Big Brother...Are We Feeling It?

So...are we? I mean, I'm watching it, sort of, but it's just kind of falling flat for me. The contestants are so aware of the situation, so aware of the platform they are on that I can't really warm to many of them.

Last night was the first eviction, and Tashie left. I remember her from the BBC documentary 'Music, Money and Hip Hop Honeys', which was actually an excellent doc. However, what I remember about Tashie is her desperation to be famous and the hypocritical nature of some of the things she said and did. So when she first walked into the house, I was already kind of against her.

Don't get me wrong, she was an entertaining enough housemate, and I really like her face (not a fan of the Tashie's nose hate brigade!), but the fact that she openly admitted on Bit on the Side that the first thing she was going to do was use her exposure to push her music by jumping in the studio the day after eviction really, REALLY grated on me.

Added to Tashie's fame-hungry desperado persona are Maisy the wannabe presenter and Alex, who has already appeared on Snog, Marry, Avoid, although the make-under doesn't seem to have stuck. In fairness to Alex, she's actually kind of funny and sweet in a clueless kind of way. Jay was clearly a Geordie Shore reject, ditto Harry, but for Made in Chelsea, obvs.

Maybe I'll enjoy it more when they all get so used to being there that they forget about the cameras, the exposure and their future of doing photoshoots for downmarket rags/staged photo-ops for celeb mags.

I am enjoying this evening's episode, with the lovely soft-focus, soft-rock accompanied fake marriage, and now Tashie's gone, I wont be squirming every time she speaks, cries or moves.

For now, I'm going to keep watching...until the boyf bans me from it, of course!

C xxx

All-New Big Brother

I have not watched Channel 5 in years.

Last night, I tuned in of my own free will to watch the launch night of Big Brother 2011. As a fan of BB from the beginning, I felt that it was my duty. I didn't watch too much of Celeb BB (even though I love it) because my other half has been home and banned me from watching it when he was in. We didn't have the internet at this point, so Icouldn't watch it back later, either. Devo'd. I feel as though I genuinely missed out on the Kerry-Lucien-Amy love triangle and the beautiful, if cruelly cut short friendship between Paddy and Sally.

This time, it's going to be different. The other half is back on nights. We have internet access. I'm going to win.

Watching the launch last night, I remembered how much I loved Brian Dowling back when he was an unknown, slightly tubby, screamingly camp stereotype. Now, he looks like a ventriloquist's dummy, with his varnish-coloured face and coiffed to perfection hair. His delivery's pretty wooden too (I'm here all week, thanks guys...). However. I'm still rooting for Brian, and I'm looking forward to seeing him loosen up over the coming weeks.

Sure, the production is flashy and kind of unintentionally choppy, but it works. I especially liked the massive close-ups of the contestants' faces on the side of the house as they made their entrance - talk about unflattering! Every spot, blackhead and wrinkle was on display up there, magnified a hundred times - and man, was it ugly. In an absolutely AMAZING way.

I'm working on a run-down of first impressions of the housemates, which I'll share with you later on today.

C xxx