[Scoot]

Originally Posted by Scoot

BB1 - Week 6 Rankings
1. Anna
2. Melanie (+2)
3. Darren (+2)
4. Claire (new)
5. Thomas (+1)
6. Craig (+1)

BB1 - Week 7 Rankings
1. Anna
2. Melanie
3. Darren
4. Claire
5. Craig (+1)

So this week Claire begins the tradition of late entrants being evicted as soon as they're up - something that wouldn't be broken until - unless I'm mistaken - Orlaith in BB6.

Her reaction to her nomination is interesting. She seemed okay when the announcement was made, but not even a day later and she's descended into paranoia. While her fate was sealed as soon as she was nominated alongside Craig, the edit this reaction gives her probably would have seen her packing. In general she never really gelled in with the housemates, apart from Craig they all seemed to tolerate her. She's also trying WAY too hard as a result and it's overall quite cringe.

Of course, from what I'm gathering by public perception (there's only really the eviction shows to go on), had the original nominations stayed the same Melanie would have probably gone. She's a black single girl who isn't ashamed of her body and has garnered the affections of more than one boy. Despite her having no commitments to anyone and it being relatively innocent, this obviously makes her the devil!

On that point, the main focal point of this week was Darren's nomination of Melanie accidentally being overheard by the other housemates. When the nominations are cancelled as a result and done over, Darren changes his nomination from Melanie to Claire. It was completely cowardly of him and made me lower my estimations of him quite a bit - he's so obsessed with what people think of him to the point where he loses all credibility. I may detest Craig, but he was 100% right in his assessment of Darren's nomination reasons.

Craig continues to have a slime about him. There's just a way he goes about things that completely turns me off him. His theorising in the diary room is pandering, and he's forced himself into the role of house leader even though all his close friends (bar Claire for this week at least) have been evicted. Nonetheless its a role the public seem to have embraced him as, all because he awkwardly confronted Nick a few weeks back. I maintain that Craig is unfairly made the star of that moment just because his name was the catalyst for the events. Anna was the only one to actually get anything of substance out of Nick and was the person who pushed the confrontation beyond 'you did this' 'no i didn't'

This week's task is a bit lacklustre. It creates some interesting tension between Claire and the other housemates because of her not 'trying as hard' but aside from that it wasn't exactly fun to watch. All of these tasks are so bare bones. While I get that that is the concept of the show, it's definitely something that only improves in future series.

The addition of the hot tub last week has definitely created a different atmosphere, particularly at night. There's a lot more 'truth or dare' style games going on and it's all a bit more wild. Or, at least, BB1's brand of wild.

This week is probably a prime example of why some might find it hard to get into the older series. Aside from a few moments the drama is really quite minimal and it really is just about getting to know the housemates. So while there's not a huge amount going on sometimes you're rewarded with the fact that you feel like you know them. The 20ish minute episode length helps with this a lot. You just can't go in expecting a screaming match every episode or a massive bitchfest because a lot of times it really isn't there. But it's still enjoyable.

This week also features a rather (in my eyes anyway) infamous moment in which Melanie is shown to be plucking her pubic hair. While it may be a little startling but ultimately harmless (and nothing compared to some of the things we'd later see), it's infamous to me because the BB1AU featured Jemma, who was constantly terrified of public perception and what would be shown, partly because of this scene.

[Scoot]

Originally Posted by Scoot

BB1 - Week 7 Rankings
1. Anna
2. Melanie
3. Darren
4. Claire
5. Craig (+1)

BB1 - Week 8 Rankings
1. Anna
2. Melanie
3. Darren
4. Craig (+1)

One more week left with just three people! And I only love one of them! Fabulous!

Was Melanie the first person to get booed as they left the house?

[Scoot]

Originally Posted by Scoot

BB1 - Week 8 Rankings
1. Anna
2. Melanie
3. Darren
4. Craig (+1)

BB1 - Week 9 Rankings
1. Anna
2. Darren (+1)
3. Craig (+1)

No changes this week, I'm too set in my ways.
Full series ranking coming up!

[Scoot]

BB1 - Final Rankings
1. Caroline
2. Anna
3. Nick
4. Melanie
5. Nichola
6. Sada
7. Darren
8. Claire
9. Thomas
10. Craig
11. Andrew

Changes in colour/placing for some of them compared to when they left (ie Nick) because in hindsight I enjoyed them more!

Overall a really solid series for what it is. It's not gonna blow your mind and admittedly I didn't enjoy it as much as the first time I saw it 2 years ago, but it was really breezy to watch and still enjoyable. If you can get past the bumpy presentation of the first week when no one from production really knew what they were doing, and if you can get with the vibe this series has, I'd recommend it.

It's got some FANTASTIC housemates in Caroline and Anna, and of course Nick. What he gets up to seems especially tame by the standards of what followed in the 18 years since this series, and even I didn't buy into it initially, but the presentation is utterly fascinating and peak social experiment.

I dunno if I'm in the minority but this series also has the first awful winner Craig is so self-righteous and eager to be the top dog in the house that it is nauseating. He was incessantly obsessed with public perception, under some guise of being caring - maybe it was, but it rubbed me the wrong way entirely.
Credit where it's due, he did instigate the Nick confrontation, but his involvement is so overblown by the public. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the only person who got anywhere in that discussion was Anna.

The tasks are very barebones as it truly was a basic social experiment, but for the most part they do their job of forcing the housemates to get to know each other and challenging dynamics and roles. Even something as simple as riding an exercise bike caused division in the house, with Craig accused of being lazy and milking his injury; leading to the first ever BBUK argument between Caroline and Craig. Of course there's also the assault course task, in which Nick hilariously lies that he was in the army or something and it's exposed moments later when he's the worst in the task

The series has a lot of dated elements - the final week featuring just three housemates, for instance. While I found it fine due to the short episode lengths and Anna existing, it simply would not work in the show today. Indeed, even just a year later they upped the final week number to 4 and it never went below that again. I did love the Monday episodes with the psychologists in between segments - this went on til BB5 or 6 yeah? Imo it kind of encouraged a bit of higher thinking when watching the show and helped me understand certain situations/dynamics a bit more.

BB1 was an iconic piece of television that not only changed the landscape of British television but television worldwide. When Big Brother finally hit here in Australia the year after, it was heavily influenced by the UK version (and continued to be throughout its run), albeit with its own flairs, and the weekly format rather than the fortnightly format became far more popular in international versions. It all started here.

CBB1 is up next for me but being only 8 days it'll be here and gone in a second
From what I remember of it, it's pretty dull but Vanessa is iconic!