Originally Posted by
hmeister:
“I've noticed that since it moved to Channel 5 the show has become almost exactly like TOWIE, Geordie Shore and Made In Chelsea with all the name tags, lack of live feed, music and filming style.
Are the producers now trying to get rid of all old fans to target the types who watch those shows
? So the types of people who worship braindead morons like Joey Essex, Amy Childs and Mark Wright (UGH) are now the sole target audience?”
I don't think it's quite like that.
I think the Channel 4 version was the worst culprit for feeding us stereotypes.
Channel 4 created the template for thick but loveable housemates, or babies of the house, boy growing into a man, and all manner of that kind of crap.
Intelligent housemates in the Channel 4 era were frequently presented to us as their own stereotypes. Usually as geeky, or boring, in other words they were presented to us in a negative way. Thick as mince housemates? Channel 4 loved them, and let us know it.
I think that Channel 5 do a reasonable job of presenting housemates to us who are quite intelligent as okay people. I just can't see somebody like Aaron winning BB when it was on Channel 4.
I think Aaron winning was what made it feel like a different era of Big Brother.
I think Wolfy on Channel 4 could have come dangerously close to winning. But I don't think Channel 5 cared much for that idea and didn't sugar coat her in cotton wool as Channel 4 probably would have, and she came a cropper in the end.
I think that if there is a difference I can identify, it is that while Channel 4 championed an ideal of a BB winner as the archetype who is thick, but has a good sense of humour and is lovely (Which was incredibly patronising), I think Channel 5 go more for presenting housemates to us who are aspirational in other ways. For example this series we are presented with many housemates bragging about money.
So I don't think it's as cut and dried as it used to be on Channel 4, and I believe that there is more room for different types of housemates who could potentially win. I think that Christopher and Matthew are there as a consequence of Aaron winning, and the show has learned that the viewers might actually like housemates such as that now.
I'm not saying that I'm necessarily right about all this, I'm just thinking off the top of my head. But I definitely feel a bit of a difference between BB of old on Channel 4 and the way Channel 5 do it. Channel 5 to me don't seem to linger for too long on the type of sentimental nonsense about housemates that Channel 4 did. They seem to be a bit more realistic and the housemates a bit less cartoony than on the Channel 4 BB, to a point anyway. An intelligent housemate isn't treated as if they should be distrusted and automatically assumed to be the bad guy just because they're not stupid or playing at being stupid.
Bear in mind that I'm not saying that the show is any less manipulative, or that the show doesn't try to contrive situations anymore, that would be just naive of me. I'm just saying that I think it's different in some ways now in how it presents certain types of housemates to us. It might only appear to be subtle, but I do detect a slightly different flavour.
