Ok, so we're a generally intelligent bunch, here, right? So the new series of the atrocious Big Brother is underway, and they've been clearly trying to win back many who turned off withe a "smarter" show for the "smarter" viewer, bla, bla, bla.

Is anyone watching this who once hated it? Has it won you over?

Its bile raising. Perhaps its a plot.
It wouldnt surprise me.
Whoever controls tv controls the masses of lesser peoples.
Dumb them down and you can feed them anything you want, including that it might be nice to have a microchip/mark on either the right hand or forehead one day (Revelation 13:16-18) even when the Holy Bibles says NO! (Revelation 14:9-11).
Remember George McFly out of "Back To The Future"?
I think many of the ordinary folk are getting like old George.
They appear to be giving up awareness... and good wholesome occupations to "George" in front of the television.

Can't stand the concept in any case, but might be tempted to watch a Big Brother OLO style featruing some of the more feisty OLO posters.

[Just kidding :)]

I confess that I did watch it last week and quite enjoyed it.

It's a rather interesting mix of people.

I'll probably continue to watch...

Hey;my niece is involved in the production of this show,so in a way I have to be careful about speaking my mind.Personally ,I don't like it,but this show is probabaly the better of a bad bunch.

I occasionally have watched the BB series and probably will continue to watch it occasionally, once a week or so.
I'm usually too busy with other things to watch TV.

Sometimes it's just so relaxing to sit back, veg-out with a cuppa and watch crap on TV- and enjoy the moment.

BB ?......good grief. Words fail me.

Seeing the program as a discussion topic here made me ill.

Am watching now- nice to see that 10 hasn't conceded to the PC.

Bacame an occasional fan last year, a bit of fun.

My issue is the government funding. Couldn't care less for that pile of tripe, but why am I payin for it?.

Boazy: << BB ?......good grief. Words fail me. >>

I've always thought BB was a load of crap, but if it serves to shut Boazy up for a while it can't be all bad.

What government funding, StG?

I started watching it, I have never watched it before but I thought that maybe, just maybe, they may have learned from their earlier mistakes and made this show a bit more watchable. I cannot and will not watch it. It is just too draining, too boring and too much hard work......Who thinks up these concepts?

CJ Morgan...

LARGE Pdf 2.8meg

http://www.pftc.com.au/pftc/_inc/uploads/304_Review_of_the_Pacific_Film_and_Television_Commission_Corporate_Plan_2004_-_2009.pdf

Search.... "involving Big Brother".

I am trying to work out if it is curiosity or what but I was teasing someone watching this mindless show and now I find it can be 'addictive'. They come up with interesting 'ideas' as in meals with a number on a conveyor belt and you get what the number is. Could be a bowl of prunes or a seafood platter. There are definitely 'air head' types and I wonder if some of the young ones will ever grow up nowadays.
Now they have that Corey Worthington in the house. He isn't 17 yet.

This show has mass appeal to the society we now have. The one of instant gratitude. The one getting something out of watching others' reality and the flaws. The voyeuristic type of people out there are having a field day.
What bugs me is the 'invitations' for more sexual exploitation as in the little hot spa instead of a big pool and also one large bed.
I am glad I have pay TV so I can choose more savoury viewing at the push of a button.

"Am watching now- nice to see that 10 hasn't conceded to the PC."

A lot of people diislike it because of the content itself, not because they are PC, like Howard.

Intelligent bunch! That's debatable.lol.( humans in general) I guess it shows how bored the human race is. Its just too bad we don't put our energies into something more productive.

Psychology! lol! If you are so intelligent, why are you watching it!lol.

Yes its harmless entertainment, but i still cant help thinking of the big picture. I guess our infant stage can only reflect in the way we are going. Extinction.

On a lighter note, What the hell are we doing.

Brats will ruin the world.

Thanks America!( USA)

Exactly Steel, what content would you prefer in the house? Or is no house at all your preferred option?

Evolution, grow up.

palimpsest! that's right. You just keep telling yourself that.

I watched it last night as my teenage daughter told me that Cory was going into the house and that he would be supervised by the older lady and that he wasn't allowed to drink....I thought it would be very interesting to see how that unfolded.

What was interesting was Cory's behaviour. He just kept fixing himself up, playing with his hair. His only focus appeared to be how he looked and his hair to the point where it appeared obsessive. This is interesting because this is how many young people of day present. Their focus is how they look, thier hair, where they are going to get thier next alcoholic drink from and where are the parties. Education and preparing themselves for their future just seems to not be something about which they care. We really need our Education system to present a different focus and we need to better educate our kids.

I walked past the TV long enough to see that Corey Worthington ask Big Brother a request - wait for it....he wanted a hair straightener.

BY the way, I heard he lept over the house fence and ?went AWOL.

These shows only serve to make dumb Australians more dumb.
Forget it; bring on Origin.

In answer to your original question, Gaz, I really don't think that they're going to be acquiring any "smart" viewers. For a start, all they appear to have done is muddled up the mix a bit by adding a clearly pretty stupid grandmother who has some "controversial" (read: entirely predictable) views, a man with a high voice, and — shock! — an Indigenous woman, to the same old crew.

Plus, they've dumped the Gretel, whose snarly, critical eye served as a buffer between the labrats and us. She gave us permission to NOT take them — and ergo the whole show — seriously. And replace her with who? Kyle and Jacqui O — two of the thickest thickies thicksville ever produced.

I think the first UK series (i.e. the first series ever) was innovative, interesting telly. Not highbrow telly, but good middlebrow telly. I was in the UK at the time, and, as I remember it, the whole thing seemed groundbreaking — live feeds on screens in Piccadilly Circus, the early days of mobile phone content. There were no real gimmicks to speak of, just a very varied group of humans locked in a house together. The emphasis on in Australia is blondness, attractiveness, extroversion and stupidity; in the very first UK series, it was on finding a wide variety of people. There was only one "hottie", and she was black. The final was between a salt-of-the-earth working class builder and a bitingly witty lesbian ex-nun.

The builder won.

That should have been it. That should have been the first and last Big Brother. The experiment relied on the element of surprise — kids now grow up watching BB and planning who they'll "be" when they're in the house.

The novelty is over, so now it's reality telly at its most banal. And it's really freaking dull. I mean, Jeez, if Corey Worthington is their twist...

cont..

Cont...

Kids will always want to watch zietgiest stuff like BB. I think that's fine, we all did it, it provides a point of social/generational reference now and later. (My partner and I still talk about stuff the Fonze did.) I think if you want to give your kids a good cultural education, let them watch and read what they want but continue to point them in the direction of good art, film, literature. My mum let me gorge myself on crap telly, but she gave me Austen and Eliot to read, and talked to me about them. Most people eventually end up modelling or at least approximating the reading habits of their parents. If you veg out with The Da Vinci Code, you can't expect them to crave Dostoevsky.

That said, even a mediocre novel can teach you more about human nature than Big-bloody-Brother.

So, that's my review. Must-miss TV.

My guess is that the ratings will be slightly less than last year — as happens most years — but still gazillions more than watch anything on the ABC.

P.S. One difference, actually, between my generation (I'm pushing 40) and kids today is that we all grew up with just one telly in the house. A lot of children these days have their own. Therefore I was forcefed (if I wanted to watch telly, which I always did) Four Corners and This Day Tonight and BBC adaptations of Shakespeare from a young age. Hated it at the time, but it taught me to appreciate news values and distinguish between investigative, analytical journalism, and car-crash journalism.

Blah blah blah,

Big Brother, Plasma TVs, the old criticize the young for being 'vacuous', the pseudo intellectuals think the world's ending because people watch crap TV. The generation gap, class hatred, sometimes I think there's nothing new in this world.

I know I'm not the first to think that everything has been thought before:-)

Caters! I couldnt agree more. At least the footy has a point to it.