A brief summary of the housemates, now that the first week is nearly at its end:
https://www.iltalehti.fi/viihdeuutis...b-070e8d655110
(
Google Translate)
Some notes and observations on my own:
Tarina, 23 F, in relationship
Tarina studies psychology. She’s a member of Mensa and defines herself as pansexual. Tarina has a non-gender-aligned partner called Runo. Tarina loves long analytical debates, and often engages in them. She tries to offer her help or comfort if someone seems to be in need of a compassionate shoulder, or just a listener. She sees her mission as being someone who helps people because she sees herself so privileged compared to many other people in the world. Tarina is interested in "spiritual" things, such as yoga. (The name Tarina means "story" in Finnish. The name Runo means "poem" in Finnish. If you read the Finnish
WHATM threads on BBPlaza through Google Translate, you may see these words pop up in machine translations in place of the actual names.)
Tarina is the kind of person who has quite strong "presence" and likes to meddle with things and take control of them — and, of course have long, analytical discussions about them — all in the name of general good and harmony in the house, of course. Tarina is up for eviction this first week.
Timo, 52 M, single
A software engineer by his profession. Lives in Espoo, a city right next to Helsinki, part of the same metropolitan area, stereotypically viewed as the dwelling place of well-off engineers. Probably not wealthy in any extreme sense, but not poor, either, and likely more well-off than most of the other housemates. Slightly snobbish in his tastes and style of living.
Timo does not seem to take too active part in the activities and interactions of the house (assignments or otherwise). He more like just sits in various places and has conversations, usually about topics such as technology or politics or money or slightly luxurious pastimes. Timo is up for eviction this first week.
Ville, 38 M, married
A father of two, Ville works for a Christian charity that refurbishes medical equipment and supplies for hospitals in developing countries. Ville is a devout Pentecostalist (Edit: actually now a former member and part of a smaller charismatic movement, but still very close in his beliefs to what Pentecostalists teach.) He wants to show the viewers and his housemates how "a child of the Heavenly Father" lives his life.
In the house, Ville tells everyone he loves them (and God loves them) but he's not shy to tell people that according to the Bible, and therefore in his view, too, sexuality only belongs to a marriage between a man and a woman, and that homosexuality is something that the God disapproves of because it "breaks" people.
This has caused some tension especially between Ville and Kevin, who views zieself as non-gender-aligned. During the first week, Ville has also frustrated Milla to tears because Milla is strongly for equality and can't accept Ville's many suggestions of what is right or wrong per the Bible, as those viewpoints seem to suggest Ville views gays as inferior and somehow defective people.
Ville is headstrong in his beliefs and opinions related to religion but otherwise a quite calm and balanced guy. He does not "preach" as such but is eager to demonstrate the power of prayer and comment on some things that he personally views distasteful or wrong in the eyes of God. Ville won immunity for this first week by succeeding at a secret task.
Anu, 31 F, single
A real-estate agent and a mother of two. So far has not done anything too memorable in the house but gets along with her housemates. Has commented on a couple of occasions that the overly long and analytical debates some other housemates (such as Tarina, Kevin, and Eeva-Leena) like to have are not her cup of tea.
Kristian, 27 M, in a relationship:
The working-class straight man / comedian of the house. Loud-mouthed but good-natured, swears a lot. Nearly always finds or imagines some funny or absurd viewpoint to the matters. Lots of self-deprecating humor as well. More intelligent and clever than his looks might suggest. Has "normal"; conservative, mainstream views on many matters but is well capable of also having good-natured conversations with the ultra-liberals of the house.
Eeva-Leena, 30 F, single
Goes by the nickname "Eevis" in the house, and among her friends, too. Mathematical and analytical armchair philosopher. Was a member of Mensa for a while but left since she saw the membership as not giving her anything. Now she sees the whole organization as a stupid cult. Eeva-Leena has studied statistics, but then switched to economics, and now works in technology management. Has been dancing as a hobby for 15 years and also worked as a dance teacher.
Eeva-Leena has a penchant for long, rambling philosophical ponderings. She often uses big words and drops the names of different researches and studies with no effort. Her style of speaking / accent is quite unique: very calm and relaxed "murmur", she draws out her words in no hurry, almost always smiling. Despite her analytical mind, Eeva-Leena does not have a very good ability of producing tight summaries. She considers matters from various sides and her ponderings will often go on various tangents and side paths. BB has interrupted her philosophical analysis of matters more than once in the diary room.
Eeva-Leena surprised both the viewers and the housemates by entering in a casual sex relationship with another housemate, Jukka, on day 3 (IIRC), which must be some kind of a record on BBF, and also very much unexpected of this season, which the producers have advertised as not focusing on such things. Like her style of speech, her approach to sex seems to be very calm and relaxed: she's not particularly concerned of any "reputation" issues, and just views sex and the need of physical contact and closeness as a craving that she got in the house, and that she could satisfy with another housemate, and that's about it. She and Jukka have not yet defined the status of their "relationship" in any greater detail, and have openly admitted to each other and other housemates they don't really even
know each other properly yet.
Tuula, 54 F, married
A kindergarten teacher who likes nature and cottage life. Has been a bit in the background in the house, but got her 15 minutes of fame by accepting Big Brother’s secret assignment for this week (which she then failed). Likes to cook in the house.
Jukka, 24 M, single:
Works as a machinist outside the house, also has carpenter's training. The "ordinary guy" of the house. Eeva-Leena's partner-in-crime in the house, or sex/petting/intimate closeness buddy — for now, at least. Quite determined and ambitious in assignments, likes to plan out things, wants to take the leadership position, and gets stressed and annoyed if people forget what was agreed on or want to change it during the assignment.
Kevin, 20 X, single
(Gonna go with gender-netural pronouns here.)
Born with male parts but views zieself non-gender-aligned, or gender-neutral. Likes to express zim feminine side. Kevin's family comes from Syria and Estonia, and zis mother tongue is Estonian, but zie says zie speaks Finnish better now.
Kevin has come to the house to give a voice to people like zie. Zie has had long conversations with the other housemates about various things that can be viewed as disrespectful or violence against "other" genders. Kevin tries hard to conduct these conversations with the other housemates respectfully and in a good-natured manner, without getting offended by their assumptions or perceived thoughtlessness, even though this is all sometimes clearly mentally taxing to zir.
It should be noted that the Finnish language does not have separate pronouns for "he" and "she". The Finnish pronoun for these is "naturally" gender-neutral, so there is no "pronoun issue" in the BBF house. I'm using "zie" here since... well, Kevin is generally a quite cool guy, if "guy" is an allowed expression.
Mira, 30 F, single
Mira was originally a hairdresser but now works as a barmaid, waiter, and an escape room attendant/hostess. Mira's worldview is traditional/conservative, and she is quite critical toward immigration policies which allow illegal migrants enter the country en masse posing as asylum seekers.
In the house, Mira has been quite active in the assignments, and otherwise, too. Mira is generally a bit harsh in the style how she expresses herself but seems good-natured. While she sometimes questions some of the more liberal viewpoints expressed in the house, or some particularly questionable details in them, poking at them a bit, she is not overly confrontational in her nature, and gets well along with her housemates.
Kimmo, 30 M, single
A flight controller by his education. Works at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport as a flight planner and studies law in university, which would be his fourth degree. Kimmo is interested in equality and the rights of immigrants and asylum seekers. Kimmo is gay.
Milla, 24 F, single
Milla belongs to a twerking dance group and has worked professionally as an arranger of student parties. Milla's worldview is liberal and feminist, while her parents are more conservative. Milla is an active housemate and has taught and demostrated twerking in the house which lead to a conflict with Ville, who views this as degrading toward women because this dancing style is so sexualized.
Emma, 29 F, in a relationship
Emma studies fashion at Aalto University in Espoo, Finland. Emma identifies as an artist and lives with her girlfriend and six cats. One of Emma's pastimes is producing mind-blowing drag videos which she publishes on YouTube. The drag videos feature her alter ego, an exaggerated caricature of a very self-centered singer. Emma is up for eviction on this first week.
Helmeri, 32 M, single
Helmeri is a
pro scooter who runs his own company related to the sport.
A brief summary of how the season has started off:
The new production team promised a totally different season for this "reboot" of BB in Finland, in "back to the roots" style. The casting would focus on diverse educated people with strong "agendas" instead of very young adults seeking screen time and questionable fame. Alcohol consumption and partying would be limited. Relationships, sex, and nudity would not sought after, would be unlikely to happen, and the cameras would turn away if anything should happen.
Well, well, well... the first week has seen a couple (Jukka and Eevis) quite openly petting each other under a shared blanket daytime, while spending time with the other housemates, and boinking like rabbits during the nights (usually retreating to the living room or outside to the wide, wooden, fixed patio bench), starting from day 3. Always under the blanket, but still, getting to this point so quickly must be a record on BBF. They’re very open about their shenanigans and joke about it with the other housemates. The female half of this couple, Eevis, is a former member of Mensa and fond of very philosophical, analytical, lengthy conversations, so
that's certainly different this time around. But I guess this was a surprise even to the producers. The cameras do turn away, eventually, but only after the viewer has been left with no doubt of what is going on, from the sounds and sights.
But otherwise, the change in casting objectives can definitely be noticed as a viewer: the housemates are now a bit older, on average (and therefore more mature in their behavior and worldviews), most of them are well-educated, and practically all of them seem to be quite intelligent (some even highly intelligent) and knowledgeable about the world, politics, and various issues. And several of them have an "agenda", an issue they want to make known and discuss about. The conversations have definitely been on a wholly different level of intelligence than during the seasons that were produced before the hiatus.
The first weekly task involved guarding "BB coins" in two different vases which were never to be taken to the same room, and which needed to be guarded against theft 24/7, so the housemates needed to divide themselves into groups which would take turns in guarding the vases throughout the night as well. The housemates were also required to perform daily tasks which would be paid off from those vases at the end of the weekly task, if there was enough money left, and they needed to guard the vases even during those tasks.
During the week, several housemates got a secret task to steal coins from the vases with the objective to make the weekly task fail. This created a very paranoid atmosphere. One of the housemates with this secret task, Tuula, succeeded at it but hid the stolen coins in her boot, where they were found by a night guard group commanded by Jukka (the other members being Eevis, Mira, Kimmo, and Emma). BB punished Tuula for failing at the task by making her wear orange prisoner's overalls and fake chains for the rest of the week. There were also many other twists and turns.
Eventually, Ville succeeded in the same secret task, which meant he got some more "BB coins" from BB (these can be used for purchasing e.g. party supplies, or whatever else BB might offer at various times), immunity in the next eviction, and some yet unknown major benefit in the upcoming weekly task for the next week. But since the housemates had failed to guard the money, they also failed at the weekly task (as was the objective of Ville's secret task) and their weekly shopping budget (which they did a 99% bet on) was reduced to €2.80.
In addition to the weekly task and related daily tasks, the housemates have also been tasked to give fervent 5-minute speeches each (all were pretty good), and they have by their own initiative arranged lots of activity such as a fashion show, and shows were they play short sketches imitating other housemates.
The BB house is very ecological – the housemates need to recycle their trash and grow herbs and salad and some other edible plants in the dirt bed at the back of the kitchen. Continuing on the same theme, one of the daily tasks during the week was building an outhouse. (It has not been taken in use yet, but maybe during some upcoming task...)