Techtite TV reviews

When CBS gave its initial notice of a second installment of Big Brother, viewers couldn't decide it they were just being stubborn, or maybe just obsessed to make the concept work. After all, the original series, released the same summer as the first season of Survivor, was often nicknamed "Bizarro Survivor"; i.e., the exact opposite. Given how popular Survivor was, this was no compliment. However, with the threat of a possible actor strike, CBS okayed another go, and Big Brother 2 was off and running. Looking at the premiere, it seemed like they made a good decision. Suffice to say, it wasn't boring! That premiere probably looked good to the CBS top brass, too...until the second show, that is...

You can see what CBS originally planned; to make the show more interesting, by putting people in a house that would never be together in the real world. Kent, a grumbling, over-conservative family man, is seen immediately talking to Bunky --not knowing yet, that Bunky was gay-- telling him how "not normal" gay life is. Then there's Krista and Shannon, who promptly tried to woo the two alleged hunks on the show; Will the doctor, and Hardy the...whatever. For a while, this diverse group certainly livened the show up a bit. What could go wrong?

Unfortunately, everything went wrong. To say the series went downhill would be a compliment; the series crashed and burned! What happened? Think about it; being stuck in a house with people you don't like very much, sharing merely two bedrooms and --egad!-- one bathroom.

As early as week two, the most congenial of the house guests, Sheryl (shown at left), was voted off due to mere petty politics.

Alliances were formed, then broken, then re-formed, with no rhyme nor reason to the players' alleged "strategy." People who were already crabapples to begin with, were suddenly complaining about things nobody would ever care about in the sane world. It didn't help matters when health-conscious non-smokers were forced to share their only few yards of outdoor space, with so many chain smokers (Autumn, Krista, Kent, and so on). The result wasn't putting a little spice into the mix; the result was simply annoying, for both the house guests and the viewers.

So annoying were the house guests, that I refrained from making an end-of-show summary of each, as I usually do for ensemble shows (Saturday Night Live's 1999-2000 season, Survivor 1 and Survivor 2). I began to make such a review of all house guests, yet got tired posting so many ratings of "Near Miss" (thumb marginally down) or "Burnout" (thumbs way down). Even the frequently sympathetic Bunky turned out to be a totally cynical big mouth by the finale. There were exceptions, yet not enough of them to post.

These gripes of the contestants made the online, pay-to-view-it "live feed" even more worthless...that is, when CBS.com decided to make it worthwhile at all. This is the online quartet of camera feeds, that, for a small fee,

you got to see 24/7, direct from the house. How exciting were the feeds? Well, take a look here; this is the typical picture you get to see, of each house guest moping around, with nothing given for them to do. Yes, indeed, the whole concept of the series is to confine 12 strangers in a house, with no outside world contact. Indeed, a group of people sitting around, merely watching TV, talking on the phone, or reading the newspaper, would be dull. However, could they have given these house guests something to do? Most merely sunbathed; a pointless waste of live camera feed time that would make even sitting in front of the TV seem like a more lively activity. Others just sat around complaining. This was the whole season, in a nutshell.

CBS made additional mistakes, which made the contestants' trigger tempers even harder to keep controlled. One of the only "prizes" offered, throughout the series, was a car given to Kent in the premiere. Of course, the joke was on the contestants, when this car seemed to be, apparently, 90% of the show's overall budget (excluding the final, $500,000 cash prize, of course). Meals for the house guests were way too often reduced to mere PBJ sandwiches...which led to the house guests feeling weak, taking naps, and making the show even more boring than it already was. Competitions were as ludicrously cheap and low-budget as a table where players threw giant keys across a table without them falling off. What possessed the network that gave us Survivor, to create a show as ridiculously low-budget as this?

CBS, which still promises a "Big Brother 3" soon, might want to make this house more exciting. (Suggestions I have for this, are politely offered in my latest "Techtite Table" top 10 list). They, at the extreme least, need to have more for these house guests to do than sit around bickering. Furthermore, as controversial as it may be to say it: sorry, NO SMOKERS. Nicotine only leads to whiney, neurotic losers. If you want proof, just take a look at the e-mail I'll receive, just for saying that. "Oh, look at me; I'm risking lung cancer!" Oooh, you're sooo cool! Don't sweat it though, pal; this series was FAR worse.

	Final Rating : Burnout. Almost got a "Near Miss," and then they started screaming like crybabies by the 5th week...with MANY more to go! Augh.
For more on this site's ratings system, click here.

Got a review you'd like to share? Techtite will post 2 of the best "guest" reviews received for any product, online, for all the world to see!

All Text, Title graphics, and other pix not associated with the reviewed products, are created by Techtite, copyright 1999-2001; all rights reserved. Screen captures of TV shows reviewed are mere thumbnail-sized pictures used only for the purpose of review, and by no means represent any affiliation with Techtite and the distributors of that product. For further "legalese," disclaimers, & Techtite's review policies, click here...

Techtite's TV Reviews!

Big Brother 2

A Techtite Review