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Sadly I believe that the show’s producers this BB season will (once again)
go for the haft way measure. This is a shame since it makes for the
dullest of all possible BB houses. I’ve always been something of an
extremist – I want to see the highs and the lows, who wants to see a
‘middle of the road’ BB household ? As follows, are a few personal style suggestions for BB, (hey, if only I was in command of the show). If I sound ‘eviction’ happy, then that’s because I am.
Ψ The ‘rat food’ approach. - See that all food deliveries are done at the
most inconvenient time of day – make them wait an extra day sometimes
(giving some lame excuse for their supplies). Random reinforcement is
always a really fun thing to do to annoy people.
Ψ Cut the utilities – randomly cut the power (except the lights of
course), and maybe the hot water from time to time. This could be done if
housemates are rude, or break the rules. BB could announce that
“…utilities are being cut for most of today, due to continued rudeness of
the housemates”. Lack of a cooker, and lack of a hot shower, might add
some interesting tension in the house. Just imagine, one of the housemates
breaks a rule, and then the power is cut for the rest of the day. The rule
breaking housemate would certainly feel the flack from the other
housemates ! Ψ Prizes - randomly give prizes to housemates who are being treated ‘unfairly’ in the house. For instance, last year when ‘my’ dear Sophie – you remember the incident with miss goody bitching about Sophie, only for Sophie to enter the scene. Well I think it would have been great if BB had made an announcement later that day that “This is Big Brother, Miss Sophie has been selected to receive a new car”. Just imagine how that would have affected the dynamics of the house. BB has the power to manipulate the group dynamic, it should be making use of this power. Ψ Flicking between a lax manner of control and ruling sternly. For instance, one week BB should hold hard to its rules, but then fail totally to command the HM’s the following week. Such irregular standards of control would probably create great uncertainty in the contestants, keeping them mentally sharper perhaps ? Ψ ‘Lock em up’ approach. Keep the HM’s locked up in their bedrooms for extended periods of time. Especially if it is a hot summers day, keep asking them to return to their bedrooms throughout the day – on a randomly done basis of course, for added annoyance.
Ψ ‘The Broken Home’ approach. There are many possibilities here. Block up the toilet for a while perhaps ? This would surely be damn annoying to the housemates, just imagine it ! The housemates’ wouldn’t need to find out that BB is covertly doing this of course. Another suggestion, ‘stuck patio doors’. It’s a warm summers day, but the doors are seemingly stuck, and BB announces ‘Sadly, we are unable to get hold of maintenance crew today’. Faulty cookers, broken fridges, etc – you get the idea. Anything that might help to stir up the tension in the house.
I suppose I could run off a whole list of other possible strategies for BB
to control the housemates, but you get the general idea I hope. I just
think BB should be using its power of control in new and in a more
randomly unexpected style. The key issue is random
punishment/reinforcement. Human beings are notoriously unsettled when
situations become unpredictable. The BB house should be a place of
instability, it should not be a comfortable and reliable place. It remains
a game show after all ! BB4 contestants – knowing what to expect We shall soon have a new bunch of housemates, and most of them will probably have seen a great deal of the previous shows. They will know what to expect, they will be more prepared than any previous housemates. Some of them will be entering the house will a complex mental strategy, based upon the way the media has treated past behaviour in the house. From the way I see things progressing, BB4 contestants look set to get a pretty easy going house vacation this summer. There won’t be any divide, they will probably have even more (legal) drugs than last year. The thing I don’t want to see is BB2 mk.II. Who wants BB2 again ? We saw it, been there, why do some BB fans desire to repeat a previous year ? If Big Brother is to remain a success it must continue to be flexible about its style. The most fundamental aspect of the show remains the ‘control’ aspect. It would be really interesting to see the producers introduce a few of the suggestions I outlined earlier. All I am hoping is this year is some renewed freshness in the show. I believe it is now time that ‘Big Brother’ actually takes the style of an ‘over-controlling dictatorial nemesis’. So what ruling style do you want the BB producers to assume in this years show, rule of the Iron Fist or a liberal easy going approach ?
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