Again there are loads of threads about the "twist" - yet there is nothing new.

One of the themes of this years BIg Brother was "power comes at a cost"

It is very obvious many people have seen the show with preconceptions of what "the power" meant (i.e. power is good) and just will not see that all series power is to be feared, it is an obligation to serve and no more than that.

The twist is in keeping with how the series started.

The power trip belongs to BB, not the housemates and certainly not with us. Sadly though it has spoilt the show for many viewers.

I wasn't surprised at what happened I expected it.

Those who voted for Ashleigh to be Power Housemate put her up for eviction. Being voted Power Housemate is a poisoned chalice.

Does anyone remember when Super Cas did her day of using the Orwell book ?

She joked big brother always manipulated...
another thing from the book people need to remember... big brother let winston & Julia think they had a room of their own, outside the zone controlled by the 2 way tvs... only for the "feeling of self power" be removed when behind a picture they heard "Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement's" and they realised they had never escaped, they had never been self-empowered..

A lot of people seem to forget this is 1984's definition of "big brother"
it is not a term for "cctv and just being watched and told off" (like highstreet cctv)
it is not the american version based on their meaning of BB ("replacement dad")

the twist and how this series is running is to norm NOT some peoples mistaken internalised "norms".

I did not see it right away I admit that as I voted for Matthew to be the first Power HM.

I have always thought of it as a 'poisoned chalice' after that.

I would have voted for Mark this time but I didn't see the app until too late.

Thing is they would only change the rules to whoever got voted in by the public anyway but I still would not take a chance voting a HM I liked in just in case.

BB have just used the Power Trip theme to change the game and rules when and how they please, its that simple

Their game... their rules... what you are saying is they have changed it from what YOU thought it meant... you were never right.

Big Brother has the Power - it is their PowerTrip.

They are chosing not to revoke Helen's pass but to revoke immunity when they like, revoke our votes to evict, "decide" who wins a task (when in the past things like the Bruvstock task would have been decided by a public vote online). That is their right I guess. I will see this series out as I have invested time (and some votes) in it. However, it has, for the first time, made me think I won't be investing time or cash in any future productions. I get the impression that others feel this way too. Well done BB - your Power has gone to your head and it is your downfall.

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and people think its just a simple popularity contest

haha I actually posted that in the wrong thread

a super efficient posting... it worked across many a thread

define it as you like but it is blatant rubbish this season and we all know it

I couldn't agree with you more OP. I had very high expectations of this series (and therein maybe set the seeds of my own disappointment). As you state - power comes at a price. I though the theme was genius. It is also said that most people can cope with adversity, and it is of course interesting to see how they cope, but if you really want to test someone's metal give them power and see how they handle with that.

I hoped that by giving various HMs power at various levels from influence to full on oligarchy we would get new and different insights into HMs. Initially it did, then the series appeared to descend into a puerile theme of tits, bums and body functions.

I also feel the theme would have worked better had the HM's been ordinary unsuspecting Joes. I feel the casting of so many people with some small time media profile and then drip feeding in their back stories, meant the theme got lost. For me it would have been entertaining enough to see a range of people deal with power and ultimate power, both exercising it and being on the receiving end of it.

Yes of course they have that is the point. The nature of a totalitarian regime is that the rules are whatever the tyrant says they are at this moment - now. That is the reason it is so uncomfortable and why for all its faults democracy is seen to be the 'best' model for the organisation of a fair and decent society.

The whole power spiel has been a load of BS since day one. The nominated housemates eventually become more powerful that the who had the power. Nominated housemates should be the most powerless.

If this twist was planned, and not slapped together at the last minute, the non-nominated housemates should of picked one to save.

that is an opinion and from your perspective a very valid one.

i will however remind you the world is full of different perspectives.., some are majority, some are minority, lots of people enjoy different things...

take Huxleys vision in "Brave New World" - people were conditioned for life roles... a pyramid of people from Alpha to the mass Epsilons no one liked what was "meant for and enjoyed by" the other groups...
or you can have things that some people "just dont recognise as enjoyable so ignore" - I for example rarely find anything on ITV2 or BBC3 interesting or funny, yet many do... this is more popularly seen as a metaphor of 2 adults having a chat above a small child about adult things without the small child picking up on the "boring" chat...
(which means in the case of BBC3 or ITV2 i am the bored small child)...

there is a lot of great entertainment in this years BB of the same kind there always has been... what there hasnt been, is a lot of the "more obvious gimmicks" that others enjoyed... the show is the same, but some of the cross over gimmicks are not present.

Their game their rules but Our money....they can't lose unless we the GBP smell the coffee and Stop voting.....

YES...This! ... Because in Orwell's 1984 ‘Futureworld’, the ruling order attempted to control a collective perception of reality by means of ‘doublethink’. The Power Alliance, for example, exercise self-discipline in wanting to think they have the power, whilst 'knowing' (from experience) that only BB has the power.

We, the audience, when voting also believe we have the power to decide, whereas we 'know' from experience, that BB can do whatever it wants.

do you think the X-factor is any less "on rails" --- you get shown sob stories who are exploited for their background with no chance of actually winning... just for the "interactive entertainment" element of the show...

voting is an "interactive element" like pressing buttons on a video game.. the game still goes where it always was going to, you just get to play along.

I felt the same at the start... wondering how they would top secrets and lies...

at the end of the second week was when i realised what was meant by the power theme... and i also recognised the second theme.. which was the polar opposite of the previous years "secrets and lies" where every secret & every lie would be exposed by bb...

if you apply those 2 themes over the last 7 weeks it is easy to see they have been present in every task and every twist.. which again makes me laugh that some threads accuse the show of "making it up as they go along"

this series is heavily planned as always and has been true to its 2 themes... and some people just cant see it.

The theme is power and the abuse of it.

Big Brother is by far the worst this year..... If the theme is explained by sexual depravity and schoolground bullying then I guess it is a lesson, but most of us moved on from there a while ago.

Of course, if it was an Entertainment program, then they could justify their obnoxious behaviour by stating that this is what the viewers want, but the polls and viewing figures suggest not.

Maybe the producers are a bunch of egotistical idiots being grossly overpaid and with nothing better to do than wield their petty 'power' on anyone that looks, to them, weak. Might explain why all the women are being voted off.

A healthy mix of familiar aspects and predictable unpredictability is a good thing in an entertainment show.

Loving this year's BB 'power' theme - it goes to the heart of the original concept in my opinion.

I haven't watched the X-factor for years, I can't understand how easy it was to just stop watching that, but can't seem to knock BB in the head, maybe because I now have sky+ and can choose the parts of the live feed I want to watch. BB and SCD are my only bad habits.