Reality TV relationship has started to turn stale
The voyeuristic television series that once gripped the world has now run its course, writes Andrea Byrne In life, relationships run their course. It's unfortunate, but it's true. And so it saddens me to say that, after almost a decade of steadfast devotion, my love affair with Big Brother is over. I'm done. I've had enough. It's time to move on. It was good while it lasted, but now I'm bored, no longer satisfied or stimulated. The spark has gone.
I'm clearly not the only one who has fallen out of love with Big Brother. I mean, is anyone watching this year's instalment? Has it completely slipped out of public consciousness? Apparently so. Viewing figures are pretty pathetic, and even the trashiest of tabloids don't deem it worthy enough for sleazy fodder.
Nonetheless, its demise is sad. The arrival of Big Brother on to our screens was a defining moment in modern television -- a sociological experiment that changed the face of popular culture, as well as jumpstarting the inexorable rise of reality TV. Even its biggest detractors can't deny that it was something of a phenomenon. So popular and groundbreaking was the show that it spread to 37 countries.
Do you remember the sense of wonder and intrigue when it was first born? The authenticity, transparency, frivolity and volatility that made it must-see television? It provided us with an insight into human interaction and behaviour. We saw things we had never seen before. It provoked reaction -- whether of disdain or delight. Everyone was talking about it. It allowed us to satisfy our inner sadist, as Big Brother callously meddled with the minds of those in strict confinement and control. We witnessed, for the first time, the extent to which ordinary people will go for their 15 minutes of fame, and it was truly shocking.
But where did it all go wrong for Big Brother? When did people decide that they'd had quite enough of this televisual summer staple?
Obviously, Jade Goody and her startling feats of ignorance, idiocy and insolence had a lot to do with it. That aside, the Big Brother format began to tire, and with that, the shock factor began to cease. The bar of exhibitionism had been raised to its highest level. I think Kinga achieved that feat after publicly masturbating with a wine bottle. How is it possible to disgrace yourself any more than that? Over the last nine years we've seen it all -- violence, sex, love affairs and pregnancy scares, which has left us desensitised to what the current rash of attention-seeking eejits throw at us.
Big Brother tried to be daring this year by its inclusion of a cross-dressing blind man (Mikey) and a black albino who was deported from the US for his involvement in gangland crime (Darnell). Recently, a cantankerous cow (Alex) was booted off the show for threatening behaviour and a just week later, a self-righteous, insufferable toss-pot by the name of Dennis spat in another housemate's face during a heated exchange.
A few years ago, these were the kind of episodes that would have left the public open-mouthed in disbelief and loathing. But, now it seems, nobody gives a fiddler's. It leaves us cold.
Another problem is that the contestants have become far too familiar with the show and its format. The spontaneity that was for so long the essence and sparkle of the show has disappeared. The housemates expect and pre-empt the unexpected.
With every year that BB returns to our screens, its housemates become increasingly self-aware. They're constantly conscious of the cameras, nauseatingly fixated by how they're being perceived by the viewing public. It's all they seem to talk about.
Also, the show's producers get far too involved, when they should really just leave well alone. They make the housemates suffer by having them survive on basic food rations, which invariably leaves them miserable and distracted.
Awful as it is, the only time Big Brother is entertaining to watch is when the housemates are drunk, lacking inhibition and making complete and utter arses of themselves. Give them each a bottle of JD for the day and then we might just see a return to form.
For all its alleged twists and turns, there's nothing new about the show. Eviction Friday is how it was when it started. Davina is still there saying the same lines. In terms of contestants, apart from one or two exceptions, the producers enlist the same vacuous, intolerable stock-in-trade morons every single year.
So, here's hoping Channel 4 does the honourable thing by making this instalment of Big Brother the last.
- Andrea Byrne
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