Nope not sad.
As a fan of the show since day 1 (in fact I watched BB1 Germany before moving back home in time to catch BB1 UK) I felt excited to watch the last ever show. I decided too out of a sense of (misguided) loyalty that I would stick with it to the end come what may.
It's been hard going because I no longer fit the show's newer demographic who accept a dumbed-down, tabloidal version of what's entertaining in BB.
I firmly believe that the choice of HM's was supposed to bring us a classic old school vibe BB but sadly the producers were unable to uphold this premise because they threw the original format out the window along with rule book and any impartialism. The day to day running of the show was amateur, the tasks were little more than mediocre club 18-30 holiday rep material, the wild card Tree Of Temptation was a joke (oooh fear the wrath
) and the the show has made no attempt to conceal it's favouritism.
If I could be allowed to get a bit Charlie Brooker for a moment, I have visions of early production meetings populated by keen interns who thought it would be cool to go "retro" and the stuffy old producers thinking "well these kids have their finger on the pulse" and just letting them do what they want. But these interns never saw the early shows and didn't realise that (unlike the nu style freakfest BBs) honour and group compliance were strong motivators back then. Remember Nasty Nick getting booted for writing a note (and not even passing it on)? This year's "favourites" have been allowed break rules with very little recourse and to hold BB over a barrel to get what they wanted or the would "leave", even to the point of getting to make phone calls, culminating in a free ride to the final for the chosen one. It's all been a big old fix but you have to not be a gullible teenie to see it. How many grown ups believed that JJ1&2 stayed inside the horse costume all the way to the race track and back? [/Charlie Brooker]
The show had so much potential but was distracted in almost it's entirety with the protruded "will they, won't they?" (in the end they didn't) which held the attention of the target audience but bored the other more discerning viewers in the demographic. It was hard to retain a favourite when the other characters weren't allowed to develop fully due to the over exposure of the fauxmance and in the end a late arrival HM, whom I'm sure wouldn't cut it under normal circumstances shone through as the star of the show because of how he upset the boring status quo and drew the attention away from a smelly duvet. The show could have been pulled from the brink of tedium by Sam and a tremendous final made up of all the major players but alas a bad decision by the producers resulted in a final made up of minor characters and their chosen winner which predictably has killed the show dead.
I've pretty much stopped watching since Friday. The HL were on last night but I didn't really pay much attention to it. I only watched to count how many times Andrew failed the "Yes" task to prove to myself how much of a sham the whole show is. We counted 4 fails (and that's just in the HL) and noted how they didn't let Dave into the joke until the end because he would have blown it and Josie wouldn't have got her roots done and Anthia would have had to be sent home again.
Tbh I'm glad it's over.