[Jan S]

Originally Posted by Garfie

You are so right about his courage, Jan, and in that he single-handedly showed them up for what they are, but he is so isolated and on his own, Jan, and I can't stand that.

He strikes me as someone who has been picked on and bullied all his life, and I feel I can see the hurt behind his eyes and his self-esteem being eroded away with each nasty or belittling comment or action that is directed at him. I think that all he wants is some acceptance and to belong, but doesn't know how to achieve that, so has adopted this loud, annoying persona as a way to hide how he really feels. I also think him aligning himself to these awful people at the start was a desperate attempt to feel a sense of belonging. It is just making me feel so sad.

yup... it must be hard for the hms to get past his loudness, but forget the persona and look for colin... i think colin's not such a bad guy at all. i've also seen others in there - ricky and james, for example - try to help him, and others can see he has better aspects to his character (as cherie mentions), but i don't really see any of them in there having any real friendships... there's been so much nastiness revolving around the controversial bear no-one's been able to relax enough to form bonds like that... something else bear has prevented and viewers enjoy watching. there are alliances, but no genuine friendships so far. if they continue to show the positive as well as the negative about colin, he'll do fine, but as another poster mentions i'm waiting for BB to do a hatchet job on him this week.