Twas meant to be a joke (as in the debate about strong women etc)

I honestly don't think that the majority watch it to learn about people. They may inadvertantly learn things via the weekly psychology for beginners programme, but on the whole, my interpretation is that they watch BB as they would a soap opera - made all the more inviting because of it's real-life element.

The question about it being normal to be discussing a programme four months on based on it's entartainment value more or less answers itself. To those who were purely entertained by it, it is a dim and distant memory. To the remaining minority, that would be us , who enjoy the analysis of varying degrees, it remains pertinent - evident by the ongoing discussions of ALL previous BBs.


Last edited by piranhaville : 08-12-2003 at 00:12

those are fair enough points

I only hope the lurkers are judging me rosily for it must be quite amusing to watch us talk deeply about nothing . I suppose its only human nature that once the BB feeding frenzy died down that we would start cannibalising each other

maybe there is a night-class somewhere where they study "the analysis of those that talk about BB when it isnt on and how to measure their sadness scientifically"

I wish we had a low-key winter BB to feed on I need new blood

I have also noticed that all my analysis doesnt seem to count for much with a new set of housemates or does it ?

So what you are saying that there maybe out there there are people analysing us anyalsing bb - like a hall of mirrors - what a brilliant concept - that would make great tv - one bb format, one format of people like us analysing it and then the pyschologists commenting on both ....

Very postmodern indeed.

That seems to be a fair summary

I would disagree about the phsyco-babble aspect, I think that's just another part of the entertainment 'package'

We have discussed this many times and I'm firmly on the cynical side of the argument - we don't need pop psychology to tell us what is going on, we all have brains and can make our own minds up. Geoffrey Beattie's analysis is just his opinion, nothing more, nothing less and is only as valid as mine

It may well be that Beattie and the others perform a valuble function for their patients, who they can study in depth. But I don't believe they bring much to the party on the basis of watching a few clips on telly.

Soap opera with 'real' people is precisely what BB is

While the show is on I want to be entertained and stimulated

Fortunately for us, the nature of the show is that it throws up all kind of observations about human nature, character and personality, which we can happily discuss throughout the dark months of winter. I can't be the only one who much prefers the forum now, when the show is not on
.
Add to this a great deal of ritualistic banter, point-scoring and merriment and I don't think we need make any apologies for hanging around here throughout the winter.

Wait until the 'get a life' posters start turning up and see what reaction they get

Spot on, swingaleg.

Fair enough.

However, I don't think believe that it is necessarily fair or valid to expect the dynamics of a soap opera to be played out in the BB house or to criticise the housemates for not being "entertaining enough" when they act just like other ordinary people and not as characters in a soap.

Just as I don't think it's appropriate to ascribe the characteristics of soap opera archetypes to people in real life. Someone on here really posted about wanting to see "heroes and villains" when actually there is no such thing.

There are limits to viable voyeurism as BB3 proved.

Originally posted by ben4321


However, I don't think believe that it is necessarily fair or valid to expect the dynamics of a soap opera to be played out in the BB house or to criticise the housemates for not being "entertaining enough" when they act just like other ordinary people and not as characters in a soap.

I think I agree with you

The HMs job is to get on with it.

It's up to us to draw out the observations which we think worthy of discussion. This might include the fact that they are boring as hell. This in itself can provoke debate as to why it is the case. Whilst the show is on I prefer something to interest me as I am devoting hours to watching it. I'd be quite happy for that 'something of interest' to be HMs conversing with each other or interacting in interesting ways. Unfortunately BB4 did not provide this

On the whole i agree with you that BB3 was full of pretty odious characters, and indeed I spent nearly all of last winter lambasting them as drunken show-off wannabees. But their odiousness (?) was a starting point for our interest and discussion. The trouble with BB4 is that when it was all over and we'd done the 'Jon is great, Cam is awful' routine, there doesn't really seem much left to talk about

At the end of the day I prefer awful to bland. It gives us something to talk about


Just as I don't think it's appropriate to ascribe the characteristics of soap opera archetypes to people in real life. Someone on here really posted about wanting to see "heroes and villains" when actually there is no such thing.


As I said before the HMs should just get on with it

We create the characters we want to talk about. If an FM wants to persuade us that A or B was a hero or a villain let them get on with it. It's the stuff of forum debate.

yes i agree with these points absolutely swing ands ben - i remember the start of BB3 when some of the housemates thought it was their duty to entertain us (and also showcase any talent they felt they might have) and it was the alison and johnny show... it was nightmare television

However the bb4 housemates went to the other extreme and became so repressed ..

as fms have posted - all we want is for them to be themselves.. of course this is relying on endemol to pick interesting people who are willing to risk opening up..

the thing i missed this year was the lack of any real conversation - none of them seemed particularly interested in each other - teen big brother was quite good in terms of debate and conversation however

if you look at the "views", the forum is still getting a remarkable number of "views".

I have to say I would hate to think of me being judged . I dont think they would do me justice It will be interesting to go back and look at my posts and see what I was like tho I have to say at the moment I cant bare the thought

But there will be plenty of lurkers out there. I knew most of the people here from lurking during BB3.

Besides this forum is our own little BB except evictions are random and unexpected

I suppose it depends what side people want to come down on. Im not saying the psycologists are good (or even right). Most of the time I think they talk a load of rubbish.

The way I see it, we are all psychologists anyway. But certainly for myself I hope to learn about human behaviour from BB. I think the problem is that we cant be sure how much we have learnt from it. I will make up/introduce the term "emotional transfer" . Maybe BB is good in that way

With a script the non-verbal body language probably isnt as important. With BB I think we still are fascinated by it from all the body-language and unspoken behaviour patterns and their subconscious motives etc. (like when the psychologist discussed Justines emotional leakage at Jon staying and Anouska gettting evicted. One of the great BB moments )

I actually dont like soap operas because they are fabricated and nobody lives in streets that have that many incidents. I dont feel I can learn anything from them except what sort of style of writer(s) the producer is hiring (for instance Phil Redmond coming to Emmerdale and dropping a plane on it that the whole village seems to have collective amnesia about now)

Ive just had a horrible thought

The big brother contestants probably all know about DS BB forum and know us and laugh at us

Karma...

maybe they have their own forum that only they can post on to trash us and the public can view it

Perhaps we are in our very own truman show forum experience!

I would cite that the reluctance of the BB4 lot to "open up" as being an inevitable consequence of the excesses of BB3. Who can blame any of the BB4 housemates for keeping their cards close to their chests after the way Adele and Tim were treated?

To my mind, it's BB3, not BB4, that's responsible for the slow death of the overall BB format.

i think you're right, ben...although unlike your good self i enjoyed bb3.
and unfortunately this supposition means that bb5 is doomed...

I think BB5 is going to be a mighty stinker.

Safe to say, I think it will be worse.

What I don't know is in what way it will be worse. Ah well, in just a few months we get to find out.

I think it will be the best ever-well maybe not quite up to BB3 standards but pretty close.I am sure they have learnt from their mistakes.