Big Brother: My Take on the HGs

**Everything in black print was written 7/30/10 and everything in purple print was added on 8/07/10**

Okay, after that ridiculous live show and all the crazy going on during the aftermath on the feeds, I have to do a Big Brother post. Even the camera people running the feed cameras right now seem a little loopy.. random up-close of Britney's lip? And now an up-close of Matt's hand in his pants again.. gross.

For some reason, this season is very gender-relevant to me, and I don't think it's just because of the Brigade alliance. I think we have had very distinct female personalities, and that's why it's stuck out for me. So I've decided to run through the HGs by gender and then discuss my opinion and take on the season so far. Everyone keeps complaining about how boring this season is and how much they hate it (by everyone I mean board posters and tweeters), but I'm glad I bought the live feeds this year. I think there's fascinating character development, which, granted, may not produce any fascinating interactions, but it's interesting for me to watch and analyze.

Annie: I bought the feeds after Annie was evicted, so I can't really go too deep into her character besides what I saw on the show, and honestly, it's really hard for me to remember the first week because I hadn't developed opinions on people yet, so I remember very little what anyone said or did, except for Rachel saying Andrew wore a "Yom Kippur" on his head.

My opinion on the saboteur role and Annie's producer-unpredicted early eviction is that she was not prepared for the role and played it too strong too early. Producers should've picked someone older. But considering there aren't any 100-year olds like Jerry around and the cast is relatively young, I guess their choices were limited. Oh, and I keep hearing about this "Paolo" girl that was the 14 player who got cold feet? Paolo is a guy's name. Was there another twist that they had a transgender person in the house? Because knowing me and how much I push for diversity in lifestyles on reality shows, I would have loved being a part of the viewing audience if that would've happened. I only wonder because as far as I know, other countries stick very close to gender names. Like Russians add an "a" onto female last names.. I would assume Paolo is from some sort of Spanish-speaking country and a female would be Paola, like Suarez. Anyway, that's beyond the point. Basically, I have little to say about Annie personally.

Monet: Not a fan. When she was around, Britney was insufferable. Now that she's gone, Britney's the most hilarious person in the house. I found her to be very one-dimensional on the show, and that may be because her character was never developed (that is always my disclaimer: I'm judging on character development, not the actual person, although I don't think you can hide the true you on a 24/7 live feed). She did say something on the first episode about wishing people were up to her standards though.

Britney: Okay, so I've completely changed my feelings about Britney. I could not stand her before this past week. Without Monet, she's hilarious. On the late night feed, as they're about to go to bed, she's talking about how she purposely traps Lane in conversations with Brendon where basically Lane has to lie and say things to compliment him until he's satisfied and stops talking. I guess because I really enjoy amusing myself at the expense of others in a similar way, I thought that was hilarious. For example, I love hinting at things about someone that I know they don't want revealed. And by hinting at it, I know that person will get what I'm referring to, but it's too vague for anyone else to pick up on that doesn't already know. I feel like Britney gets a kick out of that stuff.

Right after the live show, while Rachel and Kristen were both still fuming, Britney was out in the backyard imitating everyone else walking around nervously as Rachel and Kristen fought. It was hilarious. And then tonight she goes and puts on Rachel's extensions and does hilarious imitations of her. She and Matt did. And then Matt goes into the Diary Room with extensions on, a cop hat, and his footie pajamas. If CBS finds it funny, they could chop up the diary room session and insert one into each episode from now on.

I am so completely on the Britney train, it's not even funny. She knows the show really well and she has such a fabulous sense of humor. It's mean when they make fun of Brendon's "toa constrictor," but he's so insufferable, I can't help but find it hilarious.

Kathy: Kathy kind of drives me nuts because she talks a lot but most of it I think she says just to be saying stuff. She's kind of a creeper and always inadvertently interrupts good conversations. However, I like that she refuses to play the game like she's supposed to. She's not playing a hard strategic game, and hard athletic game.. she just kind of goes around screwing with things without really intending to. I think it's funny. Like she's pretty oblivious that people consider getting rid of her based solely on the fact that she sucks at competitions and they don't want her on their team for a Have/Have-Not competition.

This is a picture of Kathy with her legs in her sweatshirt. She looked like a bobo doll. I had to cap it. Anywhere, in Kathy land, not much has happened lately. She still lounges around and smokes all the time.

Kristen: I like Kristen. I need to say this because since the blow-up everyone has a person they prefer. Many don't like either, but there's always one you'd rather see on the winning end. Like some people are happy Rachel won and Kristen is on the block. Other people wish she hadn't won and instead someone would've put her and Brendon up.

Here's why I like Kristen: I like that she doesn't take shit from Rachel. I like that she doesn't do what she's socially "supposed" to do. She doesn't accept apologies when she thinks they're insincere. She doesn't do things to save face. If she would've gone up to see Rachel's HOH room, she would've been doing what is socially-acceptable in the game, but she would've been faking it, so she didn't go up there. I respect that. I do wish she would move around the house more, but there's really nothing to do.

The main thing is, I like that she doesn't cry. Or I guess I can relate to it. It pains me to watch it, though, because I can tell she's been hurt in the past and has always had to "suck it up." I really relate to that and I know that's exactly why people think she's cold and a bitch. I personally think she's strong, and the more in control of their feelings a person is, the stronger I think the person is. Just my personal opinion. I know I have a hard time checking my emotions during confrontations, so I guess I admire her ability to do it.

I don't really get why people hate her so much. Maybe she seems cold. I also don't understand how people are upset about how she responded to Andrew's crazy speech. She should have been offended that Andrew outed her and Hayden. Would people rather she and Hayden be all over each other like Rachel and Brendon? Also, so many people love guys like Dr. Will and Evel Dick and all they did was lie. Is it because they were overt with it and funny about it? Kristen's lying to get herself further in the game. I feel like that's what you're supposed to do when your back is up against the wall. Have we all taken the moral high ground because she's a girl?

Anyway, I hope she and Hayden find a way to both make it out of this week, just to see the shit storm that would ensue. I really enjoy Kristen when she's laughing.. she was hysterical talking about how much her team sucked in the luxury challenge and right now (2:20 am), she's hysterical about her and Kathy making out and telling the house they're the secret showmance. When Rachel laughs, it's usually her contrived high-pitch squeal that she thinks will be memorable on TV. I also appreciate Kristen's strange sense of style. I much prefer it to sequins and crotch-length dresses.

Kristen was wearing on me a little with her "holding court" right before eviction. However, every moment of Rachel's moping and manipulative acting is making me wish Kristen was back here. I hope she is watching and loving how amazing this week is right now.

Rachel: Okay, can I just say how much pleasure I take in the fact that Rachel thinks it's even possible Lane would form an alliance with them? Here's what bothers me the most about her lately: she wants everyone to play the game the way she thinks they should. She wants everyone to play the game to get her far. And when someone plays their own game, she gets so angry. (Okay, 2:25 am and they're talking about the luxury comp again and Kristen is in hysterics again about how horrible they were.)

I liked Rachel the first week. I thought she was a brilliant strategist, but now as I've watched her more, what she's actually good at is the playing the competitions and knowing what's coming. She understands the game as far as what it is on paper. She knows to count everything in the house and keep track of dates. What she doesn't know is how to understand the other players in the game. She had zero perceptive abilities. She can only see when others aren't playing the game like she wants them to, but can't seem to see from their side why they'd play it differently. She plays entirely too emotionally. No matter how many times she says it, she IS playing personally. Kristen is on the block because Rachel's feelings were hurt when Kristen stopped being her friend. Rachel's pretty much said it. Her move is a good strategic move, which is why it's easy to believe she's playing smart. It's really just a personal move disguised as a strong strategic move. She got lucky in that she's putting up two strong players. However, if they didn't happen to be strong players, she still would've put them up.

Since she's from Vegas, I'll say if I was a betting person, I would put money on the fact that she has daddy issues and a lot of insecurity as a middle schooler and high schooler (maybe mostly as an early high schooler). She still has a strong core of insecurity, and the way she and Brendon interact makes me think she's looking for the approval of a male figure in the way she would look for approval from her father. The way Brendon scolds her and talks to her like a child and the way she can't accept constructive criticism really resembles that type of relationship to me.

Ugh. Gross. The rest of the house went to bed and now all feeds are on Rachel and Brendon with the covers over their heads doing who the hell knows what. Time to turn off the feeds and take the trash out. Ewww.. (The picture is from when Brendon was lecturing her about saying, "Bring it on," at the end of her nomination speech.

Every moment on Rachel's life on this show is an act. It's either an act directed towards the viewers, the other HGs, or most likely, towards Brendon. She's either over-the-top happy or completely miserable and mopey. If she's not screaming happy, then she's playing some sort of pathetic card to get other people to give her attention and comfort her like a five-year-old. She has no idea how other people perceive her and she takes other people's actions the wrong way because everything has to be about her, whether it's positive or negative. There's no way Ragan could be upset simply because he liked Kristen and misses her. It's got to be that he's upset because Rachel got her evicted, and this means he's chosen Kristen's side over Rachel's. Seriously?

Like Britney said, it must be different when she's on the block. Anyone else, it's not okay that they're upset. With Rachel's, she's allowed to mope and act like a bitch to everyone else. What a joke.

Brendon: I think Lane put it best when he said that Brendon is like Andrew in that he is not well-socialized. That's why he's awkward in social situations and often says things that you just don't say in certain situations. And he gets away with a lot of it without people labeling him as a weirdo because he's good-looking. He just really irks me. I don't like how he tries to control Rachel in the house.. how he will physically hold onto her and prevent her from leaving until she accepts his apology or listens to him babble more.

I think the majority of the house thinks he's deep down a good person but can't stand hanging around him. Although I hate him with Rachel being gross, I think he would've been screwed without her. He would've been a huge physical target and he wouldn't have fit in with the brigade alliance. I don't think anyone sees it now, but he's lucky they formed this disgusting alliance or else he would've been out early.

The HGs want to get Rachel out first because they think the next HOH will be questions and Rachel is stronger at that. However, many of them would rather put up with Rachel than have to deal with Brendon. That says a lot. Britney hates that Brendon is a know-it-all and a poor sport. A lot of the guys hate how he tries to show that he's better than them all the time.

He kept saying he wished they'd have an endurance challenge where it's running. The others were like "where would we run to?" And then the minute he falls from the paint bucket, he starts ranting about how it's rigged for people with small feet. Britney later was like, "No Brendon. It's not rigged. People of all sizes, heights, and feet size beat you. Lane beat you. Hayden beat you. You fell because you suck." (Not a direct quote)

And right now, he's on the feeds coaching Rachel on how to throw the ball in the bowling challenge they're practicing in the back yard. I didn't realize his physics degree made him not only a master wizard, but also a bowling coach. Wow.

Andrew: So there's two ways to look at what Andrew did. Either he wanted to go out with a bang and piss everyone off and spill everything he knew and thought he knew just to mess with people's games.. Or he did what he did because he was trying specifically to help Brendon. Both are in the realm of possibility.. equally likely considering his personality.

He's pretty awkward, but he's a self-assured kind of awkward. Meaning he doesn't hide in the corner or really know that he's awkward. He'll hang around people without knowing they think he's kind of strange and then interact with them in a way that's not aligned with how he's perceived. I've studied a good deal of personality disorders and while he's definitely not anywhere severe enough to be categorized as one in my opinion, he makes a lot of classic social mistakes. Unfortunately, Big Brother is a huge social game, so he did not fare well.

For example, the whole reason he was mad at Kristen and attacked her during the live show is because he felt betrayed when she was spending so much time with Kathy. However, Kristen explicitly said earlier in the week that she would still be a friend to Kathy but would vote to keep Andrew. She was the one who campaigned hard to keep him off the block when Rachel was HOH. She really was on his side. This changed only when he had that crazy POV speech that made her, like everyone else in the house, get wind that he might be aligned with Brendon and Rachel. Up to that point, she was still planning on keeping him. Also, after the speech, he never went to her to explain it, making it more clear to her that he was hiding something. And then he gets mad and says she was spending so much time with Kathy and never went to talk to him. To be fair, Kathy was the one going up to people and subtly campaigning. As Kristen has said, Kathy went up to her, she did not go up to Kathy, and Andrew had the same opportunity to go to her, especially after POV, to explain himself.

I guess that better explains why I'm on Kristen's side. Regardless of all the bullshit that happened after the live show, the true reason Andrew even went on his tirade was because he felt betrayed, and I don't feel that he had a real reason to feel that way. It was his social-awkwardness and inability to read the situation that caused him to come to the conclusions he did.

I would have a lot more respect for him if he did what he did as a strategic move to help Brendon, the one person he felt he had an alliance with. I really think his attack was self-motivated though. Perhaps when Brendon learned about it, he encouraged it, but I think it's something Andrew planned to do without considering it would benefit anyone else.

Hayden: Before this week, I would've said that Hayden was playing the best game. However, now that Tropical Storm Andrew has blown through, I think he will need some luck to make it through with limited damage. I would like Kristen to stay, and if they both manage to, that will be the least damage. If she leaves, he'll still be strong in the game, but will lose some additional perspective that she provides.

To me, he really resembles Zach Roloff in that their facial structures are very similar. I like Zach a lot, so my initial reaction to Hayden was that I liked him too. He's kind of in the middle for me, though. I can't find anything to dislike him about, but I really can't find anything that sticks out to me, besides the fact that he's aligned with Kristen and with the Brigade.

Matt: So I know his lie about his wife's disease has a lot of people heated. Here's my take on it: I think it's stupid to lie about something outside of the game when there are much better things within the game to lie about. So it's not that don't condone lying. I think it's necessary in the game. What I think is unnecessary and kind of a cheap shot is to lie outside of the game. Simply because there's no way of people figuring out whether or not what you say is true. On the other hand, it you lie within the game, I think it's in the parameters of playing the game. So I don't really approve of his lie. It's not something I take personally. I have family members that have died of illness (I think most people can relate to the situation in this way), but I don't take his lie as anything disrespectful against people who have been ill. I just think it's stupid and cheap. It doesn't mean I think he should be kicked out of the show or shunned. Whatever. He chose to play that card. Every show needs a couple of different villains.

I do find him really funny in how much he resembles a seven-year-old. And I do find him funny when he's around certain people. I also think he's playing a smart game for himself, in what he did with his HOH, although it may hurt him in the end because he's playing somewhat strong for someone who's supposed to be supporting an alliance but is making his own moves.

Enzo: I think Enzo is hilarious as a character and I appreciate his presence in this house. However, I know almost certainly that I would not be able to stand him at all in person. I would not get along with his personality. But I know I'm at a distance and watching him through the feeds, and because of that, I really enjoy him in the house. He's so over the top about everything. Here he is, claiming he's going to go to sleep like this.

It's hard to really define the term "floater" to everyone's satisfaction, but I think of it along the lines of under-the-radar. I think Enzo's playing a great under-the-radar game. He's not pissing anyone off. He's not doing horribly in the challenges, but he hasn't won anything that would put him in power. Right now he's comfortably drifting along. And I'm not saying that in a derogatory way. I have no problem with this type of strategy, or really any other type of strategy, as long as the person is making a choice to play that way.

Okay, Enzo's pissing me off. He's really paranoid about the side-alliances because he doesn't have one. He keeps talking smack about Britney and Ragan and I don't like that! Haha well, that's more on a personal level, it bothers me. On a game level, he's completely right about his read and needs to watch out for them. I just think he's a lot of talk right now. He's yet to win anything.

Small note, Kathy's starting to play a little. Says Enzo could be the saboteur to Hayden. Telling him to be careful.

Lane: I don't really have much to say about Lane. I don't think his character's been developed that much, as far as a player in the game. He hasn't had to make any big moves, so they haven't really focused on him. However, I enjoy the big brother-little sister thing he and Britney have going. It's funny how he picks on her and it's funny that she tries to trap him in conversations with Brendon.

Ragan: I hadn't written anything about Ragan before this, so I'll start now with his newly found role as saboteur. I think it's a good thing for his game as long as he doesn't get screwed with a task requiring him to do something way out of character. If this works out well, it'll force him to be more guarded with his advice and make him think about his own individual game. I think he's been thinking too much in terms of his partnership with Matt and his friendships with other people. He needs to continue analyzing like he does but keep more of it to himself so that it only benefits him directly.

So far, he's played off the saboteur announcement really well. He's a good balance between projecting the blame but holding back some so as to not seem like he's over-the-top. I think had he been selected as the initial saboteur, this could have been a much different show. However, that means he'd be leaving around now, so I'm glad he got the role later on so he can potentially stay until the end.