scandalous or outrageous. This then results in the crowd booing them as they go in. As I said earlier the housemates in the beginning were quite normal, this has changed a lot though. The producers are obviously trying to get as much controversy and arguments as possible as the housemates they select are usually all opposites of each other. They usually have a couple of gay or lesbian people in the house, a few mad people, some bitchy women and the token good looking people. These people all come from various backgrounds so are obviously not going to get on brilliantly. In the first couple of series everyone got on well, which was nice but they seem to prefer arguments now. There have been quite a few arguments in the house, with people even getting kicked out because of them.

Throughout their time in the house various tasks are usually set. These usually have some sort of reward at the end of them such as winning a party with some music and alcohol (which the housemates do not have any access to normally). These tasks can vary from having to stay awake as long as possible to having to learn a different language. To begin these tasks were always quite easy but now they are a lot harder and the housemates often fail. There is usually some sort of punishment for failing.

Each week on the show a couple of more of the housemates are put up for eviction. This is usually chosen by the housemates. They all have to go into the diary room one by one and state which two housemates they want to put up for eviction and why. They usually claim they hate doing this but seem to get quite into it all the same. Then the public have the chance to vote for the person that they think should be evicted. On Friday nights Davina McCall who is the presenter of the show announces who has been evicted. That person then has to leave the house and normally gets greeted by a crowd who will either boo or cheer. They then get interviewed by Davina and shown a video of their best bits.

In the final week the last few contestants have the public vote for who they want to win. There is another show and each contestant is evicted one by one till just the winner is left. The winner usually gets a big fan fare and wins £100,000. They are bound to make much more than this though through magazine deals etc, as are all the losers.

Big Brother has been one of the things that has really made celebrity culture prominent in today's society. It created a new breed of Z list celebrities which for some reason I can't help but be interested in. Some of the contestants have become very famous including the late Jade Goody. I think this has meant that a lot of people now enter for fame rather than the experience unfortunately.

I don't enjoy Big Brother as much as I used to but I do still watch it. I wouldn't really get upset if I missed an episode. I think that they have made it too weird with the people they bring in and also some of the things that they do to 'spice it up a bit'. I much preferred the first few series even if they were a bit more boring. I think they were right to change it as it couldn't have carried on for so many series with the same format. I do however think maybe it is time to call time on this programme.

Overall I think Big Brother is an enjoyable programme that is a bit of a guilty pleasure but maybe it is time for channel four to think of something new.

Summary: A bit of a guilty pleasure