Author: Matthew Kittle

Top 10 TV shows of the Last Decade

It’s said we are currently experiencing a Second Golden Age of TV. There are more TV shows and channels than ever before vying for our time and fandom. Below is a list of some of the best shows of the decade that are absolutely worth anyone’s time if they happened to miss out on them.

10. American Horror Story (Seasons 1-4) (2011-)

AHS is not the show it once was. It has reached a point of being just bad. However, it still needed to be included because of how strong the first few seasons were. Season 1 “Murder House” was released in 2011 and there was nothing like it that had ever been on TV. It was legitimate horror that was on our televisions, not camp, but creepy and gory horror. The different ways that people have been killed or other awful things happened to them, on FX is shocking to see. The first season deals heavily with a school shooting. The second season focuses on mental health and sexuality, which we hadn’t gotten as much as we do now. They have always been quick to address social issues. AHS went four strong seasons before going off the rails. We regularly see anthology shows that have self contained episodes or seasons such as Fargo or Modern Love now. AHS was one of the first popular shows to pioneer this format. Each season was a stand alone story that cast the same actors in different roles. Throughout these seasons, showrunner Ryan Murphy built a powerhouse regular cast that included the likes of Jessica Lange, Evan Peters, and Sarah Paulson. 

9. Watchmen (2019-)

This show was released just in time for the decade. It was difficult not to include too many late 2010’s shows but this one needed to be here. Damon Lindelof was given the keys to this IP and was told to do whatever he wanted with it. Lindelof has done some interesting things in his career with Lost and The Leftovers. Lindelof isn’t interested in answers for his shows, it’s the journey that is the actual entertainment. Watchmen takes place a few decades after the comic and movie and viewers aren’t really given a lot of direct context of where the universe is at now. It takes focus to watch this show to catch up. Lindelof made this show for himself, and lucky for us, he gets to share it with everyone. In only one season, Watchmen is able to create images which will stick with viewers for a long while. Judd Crawford, played by Don Johnson, being found at the end of the first episode; Young Looking Glass, played by Philip Labes walking out of the fun house at the beginning of episode five, I could name a dozen more here. Lindelof has said he won’t be doing a second season which is very unfortunate to hear. Hopefully, if HBO continues without them they can try to capture at least a bit of how great the first season was.

8. Big Little Lies (2017-)

The cast alone gets this show on a best show of the decade list. Imagine if someone told you 10 years ago that Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, and Laura Dern would be on a show together. Not only was the aforementioned cast amazing, it provided excellent performances by Shailene Woodley and Zoe Kravitz who held their own sharing the screen with the giants. If the first season wasn’t impressive enough, they returned with a second season and dropped a nuclear bomb by adding Meryl Streep to the cast. Streep creates many iconic moments in the second season, but my favorite would be her screaming at the dinner table. In an age of memes and gifs being so popular, this show really churns out a lot of quality moments. Putting the cast aside, this show blends the tone, music, and message to make a high quality show that deals with timely topics around domestic abuse, assault, and harassment.

7. The Good Place (2016-2019)

The fact that the Good Place has gone four seasons, let alone aired at all is very impressive and shows the change in major network’s sensibilities to their shows. Unique and rule breaking shows such as Community struggled if they did one episode that followed a typical sitcom format. The Good Place does full seasons that bend the rules of a network sitcom and we didn’t have to worry about sudden cancellations ending their story early. Each season finds a new way to reinvent itself to keep the seemingly limited story going, but not in a desperate “keep making paychecks” way. In a world of generic half hour comedies, this show was a breath of fresh air that changed the game for future sitcoms. Ted Danson plays a character named Michael, who is not human. He is an architect of The Good Place, a place for good people to go to when they die. Eleanor, played by Kristen Bell, ends up at The Good Place. She immediately knows this is a mistake because she was a bad person on earth. All of the actors have amazing chemistry with one another, especially Kristen Bell and William Jackson Harper who plays Chidi.

6. Ozark (2017-)

My favorite way to describe Ozark is “The Perfected Anti-Hero” story. If Ozark came out in the mid-aughts we would have a season or two where Jason Bateman’s character is just a normal accountant who is presented an opportunity and over time starts becoming wrapped up in the criminal world and craziness ensues. Ozark cuts all of that. Right from the beginning, viewers are introduced to Bateman having no issue laundering money for drug cartels. It saved us from seasons/episodes of boring buildup and gets us right into the thick of the drama. The location of the show is beautiful and gets us out of the big cities that regularly accompany drug cartel shows/movies. Julia Garner’s performance needs to be mentioned, she really steals the show despite sharing the screen with established stars Laura Linney and Bateman. There is constant drama and twists that always catch the viewer off guard. I would love to list some, but want to avoid spoilers for a show that is probably pretty overlooked since it’s Netflix and they are bad at advertising. 

5. Atlanta (2016-)

Atlanta breaks all the rules of television. You will have an episode that ends in a situation that needs resolution and expect it with the next episode. Instead you’ll have two episodes that have nothing to do with the main story and are essentially stand alone episodes. Atlanta does episodes that have built in commercials that if you aren’t paying close enough attention look like legitimate commercials, not jokes. The episode this takes place in is one of the main characters Paper Boi played by Brian Tyree Henry as a guest on a local TV talk show, the entire episode of Atlanta is as if you are watching an episode of Montague, the talk show. Donald Glover has never liked rules or doing what is expected. Such as being a regular cast member on a network sitcom and quit in the middle of the run. Or following up a successful rap album with an experimental electronic album. With Atlanta, he is constantly looking to do distinctive and quirky things while also providing social commentary by highlighting issues that will have a wide audience on FX and reach demographics that it otherwise may not. FX has, rightfully, given him full creative control over this project and allows him to do whatever he wants and it has resulted in some amazing product over the last couple years. The only downside is the wait between seasons. Season 2 ended in May of 2018 and it could be the end of 2020 or 2021 before season 3 is released. 

4. Girls (2012-2017)

Girls took four privileged, millennial, mostly unlikeable women and created a very touching well crafted show that HBO showed trust in by continuing the show’s run longer than the creator expected. Lena Dunham was one of the pioneers of Mumblecore cinema and after the indie success of Tiny Furniture, HBO greenlit her show Girls. It follows the lives of four women living in New York City after college maintaining their friendship and relationships. Some of the best moments of the series are bottle episodes that feature one of the main characters in a stand alone adventure. Take for example Season 5 Episode 6 “The Panic in Central Park” where Allison Williams’ character Marnie runs into her ex Charlie, played by Christopher Abbott. The series started with them being together and Charlie being a secondary character. He was phased out after a couple seasons but brought back for an episode to see how his life has changed. The episode builds slowly as Williams is stepping out of her life for a moment, only to be met with deep disappointment in the end. Girls had a lot of great guest appearances throughout, like Patrick Wilson in another well done bottle episode “One Man’s Trash” season 2 episode 5.

3. Justified (2010-2015)

Headlined by Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins, this show was almost guaranteed to be a hit. The entire series centers around how Olyphant and Goggins’ characters, despite being a US Marshall and a criminal, are more alike than it appears. Olyphant and Goggins characters used to work in a coal mine together when they were younger and that kind of work builds brotherhood. Throughout the 6 seasons Olyphant is pursuing Goggins, while also thwarting other bad guys’ plans, while also having a mutual respect for each other. Justified has a very classic western feel to it that is palatable to those who aren’t fond of that genre. The very first scene of season 1 episode 1 is Olyphant shooting a drug dealer because he didn’t get out of town in the 48 hours he was given, about as classic a western sheriff trope as you can get. The series begins with a “Case of the week” feel that is much more procedural than the show becomes. Eventually, they create season long villains, who are cast very well. A couple examples of these villains are Margot Martindale (Season 2) and Michael Rapaport (Season 5). 

2. Game of Thrones (2011-2019)

Game of Thrones gets a bad rap these days. They had difficulty sticking the landing of the final season and people have really soured on it. Honestly, there is probably no way they could have ended it and made a majority of their fans happy. Regardless, the iffy ending shouldn’t negate just how important this show was. For almost the entire decade it was a driving force of discussions in popular culture. It was nearly impossible to escape all the conversations and theory surrounding each episode’s release. Fans had to watch the episodes air live so nothing was spoiled, which no longer really applies to any show due to the popularity of streaming services. Moments like The Red Wedding and Battle of the Bastards rocked the culture almost as much as real events. The Battle of the Bastards is the best battle sequence I have seen, including film. Even if you have no interest in the story, I would recommend checking this battle out just for the quality. Adding in the complex woven story, great performances, and unparalleled production quality you have an absolute hit of the decade.

1. Succession (2018-)

I went back and forth a lot on Game of Thrones or Succession taking the top spot. I ultimately had to go with this order. On the surface this show can appear shallow and frivolous. Who wants to see a bunch of rich people having problems? But rather than being a soap opera of well-to-do idiots, it’s actually a chess match of verbal sparring and wit. Throughout the two seasons, people who are part of the family, and not are all jockeying for position to succeed after the patriarch can no longer lead the family business. It’s not possible to find a weakness in the cast and just watching them all go off on camera is pure joy to watch. The MVP of the show would have to be Kieran Culkin who plays the youngest son of the family Roman Roy. He is smarmy and his delivery of insults is masterful. Succession isn’t getting the attention that it deserves yet, but with the second season being even better than the first, it will surely win some awards and get people talking about it more.

Fall Sitcom Intro

It’s one of the best times of the year…the weather is getting more chilly, trees will start changing colors soon, people are going out and picking pumpkins and going to apple orchards…and all the new and returning TV show premieres roll out! 

The idea of a laugh track disgusts me, tropes are boring and unimaginative. However, I can’t help but watch or at least try all of the sitcoms that come out every year. Since I watch them all, I wanted to spotlight some that might be worth checking out!

The Good Place Season 4 (NBC)

The Good Place is arguably one of the best things on TV. It’s unprecedented that a show this unique is aired on a major broadcast network. Shows like Community struggled if they did one “weird” episode. The Good Place does full seasons of “weird” and we didn’t have to worry about sudden cancellations ending their story early. If you’re tired of the generic sitcom plot that is always used and you want a change of pace, give this one a try if you haven’t already.

They are only a few episodes out so far and they haven’t missed a step. All of our favorite characters are back, and we have a few couple new residents to The Good Place. So far the new residents haven’t been fleshed out a ton, but I have no doubt, considering the track record, that they will be able to do so. They have set them up for quite the challenge with one of the new characters. Brent, played by Benjamin Koldyke, who plays a horrible male chauvinist trash person. We’ll see if they can make him likeable at all, they have to keep us on our toes somehow.

Each season finds a new way to reinvent itself to keep the amazing story going. I can’t really go too far into this without spoiling things. So please, just go over to Netflix and catch up on the series so you can watch along for the final season.

The Neighborhood Season 2 (CBS)

This one really surprised me. I had a lot of negative opinions from the premise and commercials. It seemed like the point was to criticize the black neighborhood for not accepting the white family moving in as a gross “see all people do this!” validation. I was thrilled to see that it wasn’t the neighborhood that had a problem with the white family moving in, just the grumpy neighbor.

Despite my concerns when first learning about The Neighborhood, I was looking forward to Max Greenfield having his own show with New Girl ending. I loved his character Schmidt and I just needed more Max on my TV. Greenfield has a certain charm and excited energy to him that lends well to Schmidt’s “Bro” persona but still being endearing, which allows the negative aspect of his womanizing to not be his defining characteristic. In The Neighborhood he is able to strip all of that douchiness and he is just pure excited charm which is perfect for his role as Dave.

The second season is a couple episodes in so far and its following the same solid path the first season went. With it being more a typical sitcom, there isn’t really a big overarching plot line that was resolved and then a new one starts on the next season. The episodes usually revolve around the growing friendship of Max Greenfield and Cedric The Entertainer’s characters. A lowkey great relationship is between Cedric the Entertainer’s adult sons and Greenfields young son. They look out for him like a little brother and create some cute moments together. This one might be a little bit more difficult to catch up on since you can’t stream it anywhere except CBS All Access. 

 The Unicorn Season 1 (CBS)

Confession: I love Walton Goggins. Anything he touches is gold, and when I saw he was getting his own sitcom I was on board immediately. Goggins plays a widower with two young daughters. A year plus has passed and he is encouraged to get back in the dating scene by his group of friends. He is considered a “Unicorn” because he is a single father and it’s not by any negative actions of his own. AKA he isn’t an ass..

Goggins regularly plays villians. Sometimes they are flat, by-the-book villains. Other times, like his character Boyd Crowder in FX’s Justified, he is very complex and it doesn’t feel right calling him a “bad guy”. In all these roles it’s clear he has leading man qualities, yet nothing ever comes. Seeing him play a sweet father to two young daughters is such a breath of fresh air. One would think your mind would immediately jump to him as one of his many nefarious characters, it just doesn’t happen in The Unicorn. He immediately pulls you into the character and you’re along for the ride with him getting his life back together.

Aside from Goggins the rest of the cast is really strong as well. Rob Corddry, Omar Benson Miller, and Michaela Watkins creates a pretty strong and compelling supporting cast. They all have their own kids and so far after two episodes the chemistry between all of them is strong and there will be a lot of real estate for the story to go.

This show is about as much of a guarantee you can get to having multiple seasons. Goggins is arguably the biggest star CBS has on any of their new shows this season and as long as he wants to hang out there, they will keep letting him.

Bob Hearts Abishola Season 1 (CBS)

This one is a unique story of a Detroit businessman falling in love with a Nigerian immigrant nurse. It has a lot of things going for it. Folake Olowofoyeku, as Abishola, is pretty fantastic. The budding relationship between the two is very sweet. Also, I’m always going to root for a story that takes place in my city, Detroit. 

Bob Hearts Abishola is included on this list because it will be a fun one to watch for a season. I would be willing to bet it won’t get a second season, though. CBS is throwing everything at the wall and hoping something sticks. They have too many sitcoms and something has to give. It doesn’t feel like they put a lot of money into the budget or time into the writing. A lot of the jokes fall short and don’t have the punch you know they wanted. I don’t really have a lot of love for many of the supporting players either. Despite pulling some names like Vernee Watson, Barry Shabaka Henley, and Matt Jones…I just don’t care about any of their stories and I don’t think this one can last long relying so heavily on just Bob and Abishola.

Also it’s a horrible name for a show…

Sunnyside Season 1 (NBC)

I’m all for a group comedy. Community is one of my favorite sitcoms of all time. Taking a bunch of different personalities and throwing them into a room and having them play off each other and see what happens. Sunnyside stars Kal Penn as a former New York City councilman who is disgraced and fired. He finds himself tutoring a group of immigrants studying for their US Citizenship test. 

The cast of this show is very diverse and from the first couple episodes, quite funny together. The character Griselda played by Diana-Maria Riva has a running joke where she always shows up working different part time jobs. She catches a lot of characters off guard being in unexpected places and they way she plays off everyone is very entertaining. The character The cast, aside from Penn is fairly new. It’s hard to tell how successful the show will become this early. It all relies on how well the actors hold up and are fleshed out by the writing. This could either be the next big thing that goes 7 or more seasons, or it could be a dumpster fire and be done after a season, there will be no inbetween.

I would definitely recommend hopping on early here and going for the ride. You could be on the ground floor for the next Office. If it gets cancelled after a season, no harm done!

UPDATE: Sunnyside was cancelled after 4 episodes.

There ya have it, folks! Of course, there are a ton of other shows out there, but here are a handful to check out to help navigate the wild waters of Fall TV Premier season.

The Mighty Have Fallen

Big Brother S21E18-20

It finally happened! All of our hopes and dreams have come true….The Six Shooters are done! All it took was a piece of furniture in the house to win HOH and stick to their guns to shake things up. We were close with Cliff a couple weeks back, but that obviously didn’t pan out. The Six Shooters weren’t so lucky this time! I mean, they didn’t really help their own cause with fracturing before last weeks eviction of Sam. Let’s get into it!

The HOH comp this week is a memory one. There are themed kiosks thats have different photos photoshopped of the houseguests. They have to study the photos and then will answer true/false questions about them. If they answer correctly, they stay in, answer wrong, eliminated.

The Sunday night episode started with the HOH comp in progress, but quickly turned into flashbacks about all the madness that went down before Sams eviction. It all starts with Jack and Jackson. Jackson tells Jack that he can’t trust Christie and Tommy, that they would definitely take a shot at them. Jack is in tight with Tommy and Christie, and wants to protect them. Jack tells Jackson that he is wrong about them. This is just the foundation of the fracture, because next Jackson tells Jack how Kathryn and Holly know each other from outside the game. Jack plays it cool but in the Diary Room he confesses he was freaking out inside.

Jack goes to Tommy to relay this information about Kathryn and Holly. Tommy says he had a hunch they knew each other because he overheard them having a conversation about how they were at Stagecoach Music Festival together. Tommy proposes a theory that Jackson and Holly were dating before the show so all three of them know each other. This doesn’t really make sense considering Jackson and Kathryn were hooking up pre-feeds but whatever. Tommy wants to flip the votes so Kathryn can’t be in jury. Having Holly, Kathryn, and Jackson in the jury house together creates a voting block that can tank someone.

It’s now time to try to orchestrate the flip from Sam to Kathryn. First was Christie and Analyse, which were easy. They needed some more votes to make it happen though as they were at three. Jack and Christie are talking to Nick and Nicole and seem to get them on board. It really looks like the flip was going to happen. That is…until during one of the conversations is overhead by Holly, where she hears Tommy and Analyse saying “Don’t tell Sam”. Sam at this point already knows he is going home, so what is there not to tell him unless he flips. Holly goes to Jackson and tells him stuff is happening. They try to get answers from Tommy and Jack about a flip and they both are denying it.

Two hours before eviction Holly tells Tommy straight up that she heard him and asks why they are flipping. Tommy says the way Jackson is acting, which Holly doesn’t understand. Tommy tells her Jackson told that Kathry and Holly know each other. In a DR clip Holly is blown away and can’t fathom why Jackson would have done that. At that same time Jackson, Christie, Analyse all walk in. The conversation turns into a huge fight that results in the wonderful death of The Six Shooters. Nick, Jessica, Cliff are all listening outside the door. 

Eventually Jackson storms out and Jack slams the door after him. Kathryn comes in to defend herself. Holly and Kathryn say that they were given peoples’ word that Kathryn was safe. Tommy says this was before they found out about the trio. They react like they got shot. Kathryn of course gets all emotional and crying. Holly drills questions at Kathryn like it’s going to prove anything. “Do you know me?” “Do I know you?” “Do you know Jackson?”. One answer she is kind of getting made fun of for which I thought was a really smart way of answering was Holly asked “Do I know Jackson?” and Kathryn answered “I don’t know, maybe?”. It shows a disconnect between them to the others despite actually knowing each other and having a final two deal.

The flip feels in full swing! Until it wasn’t. Christie let her emotions get the better of her and doesn’t like the idea of flipping. Doesn’t think Holly and Kathryn are not friends. Might know each other, but not friendly. Which doesn’t actually matter. Any connection regardless how small is more than strangers. Christie pulled the plug on the flip with a half hour to go for the flip. Bye Sam.

HoH

After all this fighting that just happened before the live show everyone feels like they need to win HOH to feel safe. Especially the people from the now defunct Six Shooters. Jackson is the first out, which was really fun. None of the former Six Shooters wins and Jessica pulls out the victory!

Jack, Analyse, Holly, Christie, and Tommy are talking. They can’t believe the group is falling apart. Christie says Jackson showed his true colors and there is no six going forward. Holly and Kathryn are talking and doesn’t understand why Jackson said anything to Jack. They understood he thought he could trust Jack, but still. Holly doesn’t want to let Jackson go yet, but her true alliance is with Kathryn in the final two deal.

Nominations

Jessica wants to target two big people instead of pawns. She is just really happy she can keep other people safe who have felt so powerless in the game so far. She goes for the biggest targets in the game by nominating Jack and Jackson. During the entire nomination ceremony Jackson was staring forward emotionless like a psychopath. Based on where he was sitting, he couldn’t see the photos of the nominees and didn’t look back to see if he would be nominated. In the DR after nominations Jack seems to regret betraying Jackson, getting very emotional. Jackson just said he wasn’t going down without a fight.

At the beginning of the veto episode we see Nick playing both sides of the house and kind of getting caught. Jack, Tommy, Christie, and Nick are talking. Nick seems to be on the side of saving Jack at this point. Later Nick is in the HOH room with Cliff, Jess, and Nicole. Nick asks if there is a specific target and she says Jack. Nick seems on board but in the DR tells us he will tell everyone what he needs to and will do what is best for him. Later in the episode, Jackson hears Nick talking with Jack, Tommy, and Christie and outs him to Jessica. Jessica gets so mad she threatens to put Nick up in one of their places.

Veto Competition

Jess, Jack, Jackson, Kat (picked by Jess), Tommy (picked by Jack), and Nick are the players in the veto comp. It’s a space themed launch comp. BIg board with different spots. Each spot is worth different points. The lowest point shot is eliminated every round. Before launching their arrow, the platform they are sitting on spins around making them dizzy. Each eliminated person gets to open a box for a prize, then keep or trade it with any other prize.

Kathryn is eliminated first, getting the Veto. Jack is next and gets a trip to Hawaii which he trades with Kathryn for veto. Tommy is eliminated third. His “prize” is “Angry Alien”. For 24 hours an angry alien follows him around. He trades with Jack to get the veto. Jackson is eliminated fourth. He wins BB Explorer. Sent on missions around the house. He trades with Tommy to take the veto. Lastly, Nick is eliminated and gets $5,000, which he keeps. Jess wins and gets “Area 21” which makes her a doctor on call in case an alien arrives and needs help. She trades with Jackson and wins the Veto! Which, as anyone could assume she does not use on anyone, keeping noms the same.

They show us Tommy’s punishment in the Veto episode. He has to wear a costume of a rocket ship and travel at the speed of light (flashing strobe lights), sound (air horns), or smell (smell emitting canisters) into every room in the house. This is more of a punishment to everyone than just Tommy.

We see Jackson and Jacks punishments on the eviction episode. Jackson has to wear a doctor outfit and run out to a tent in the back yard and get slimed pretending to practice surgery on an alien. Jack’s was hilarious. An actor dressed as an alien followed him around making fun of him, making messes, and screaming. 

Jack seems to be regretting blowing up the six last week. He tells Tommy, Holly, and Analyse that no matter what, he wants the six to come back together. Neither Jack nor Jackson are really campaigning against each other. Tommy gets the other members together so they can make up. Christie apologizes to Jackson for thinking he was coming after her. Jackson isn’t able to be an adult and accept the apology without rubbing it in her face and taking no liability in anything. 

The vote goes pretty much as expected, and how Jessica wanted it to. Jack is voted out on a 6-2 vote. Jack had a nice final speech where he pointed out little things about each houseguest. I assume at that point he knew he didn’t have the votes to stay.

I didn’t get to watch the eviction episode live this week. I did see on twitter everyone getting excited how great Julies exit interview and dragging Jack. I was kind of disappointed when watching it the next day. Sure it was calling him out pretty well and they had clips, but it still felt lowballed. I would have wanted her to call him out more on who his targets were for the beginning and how it looked. Calling him out on calling Kemi a bitch, dog shit, and that he would stomp a mud hole in her chest (a Big Brother 20 reference) was nice, but i’ve heard way worse in past seasons not get called out. It felt like Big Brother giving fans who were up in arms enough to quiet down, but not actually do anything.

Is this finally the end of The Six Shooters!? We know they can’t go to the final six, but hopefully something can happen that will keep the remaining five from coming back together. I probably would have preferred to see Jackson go because he is a monster, but I think it was smarter of the not Six Shooters to keep Holly and Jackson together, as they would be less willing to go back to the remaining Six Shooters than Holly on her own with no Jackson would have. I can’t wait to see what happens next week on BIIIIIIIIIG BROTHER!…Bye!

Counting Sheep

Big Brother S21 E15-17

Every week we keep praying The Six Shooters will finally collapse. Every week we are left disappointed. I don’t know what I’ll do if I have to suffer through this group until the final 6. Even when the tides appear to turn, like last week with Cliff’s HOH, we still have a Six Shooters gain. I’ll probably still sit here pissing and moaning about it…lets see if we have any luck this week with a shot at the majority!

The HOH competition was a good ol endurance showdown! The houseguests had to hold on to two vines, while having their feet in two stirrups attached to vines. The vines would move around to different positions and the houseguests just had to hold on for dear life! When you drop you had to pull a chip. Two houseguests would have the “Poison Ivy” punishment. Endurance competitions are fun if you have access to the feeds because you can jump over and watch the full thing after the TV episode did. I did it for a little bit on this one, but my girlfriend was losing her mind with boredom, so it was following online for me.

Jessica and Nicole had dropped before the live show even ended. Production threw some twists in to make the competition harder. They shot pink calamine lotion out of cannons and kept dropping leaves on them to distract them. The two Poison Ivy punishment recipients are Christie and Tommy. Which later we find out they are wearing green underwear with red spots painted on them. They aren’t allowed to go outside, or to shower for four days.

I had mentioned previously, maybe we will have luck and someone will win who can take a shot at the Six Shooters. Nope. The final four in the comp are Jackson, Kathryn, Holly, Analyse. Sure Kathryn MIGHT take a shot at Jackson because he is a fuckhead to her, which they showed a montage of moments of this during the comp, but that isn’t a guarantee since she thinks she’s part of the big majority. 

It comes down to Analyse and Holly. They are joking around about bartering who will win, since they are on the same team it doesn’t actually matter. Jackson keeps yelling at Holly to not barter and not fall, that she needs to win. This makes Analyse, and other Six Shooters mad. Jackson only because he thinks he can manipulate Holly, and he can’t do anything to Analyse. Holly gets the W. While we are stuck with a Holly/Jackson HOH, we may have found a fissure that will split Six Shooters earlier than final six! Later in the episode Christie and Tommy are talking about how Jackson needs to watch how he speaks to people, especially women. The feelings towards Jackson seem to be shifting away from douche Jackson.

Big Brother never does the “Who wants to see my HOH room!” anymore. For some reason we see it with Holly. I was expecting some drama to break out. All we saw was her getting emotional over her letter from home. Were they showing just to show she isn’t a piece of furniture in the house now?

Holly tells Jackson she wants to put up Nick and Sam. Jackson says it’s bold putting up two guys, making strong enemies. He pitches Nicole as a pawn, Holly seems to consider it but doesn’t tip her hand on where she is going with the nominations.

Nominations

Sam goes to talk to Holly and Jackson. He doesn’t want to be guilty by association with Nick. Nick and Sam have been best friends since the beginning of the game, it just isn’t really shown on the show much. Sam offers to be a number for them when Six Shooters breaks up. He also promises never to nominate them. It looked like this might have worked as Holly and Jackson talk later at night that Christie needs to go. She has everyone wrapped around her finger. Jackson wants to keep Sam safe so he can take the shot at Christie, and they don’t have to get blood on their hands. Ultimately, none of this matters as Nick and Sam are nominated for eviction.

Veto

Reactions are pretty dull to these nominations. Everyone expected it, so no drama from the choices. I’m going to get right into the veto draw since not a lot happened between nominations and veto. Nick, Sam, Holly, Tommy, Cliff (Sam’s choice), and Jessica are chosen. It worked out well for Sam and Nick as they both wanted Cliff and Jessica to play because they would be easy to beat in the competitions.

For the competition a bunch of live sheep with number jackets on are released into a fenced in area that is muddy. A number shows up on the screen and the houseguests who are matched up need to go in and catch sheep with numbers that added up equal the target number.

Starts with Nick Vs. Jessica, Holly Vs. Sam, and Cliff Vs. Tommy. Nick, Holly, and Tommy win their first heats. The game ended up being pretty unfair. Next was Nick Vs. Holly where Nick won. Then Nick Vs. Tommy in the final. I don’t understand why Nick had to play three heats to Tommy’s two, but whatever. Nick still wins veto!

After the veto Tommy and Christie have their poison ivy punishment tweaked. They now have to be covered head to toe in pink calamine lotion for their “treatment”. Tommy tries saying it’s the worst punishment ever. I think a robot Sam from Season 20 would beg to differ.

The cracks of Six Shooters are really growing. Christie and Tommy talk to Analyse about how they think Holly and Jackson are keeping Sam so he can take shots at people for them. Analyse immediately goes and tells to Holly and Jackson reporting them. Jackson, who is a hot head, wanted to go off on them. Holly and Analyse try to stop him, but Jackson doesn’t listen to what women say. So he went to talk to Tommy and Christie. Holly walked in on him telling Tommy and Christie that they aren’t protecting Sam and Nick and the HOH is Hollys, not theirs. Holly comes in and asks why he is talking to them when she asked him not to. Jackson threw a temper tantrum and left. Eventually throwing enough of a fit causing Holly to apologize to him when she did nothing wrong. 

Nick of course uses the veto on himself. The replacement nominee is Kathryn. She calls Holly a “Conspiring Bitch” and it seems to shock everyone. It wasn’t that shocking when we saw earlier in the episode Kathryn volunteered to be the pawn since her and Holly have a FInal Two deal and this would help hide it. 

Eviction

The Eviction episode starts out pretty wild, resulting in little payoff. Julie talks about how the last hour and a half has been crazy and anything can happen tonight. In all my years watching Big Brother I’ve never seen Julie start a live episode like this before. I had a feeling that we wouldn’t actually see anything that happened as production wouldn’t have had time to edit and set everything up yet, but I had hope.

Before the eviction, we see a few flashbacks about what happened after the veto ceremony. Kathryn wants to drop seeds of distrust amongst The Six Shooters. She tells Holly that Christie told her she doesn’t want to go to the final 6 with The Six Shooters because the 2 sets of couples would be closer and cut Christie and Tommy. Sam tells Jackson later how he asked Christie if Cliff put Jack and Jackson up, would she be okay with it. She said 100% she would be on board. 

We jump back to the live show and get the final speeches. Out of context, Kathryns doesn’t really make sense. She talks about how she is very pro women and wants to play with the morals her mother taught her. Sams was uneventful and basically a goodbye.

Sam gets evicted 9-0. When everyone voted they talked about how crazy everything happening was. Except Jackson looked absolutely livid. My theory between Kats pro femisit speech, and Jackson being mad, something sexist happened. In the exit interview Julie tells Sam how he was a goner all week, then Thursday afternoon he was safe, then after all “blank” broke loose he was gone. Julie asks Sam if the 6 will stay together. He says no way, he thinks Jack will go after Jackson. Which as far as we know at this point makes no sense.

I’m so excited for Sundays episode to see all the madness that went down Thursday! It sounds like the dream of Six Shooters falling apart is finally here! Julie also introduced (way too early) the Field Trip twist. Three people will be voted for and do a competition. First place will be safe for the week, second place will have a punishment, and third place will be up on the block as a third nominee. This doesn’t happen until the following week. I’m ready for the wild ride, hope you all are too!….Bye!

Same Ol’ Same Ol’

Big Brother S21E12-14

I would like to thank, and apologize to the people who have been reading my Big Brother posts. They have been way too long and I have to find a way to shorten them. It’s just difficult fitting three episodes of content into one post. I’ll try cutting some more things that aren’t as important to make the reading easier!

The first episode of this week was formatted a bit different as there wasn’t a HOH competition at the end of the eviction episode. They didn’t even start the episode with the competition, instead showing us the fall out from Nick being blindsided by the Cliff eviction.

Nick and Bella meet with The Six Shooters and ask why he didn’t know about the flip. They throw out all sorts of excuses. “It just happened”, “It wasn’t planned”, “We didn’t know until right before the vote”. It’s all bullshit and Nick knows it. Bella keeps going on about how disrespectful it is and Jack snaps at her. Jack points out that she can’t keep saying how disrespectful it is when she’s been making moves over and over again to break the group up.

HOH Competition

The houseguests are shown a bunch of Merit Badges on a screen and they have to answer questions about them. Like which one shows up most kinds of questions. If two people answer incorrectly, they are eliminated. Also, the last two people to answer are eliminated if everyone answers correctly.

A relatively uninteresting competition came down to an exciting end! It was down to Jack and Cliff. Cliff who just won his way back in from Camp Comeback and Jack, a powerful member of the majority alliance. Cliff pulls out the win! Such a turnaround from just being evicted to winning HOH. When Nick brings him the HOH key Cliff says right away “You’re safe, you’re good”.

Later on in the HOH room Cliff, Kathryn, Jessica, and Nicole are talking game. Cliff says the four of them should be working together against the majority. In the DR he says he doesn’t know if he can trust all of them, but they need to do something to weaken the couples (Six Shooters). The unfortunately isn’t going to work. Kathryn refuses to see herself as an “outsider” with the likes of Cliff, Nicole, and Jessica. She thinks because she is a pretty girl she is automatically included in the other pretty people alliance. 

Jackson comes and talks to Cliff one on one. He volunteers as a pawn, and putting Nick or Bella up and getting one of them out. This maintains the idea of Cliff getting back at Jackson for banishing and going after the couples. Cliff admittedly doesn’t trust Bella either so Jackson pushes getting her out for that and to get back at her for Nicole. Jackson goes another step further and grabs Christie and they tell Cliff about the Diamond Power of Veto. Jackson may be a horrible person that we have found in the feeds, but I will say he is playing the actual game pretty well. He comes on slightly strong at some points but his planning is pretty solid.

Nominations

Cliff decides against risking losing a number to the “outsiders” by putting up Nick or Bella and goes with the fan favorite nomination of Jack and Jackson! Someone has come into power to bring balance to the force! Cliff the hero of the people!

While us, the people are celebrating, there are a few people in the house not so happy. Tommy went into a bedroom and was crying. Jack and Christie come in and comfort him. I don’t really understand why the nominee has to make someone else feel better, but whatever.

Big Brother rolls out the useless Have Nots for the season. Cliff has to randomly pick 4 people to be Have Nots and he goes with Tommy, Kathryn, Christie, and Jackson. It is peculiar they showed this on the TV broadcast. In ancient Big Brother days, on the nomination episodes they would have a Have Not Competition and it was a bigger aspect of the show. It’s almost nothing at this point. Its rarely mentioned, and we don’t usually know who are the Have Nots. Live Feed fans have heard about Jackson breaking the Have Not rules by eating food in the shower and Production not doing anything. I feel like it has to come back to get him at some point, otherwise why show us this?

Veto Competition

Time for the veto draw! It is Cliff, Jack, Jackson, Sam (Cliffs choice), Holly, and Jess. BUT WAIT A MINUTE! Jack busts out his Chaos power! On the Veto redraw we have Cliff, Jack, Jackson, Kathryn, Sam, Analyse. It still is arguably 3-3 like it was the first draw. Jacks power was a joke, and thankfully it’s gone and we don’t have to think about it.

The competitors have to sit on a jet ski that has 3 buttons. 1 on each handle, and one where their right foot is. They need to undress to a bathing suit and jump off and hit a button to stop a clock. If they let go of the button their time goes 10 times faster. Two buttons let go is 30 times faster, three buttons let go is 60 times faster.

During Kathryn’s turn in her DR narration she says she isn’t sure if she wants to win and use the veto on Jackson and show her cards. Excuse me, Kathryn? What cards? THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU, YOU AREN’T IN THEIR ALLIANCE. She would be saving her ex hookup and get nothing out of it. Also, Analyse might be one of the worst DR presences I have ever seen in 21 seasons of Big Brother. I think a corpse would have more life than her when talking in the DR.

Unfortunately for everyone outside of the Six Shooters, Jackson wins veto. Jackson will of course use the veto, and he is completely sure he will be able to use the Diamond Power of Veto power of Christie’s. However, she isn’t sure she wants to use it. In the DR she talks about how she’s afraid of pissing Cliff off. She says she regrets telling everyone and feeling all the pressure.

Christie talks to Cliff alone. Tells him how Jackson is pushing her to use the power. Cliff says he understands her worry about trusting he won’t nominate her or Tommy. Christie proposed a deal, that’s not really a deal. Christie says she won’t use her power if Cliff agrees to nominate Bella and they backdoor her. Then he will be safe for at least two weeks. 

At the veto ceremony Jackson of course uses the veto on himself. Everyones waiting to see if the power will be used or not. Christie holds on to it! This is the chance for Cliff to finish his shot at The Six Shooters! Cliff nominates Christie and is going to take her out and get rid of the Diamond Power of Veto all together! Just kidding…….Cliff does exactly what The Six Shooters want and puts up Bella. It makes absolutely no sense to me. Why even bother trying to take the big swing and then chicken out at the end. I get wanting to guarantee safety from them, and it’s not like Bella is trustworthy by any means, but it’s just delaying the inevitable at this point.

After the veto ceremony Cliff talks with Jack and Jackson. They were really impressed that he kept his word by nominating Bella. It seems like the deal he made with them seems to be benefiting him in the short term at least. Cliff says he took his shot at them, and it didn’t work, so no one would expect if the three of them worked together from here on out. It would be a pretty interesting team up, but unlikely they would be on board in my opinion.

Bella does some pretty good campaigning to stay this week. She makes points that Jack is a better competitor and this may be their only chance to get him out. Bella clearly isn’t a comp threat and would be a good number for people to use.

Eviction

There was a package that we saw showing us Cliff’s family. It was nice and all, but not worth writing about. So we will get right into the eviction! Bella had a great speech, again pointing out Jack being a bigger threat. She also named everyone who wasn’t in the majority alliance and this was a good chance to take a shot. Alas, it was not meant to be and Bella was booted out 8-2. In the exit interview Bella says she does regret turning on Nicole and they had a conversation in the house where Bella apologized. I thought that was a nice bow to tie her story in the house.

That was the week, everyone…Cliff, who could have changed everything, did nothing. He just did the dirty work that Six Shooters wanted him to. Jack might as well have won HOH and we would have the same result. I’m going to go ahead and end this since the Nomination half way over and I need to get to watching it…bye!

Camp Comeback is Closed

Big Brother S21 E9-11

These first few weeks have been pretty brutal to write about, let alone watch. It seems like nothing is going right, the good people are getting picked off left and right and we are still left with the gross majority alliance. Thankfully, Kemi’s elimination caused a little bit of a stir right at the end of last week, putting a target on Nick and Bella. Maybe we will get lucky and things will change this week! Probably not though…

HOH Competition

Pretty simple HOH comp this week. Houseguests had to underhand throw an arrow at a target. The highest score wins. To create the effect of an “interesting twist” on the comp they had two circles, one at each side that you could hit instead. One was for $5,000, the other was for immunity this week. I say it was to “create the effect” was the targets for these were so small and far away it would be nearly impossible to intentionally hit them, which no one does. So much for hoping things would change…Nick wins!

Remember last week when Jackson cast the rogue vote for Jessica? His plan was to pin it on Nick or Bella, but now that they are safe with the Nick HOH he needs to find someone else he can blame it on. He decides to convince the house it was Nicole. Jackson takes this news to Nick and he seems convinced by it. His original plan was to put Cliff and Jessica up but now he seriously needs to consider Nicole. I really like this move by Jackson. Its early enough in the game it’s hard for the accused to deny and it puts a big target on them, one more person out of the house.

Bella is talking to some people in the bedroom outside of the Diary Room. I’m not sure if production really wanted to have Kemi come do a confessional, or if they knew they could create some drama, but it sure resulted in the latter. Kemi overheard Bella running her mouth and they got in a pretty decent argument. There wasn’t a lot of substance to it, but it sure highlighted that Bella can’t fight. The highlight was when Kemi went to leave and Bella followed her, which caused Kemi to turn around and get in her face telling her not to follow after her. Bella folded pathetically saying she wasn’t following her, she was going to the kitchen (She clearly was not). Kemi tried a few times going in the DR to get away but production kept the door locked while it was going on, which was pretty great haha.

There is a Gr8ful meeting in the HOH room. Nick is voicing doubt that Nicole cast the rogue vote. He says she isn’t stupid, she knows how to play this game. Jackson starts to worry and really doubles down on blaming Nicole. He really needs to calm down on this if he wants to sell the lie. The more you push it and don’t even entertain other ideas the more clear it becomes that you’re lying. Bella proposes this to Sam after everyone else leaves the room, that Jackson cast the vote as he is trying so hard to deflect.

Wacktivity

We are finally on the last wacktivity! Its the Panic activity and Analyse, Jess, Christie, and Nick all compete. For the competition there is a large box full of cockroaches. They need to move the cockroaches to reveal picture clues to words to put together a phrase.

The most important thing we learned from this comp is that Analyse is horrifically bad at explaining things in the DR. She was the main person who explained the rules to us and talked through her entire turn. We also found out she didn’t know how to spell Julie, poor girl. Anyway, Christie wins this one and is given an actual useful power! She wins the ability to turn the Golden Power of Veto into the Diamond Power of Veto. One time over the next four weeks she can allow the veto winner to take down a nomination and choose their own nomination to replace. 

Christie plans to only tell Tommy about the power. As she is explaining the power to him, Jack walks into the room. Things got awkward and quiet for a minute. Jack shares with the two of them what his weak power he won in the wacktivity was. Christie is thankful he shared and said she wished she could give him good news like that but doesn’t have anything. So far this season it’s rare when someone says they are going to keep a secret so I was impressed!

Speaking of secrets, there were a few scenes of secrets being shared after this. Nicole tells Kemi she thinks there is a big group working together, she doesn’t seem to know who they all are yet though. Kemi has a connection with Nicole and even though Bella told her some things in confidence she is ready to spill. She tells Nicole about Cliff being overheard by Christie. This blindsides Nicole who goes right away to Cliff to let him know the news. Cliff is understandably upset by this. He apologizes a lot to Nicole for ruining their game.

Nominations

There was a small push to get Nick to turn on Gr8ful. Nick, Bella, and Sam were talking and know that Gr8ful isn’t going to last much longer. They are aware they are on the bottom and will be picked off. Sam asks why are they just accepting it and not doing anything about it. Nick of course is going to be to big of a chicken to actually make the move. Nicole later goes to NIck and Bella and tells them how they were going to be the target if Nick hadn’t won HOH. They are pretty shook by this but ultimately it didn’t matter. Nick still went the easy route of nominating Cliff and Jessica.

Right after the nomination ceremony Nick is still pissed that his alliance was going after him. Him, Bella, Tommy are in the HOH room. They tell Tommy what they find out and he starts trying to do damage control. He quickly gets the rest of Gr8ful (and Sam) to come in and convince Nick and Bella she was lying.

Gr8ful+Sam go real gross in this episode. It turned into a mob mentality and straight up bullying. Multiple people outside of the alliance try coming into the room to talk and are booted out. FIrst was David, he was told they were talking game and to come back later. See, King Jack made a rule that people in camp comeback weren’t allowed to talk game or be around people talking game. So they are continuously ostracized by the group. Cliff tried to come in, but he was kicked out as well, Nicole shortly later tries and is kicked out.

Bella tells everyone what Nicole said about them being targeted if Nick didn’t win HOH, also that they were calling NIck and Bella bullies. They all act outraged that Nicole would play both sides of the house like this, and that she was the one calling them bullies. Analyse says how pissed she is and threatens to go down there and yell at her. Production was amazing and cut to a scene where Analyse and Holly are talking to Nicole and talking about how Nick and Bella are bullying her and Nicole didn’t agree or anything. Bella IMMEDIATELY believes everything she is being sold, with no actual proof.

When Nicole was kicked out she came downstairs and was upset. She regrets talking to Bella since she can’t keep her mouth shut. That house doesn’t deserve someone as good as Ovi. Ovi, knowing he was going to be attacked, goes upstairs to scold them for treating Nicole like that. They yell at him to go and to wait a bit. He says he just doesn’t think it was cool what they did. Bella says it’s not really your say. He just says it’s not cool and walks away. Bella is such an idiot, what does it mean its not his place to say them treating Nicole like that is not cool? Because he is in Camp Comeback he isn’t allowed to have an opinion. I can’t want for her reality check.

Everyone starts screaming and jumping around in the HOH room. They all became manic and it was honestly frightening. I was almost expecting them to leave the room and start burning people at the stake or some shit. They out of nowhere decided to solidify themselves as an alliance! Sam isn’t supposed to know about Gr8ful so now they have this brand new perfect timing “Unde9able”. Sam is so good though; it cut to him in the diary room with a straight face where he said “I should be Gr8ful for this opportunity …it’s unde9able”

Later on after the bully party Nicole is in one of the bedrooms. Bella and TOmmy walk in and asks if she wants to talk. Nicole says she was upset because she had a heart to heart with them and they announced it to the entire house. Bella said she went to them because some of it didn’t make sense. What Bella means by this is Nicole is only 1 person, and 3 people told her it wasn’t true so that makes more sense to her. Bella bulldozed Nicole the conversation. It was for Bella to talk AT Nicole and accuse her. Not to have an actual adult conversation. When Bella finished her talk, instead of letting Nicole respond, she said she was tired and wanted to go to bed. 

The next day Kathryn and Bella are in the bedroom and Nicole comes in asking to talk. Nicole says she loves and respects Bella and apologizes if anything she said offended her. However, because Bella is a petulant child, she just wants to hear more apologizes from Nicole and won’t listen to a word Nicole has to say defending herself. Nick and Tommy come in and Nick joins in with Bella. Both of them are so offended that Nicole supposedly called them bullies, they bully her in defending herself against the lie. Nicole finally snaps, and it’s beautiful. Tells Bella that this is all her. That she constantly misconstrues what people tell her and is always running her mouth. Nicole tells Nick that she respects him and hopes he does well in the game but Bella will drag him down. 

Veto

The contestants in the veto were Nick, Jessica, Cliff, Jackson, Kat, and Christie (Picked by Jessica). Two weeks in a row now Jessica got houseguest choice and picks almost the worst possible person to play. She’s willingly picking people to play she know aren’t playing the game with her.

Kaitlyn from season 20 is hosting the comp! The contestants enter the maze search for their color puzzle pieces and put together a Kaitlyn puzzle. It was the same puzzle that Kaitlyn was able to try to put together last season to stay in the house. Kaitlyn does a really good job at poking fun of herself, and ive really turned around on her from my dislike of her last season.

Kathryn wins! Much to everyone’s surprise. It wasn’t even close either!

At this point in the veto episode it seemed like we weren’t going to have time for anything else aside the veto ceremony but BIg Brother crammed one more, amazing segment in. Christie had a full blown meltdown thinking she was getting backdoored for literally not a single reason. She kept taking random things he was saying in general as attacks at her. Christie breaks down talking to Kathryn about how she for sure is going up. 

Veto ceremony comes around. Kathryn uses the veto on Jessica and Nicole is the replacement nominee, it looks like the back door is in place for her. Christie in the DR says “The risk I just took not using the diamond power of veto is so huge!” Except it wasn’t, because she wasn’t at risk whatsoever.

We find out early in the eviction episode Christie spoke with Nick and Bella about her worries she was on the outs with the group. Which really surprised them, rightfully so, because it was a crazy thought. To try and ensure her safety, Christie told them about the diamond power of veto. So much for keeping it a secret with only Tommy. Also funny when she told them not to tell anyone, and Bella is part of the conversation, which means everyone is going to find out.

As I have been saying from the beginning, an eight person alliance is impossible and the majority alliance whittles itself down. Now instead of Gr8ful, they are “The Six Shooters”, keeping most of the same group as before, less Nick and Bella. Also, no Sam, sorry buddy!

Christie was all over the place in this episode. She has stopped melting down about being on the outs with her group now that Veto has passed. Instead she leads the vote flip from targeting Nicole to booting Cliff. She knows Nicole has motivation to take a shot at Nick and Bella now, meaning SIx Shooters wouldn’t have to if Nicole can win HOH. She is also still mad that Cliff said her name and recognized the majority alliance.

They showed a package from the Camp Comeback members about what they have been doing to stay in the game, and just different things that have happened to them. David is making good relationships, Ovi makes a lot of cookies, and Kemi kind of hangs out. In this package, though they show a scene where Jack has a disgusting, offensive conversation with Kemi scolding her for putting her shaker bottle in the refrigerator. Jack has been shown being an asshole a bit on the show, and he definitely is a piece of shit on the feeds, but this was the first time showing how bad he is on the show. He is a cocky fuck who I can’t wait to watch his downfall. 

Elimination

Time for us to see the fourth and final spot at comeback be filled. It’s the seasons first split vote. At 6-4 Cliff is voted out. Nick and Bellas reactions were priceless. They were furious and I can’t wait for the next episode so we can see how those conversations go. 

Camp Comeback

For the Camp Comeback competition, the four contestants have to roll 6 balls down a winding board maze and drop them into a container. Whoever gets either 6 balls, or the most in the time period wins their way back into the house.

This was no contest. Cliff completely dominated this game. He didn’t have a ball of his drop off a single time. It was like he did this for fun at home and was a pro. He was winning 4-0 before anyone else even got one. Cliff showed some awesome confidence with his celebration. He threw his hat and flexing on everyone! 

While I’m happy that Cliff got back in because he seems like a great guy and will do some cool things in the game there are a couple negatives. First, the coolest nightmare power went out of the house with Ovi. That really would have been fun to see. Two, the visual of David, Ovi, and Kemi all sitting with Julie for an exit interview was really striking and awful. Almost all of the diversity in the house being kicked out in one go. 

I’m happy that Camp Comeback is over. I was glad that we got to see David, Ovi, and Kemi some extra weeks. It just leads to the same issue that Edge of Extinction had in Survivor this season. There are only so many minutes in an episode and when we are splitting screen time with people who aren’t in the game,and not even talking game (not by their choice to be fair). It takes away from other, more meaningful moments in the game.

We had a really fun drama packed week, it didn’t end in any great results with changing things up, but we were able to keep Nicole and Cliff so hopefully we can see some revolution and attack on the majority alliance. Shake things up, make the powerful fearful. Talk to everyone later…bye!

Predictable

Big Brother S21 E6-8

I feel like there were such high hopes for this season. Usually, we watch the pregame interviews and it seems like a bunch of turds were cast. I saw potential in almost all the houseguests, except maybe Kathryn. Here we are two weeks in and looks like we have a bunch of turds anyway. A problematic, toxic, offensive power alliance preying on the minority alliance and apparently minority people. Let’s get into this….

This week started with one of the lamest HOH competitions I can remember. They watched a “fireworks show”, which I mean a digital computer screensaver show. Then had to answer incredibly easy questions about the color patterns. You know that boring explanation you just read? That’s the feeling we all had watching it. Jack wins, wonderful.

That all wrapped up the live eviction episode. Starting the nominations episode we are shown a stupid long recap segment. By the time the recap and theme song was over we were past 5 minutes into the episode. In that same recap I heard Kathryn’s “Are you bitches conspiring against me!?” and I wanted to die.

Jackson is doing damage control with David. He knows David is a strong competitor and depending on the type of competition, has a good chance of getting back in the game. It doesn’t seem to work right off the bat, but at this point it doesn’t hurt having the conversation. Jackson goes on a PR tour and chats with Ovi. Tries patching things up in case he gets back in. Ovi seems too nice and innocent at this point and they are on good terms by the looks of it. This conversation is beneficial for us as well because we learn the Nightmare Power is not dead. It is dormant until he gets back in the house. The work by Jackson doesn’t last long as Nicole tells Ovi how Jack and Jackson were never behind him and the plan all along was to get him out. 

Random little short paragraph here. David and Kathryn talk and she says how there aren’t any alliances. David gives her a hilarious “are you serious” look. He tells her there are alliances, and if she doesn’t think there are any, that means she isn’t part of a majority. She seems pretty shocked, but moves on pretty quick.

Wacktivity

*Summer camp horn plays here*

This whole comp is about matching snake colors. There are three snakes in boxes. The contestants need to look through all the released snakes around them and match the color/designs of the snakes. Jack wins seemingly gaining even more power in the week! Until we learn what the power is…Chaos Power: Until there are only 6 players left if Jack doesn’t like the people playing in the veto he can cause a redraw. Not pick who plays, but initiate another random draw. Almost a completely useless power, but good for you Aquaman.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m so sick of seeing Love Island bull shit stuff. We see it on commercials and ads constantly. What could be worse? It being in the show we are watching? Sure! Houseguests see a video of Brett, Winston, Swaggy C, and Bayleigh from Season 20 pushing the show and telling the houseguests whoever wins Veto gets a trip to Fiji. Thanks guys, bye!

To go along with the Love Island stuff, we get a Holly and Jackson showmance package. Which ends with Kathryn popping up and scaring the two of them while they are cuddling in the hammock and she awkwardly joins them. Kathryn is becoming an enigma to me. I don’t think shes playing the game, but she’s pretty funny. Safe to say Jackson is tired of her though and is considering pushing Jack to put her up to get her out of the house.

CREATION OF A NEW ALLIANCE: Black Widows. Jessica, Nicole, Bella, Kemi create an all women’s alliance. We know how well women’s alliances happen in the past. This might be a record for how fast one falls apart though. Bella goes right to Jack and tells him about he Black WIdows alliance. Bella says in a confessional if the Black Widows had a number she’d stay with them, but they don’t. “Floaters grab a life vest”.

Nominations

With the info of the Black Widows alliance it validates Jack’s already problematic plan of targeting Jessica and Kemi. Jack was able to use in his nomination speech that he was going after the Black Widows alliance that would be going after him. In the DR Jessica is rightfully pissed because she doesn’t know who she can talk to and trust. Kemi says he is an idiot and should have backdoored him because she thrives under pressure. Jack later on says how he didn’t want to risk backdooring her with Camp Comeback in play.

Now we are to the veto episode of the week. Bella tells Nicole she told Jack about the Black Widows. Says it was best for her game.  Nicole is pretty shocked. Bella seems to tell everyone everything. She is truly a wildcard. She says in the DR how she wants to be in an alliance with everyone but she can’t keep her mouth shut.

David has only been in the house a few days now, and he already has the whole house figured out. In the DR he tells us how he knows Jack and Jackson are the big 2. Holly and Analyse are with them and he knows Christie and Nick are with them. Tommy is a likable guy who no one would put on the block. Nick and Bella are close so she is safe there. Cliff, Kemi, Jessica have no idea what is going on and Sam is a wild card, not part of an alliance.

Jessica and Jackson have a talk. She tells Jackson she didn’t create an all women’s alliance. She tells him that she didn’t even know about an all women’s alliance. Sometimes this move can come off as desperate and not believable. I actually think she did a good job selling it. I don’t think it matters in the long run but it was good hustle on her part.

Veto Competition

Players in the veto are Jack, Kemi, Jessica, Bella, Jackson, Sam. Jackson was a houseguest choice by Jessica. Just for the record that wasn’t a typo. Jessica picked Jackson. Jessica who could have picked Nicole who she has a relationship with, chose the guy who is BFF’s with the HOH who nominated her.

Tyler, season 20 runner up hosts this comp. The houseguests pull the plug on a “Aqua Clock”. They can fill up a container and if all the water runs out their time is out. While this is draining they need to take foam frogs to the other side of the course and stack them on their side. Whoever has the most frogs on their stand when the timer runs out wins.

Sam is the first to let his clock run out when he stacks 18. He knew stacking more would risk it falling. Great move by him, except winning the first 2 vetoes and appearing as a comp beast in week 2 isn’t a smart look. It’s guaranteeing a backdoor down the line. Jessica lets her clock run out at 13 and Kemi’s falls right before time is out at 4. I can’t fathom this. There is no set time on this competition. Only when you let it run out. If you know you aren’t winning, why would you not run back and put more water in your container to extend your time until you find a way to win. It’s the equivalent of giving up to me.

As usual after Sam wins he becomes Mr. Popular in the house. Kathryn is afraid if he uses the veto she will go up, so she talks to him about it. Jessica talks to him trying to get him to use it. An amazing moment happens when Nicole walks in on the conversation and they trail off awkwardly. She stands there sipping her drink when it hits her that they are talking veto and she apologizes a ton and leaves. The idea that Nicole is a very plausible replacement nominee is the extra fun in this. We round this out with Kemi talking to Sam about veto. Kemi makes a good argument that Jessica really is all in on the Black Widows and would put up 2 men everytime she is in power, where she would work in the game and promises not to nominate him. Sam says if he used the veto it would 110% be on her. 

Big Brother goes a little off script here. Sadly, Sam’s grandfather passed away while he is in the house. They were close and production wanted to tell him. On a human level I have no issue with him being informed of this. It also created some heartwarming moments where the house rallied around him in support. I do think it would be a mistake to say this info didn’t effect the game. There is no way to tell for certain, but Sam seemed to consider using the veto on Kemi which would have kept a strong competitor in the game. However, the news of his grandfather passing reminded him why he is in the house, for his family, so he didn’t want to rock the boat and kept noms the same. 

Eviction Episode

CREATION OF A NEW ALLIANCE: Fellowship of the Zing! So this is a partial alliance. Its Cliff, Nicole, and Ovi. The strength of this alliance hinges on Ovi getting back in the game. If he doesn’t make it out of Camp Comeback this is nothing. 

More showmances are developing. Nick and Bella have been simmering for a bit so that wasn’t surprising. The other is Jack and Analyses. By the way, Analyses goes by “Sis” which I’m not cool with, so Anal Lice will stay as Analyse on my blog. Jack calls Analyse “Exotic” which I feel like has to be a little shade by production to include in this. Don’t use “Exotic” as a compliment, it’s outdated and problematic. Just goes in line with his already shown race issues.

Every morning sweet, fun, super-fan Cliff gets up before everyone else and does his “Cliff-Notes” talking to the cameras. He addresses his family, friends, fans about what is going on in the game. Talks about everything on his mind. The only issue with this is that he doesn’t appear to talk quietly, assuming everyone is still asleep. It didn’t take long for someone to catch him. Christie gets up one morning and walks by and hears him talking. As he is explaining Fellowship of the Zing, and the majority power alliance putting her and Tommy as a 4th couple. Essentially the worst timing possible for someone to overhear. Instead of using this revelation to her advantage and listening to future conversations, she goes right to Tommy, Jackson, Holly and freaks out about it and everyone finds out. Her loss for losing the well of information. Only a matter of time until it gets to other people not in Gr8ful.

Kemi knows she has a good chance of being voted out this week. She isn’t going out with a fight. She brilliantly, in my opinion, tells Jackson that Bella created the Black Widows and blamed it on the other girls. Jackson tells Jack about this, as well as the whole Cliff-Notes thing. News is spreading like wildfire at this point in the game.

Lets jump back over to Bella partaking in her favorite past time, telling people secrets! She tells Sam about the 8 alliance and he is on the outside at 9. Says sooner or later he is going to find out, might as well be from him. Sam seems mad about this. I get the initial anger, but if I was in the house I would LOVE to be the 9 in an 8 person alliance. There is no way the 8 will stay strong to 8. At 9 you become a chip that the fractured sides will be fighting over. Being fought over is one of the best places to be. 

Not only does Bella blow up Gr8ful to Sam, but Jack fucks up too. They are talking in the pantry and Sam is pitching an idea of flipping the vote away from Kemi to Jess (if only he had won the Veto and would have been able to protect Kemi!). Jack says he is “good with whatever is best for Gr8ful..I mean…whatever is best for the 9 of us”. I’m warming up to Sam and I hope he can do some damage some day this summer.

Eviction

The ladies give their speeches. Jessica has a speech of rambling nothingness that I can’t believe didn’t get cut off sooner. Kemi went and blew up Nick and Bella’s spot. It was wonderful. They were pissed off and made it real easy to vote her out. 

Kemi is voted out 10-1. Jackson threw out a rogue vote to keep Kemi. I have to say, with Camp Comeback being in play, the “goodbyes” after an eviction are quite awkward.

There you have it, folks! Week 2 in the books and evil still reigns. Jack was able to finish what he wanted to do with Christies HOH. There was a lot of information exchanged, but it was a pretty predictable week which makes it boring. I for one can’t wait to see the chaos that will happen when the 8 blows up. Kemi obviously put in a lot of work to put Bella and possibly Nick on the outs with putting Black Widows on her, and calling them out in the farewell speech. We need to hope the 8 crack sooner rather than later because this could potentially stay boring at this pace for a few more weeks. That’s all for this week!….Bye!

No Nightmares

Big Brother S21 E3-5

This post is so late…I’m finally going to churn it out, and stay more on top of things for this current weeks post! We have the first full week in the books, yet still have the same amount of people in the house, because…twist! Hookups, emotional breakdowns, no fights…let’s get into it!

The nomination episode is made up of a bunch of pieces falling into place. Mostly establishing the major alliance in the house. Previously we had the majority group at 6 with Jack, Jackson, Nick, Christie, Bella, Holly. Jack and Nick are hanging out and decide to expand to a group of 8. This is always a great idea and never goes poorly…The more people you have in an alliance, the more likely it’s going to fall apart. I was surprised Level 6 went so well last season, since 6 can even be too high of a number. Jack and Nick decide on Tommy and Analyse, both of which are ecstatic to join. They all decide on the name Gr8ful, which I’m not a fan of, but whatever.

At this point there is no clear target, essentially anyone not in Gr8ful. Kathryn, Analyse, Kemi, and Bella are all talking about how well they know the HOH Christie. Kathyrn is trashing Jack and Jackson saying how she can easily manipulate him since they have a relationship. Wort noting…Jackson and Kathryn had a prefeeds hookup. It had already ended by the time feeds started. They show us a package in the next episode of them being flirty but in the Diary Room (DR) that they aren’t in a showmance. Producers cut between them denying it, but still hooking up a few times for a humorous segment.  Anyway, Bella immidly tells Christie, Jack, and Jackson what Kathryn is saying which inflates her target significantly. 

Later on when Christie is planning out her nominations she pulls Cliff aside. She asks if she can put him up as a pawn. Of course “Pawns go home” but when someone asks if you want to be a pawn, you can’t really say no. After this we see Christie pull Kathryn aside telling her that if she is nominated it’s as a pawn because Cliff is an easy target. I really like this tactic especially early on when the people you are nominating aren’t really talking game to each other. This way regardless of which person survives the block, you can sell you were backing them.

It doesn’t take long for us to see our first slip up! When you’re talking game, just make sure the room is empty or talk later. Pre-noms there is nothing that is so important you need to risk talking in front of people not in your group. Tommy, Nick, Jack are cuddling on a bed talking about the group of 8…while Ovi and Cliff are laying in the room. Cliff is completely passed out so no risk there, but Ovi was awake and heard the mention of 8, and since he wasn’t in a plan with anyone, knew he was in the minority now.

I love Ovi, he seems like a great guy, and he’s clearly a Big Brother fan. He handles this knowledge of the 8 group SO badly its painful. He needed to sit with the information and observe, try to see who the 8 were so he knew who it was safe to speak with. Instead, he speaks to Analyse right away, and shortly after talks to Christie, Bella, Jack, and Jackson telling them all about the 8. Statistically, with 15 people in the house there is no way the 5 of them, and himself are all not part of this majority alliance. He let 5 of 8 members of Gr8ful he was onto them. Hello target. Oh…also we have the creation of the Fab 5 with Ovi, Jack, Jackson, Christie, Bella. Clearly a fake alliance to keep Ovi calm.

Wacktivity Competition

At some point throughout the week all the houseguests had to sign up for different “Wacktivity Competitions” without knowing what they were. The categories were Nightmare, Panic, Chaos. Each has 5 people and takes place over the first 3 weeks and the winner gets a special power.

A horn goes off to announce it is time to play the Wacktivity competitions. The first one is Nightmare that has Cliff, Bella, Ovi, Kathryn, Nicole. Each houseguest is in a little shack that looks like a cabin with 3 buckets in front of them. Each bucket has an awful smell. There are signs on the side of the cabin. They need to run out, smell different stations and match the smells There were 3 rounds. No one got all of them right until Ovi gets the W in round 3. He is pumped but knows he can’t react and needs to keep the power a secret.

Ovi is awarded the “Nightmare Power”. It’s one of the more powerful powers in all of Big Brother in my opinion. After the nomination ceremony, Ovi can use this power to wake up the whole house in the middle of the night and force the HOH to nominate two new people. The previous nominees are safe for the entire week, including from being renominated after veto.

At the end of the episode Kathryn and Cliff are nominated. No shockers there. Kathryn is pissed off at being used as a pawn (even though she’s the target at this point). She says “I don’t have the personality of a pawn, I have the personality of running this shit!” Which I don’t really know what that means, but alright!

Kemi and Bella are shown having a pretty close relationship. They spend a lot of time together and are really connecting over making great jokes at other houseguests expense. This connection is making some of the members of Gr8ful nervous that she is the weak link. Christie tries getting the group together to touch base and realized its nearly impossible to get an alliance of 8 together in secret (no shit). 

It is decided that if veto is used, Kemi would be the backup nomination. It would cut that tie with Bella, also Kemi is throwing out a lot of peoples name acting like she’s running the game. We were shown a scene where Kemi is talking to Christie and Jack throwing out Ovi’s name as a nomination. Christie and Jack are pissed off about her name dropping people. The anger does seem a little extreme until you take into account Kemi was throwing Jack and Jacksons name out as nominees and it got back to them. They didn’t show that in the show though.

Veto

Players for this week’s Veto comp are Christie, Cliff, Kathryn, Sam, Jack, and Nicole. We have ourselves a guest host! Season 20 winner Kaycee! The house flips out. I was looking forward to making it through this season without hearing “lets go!” as a catchphrase. No such luck.

The competition is similar to the space invasion veto comp that Kaycee dominated last season. The houseguests need to catch things flying at them that’s mixed in with messy sludge and paint. Its pretty difficult and just an excuse for them to look stupid. No one did great at it this season. Jack asked Kaycee how did she get 37 points last year!? It helps being a professional football player. Sam ends up beating Jack by 1 point. It doesn’t really make sense for Sam to win this, but hey, it gets him involved in the game and he seems excited so why not?

It is pretty expected by everyone that Sam is going to use veto on Cliff. So Gr8ful plans on putting up Kemi and backdooring her. Jack comes up with a pecking order of Kemi, Jessica, then Ovi. Christie doesn’t understand Ovi before Sam. Jack made a really bad situation for himself here. It looks really bad that his biggest targets are all the people of color in the house (aside from Bella in his alliance). It might not be his point…but it still looks really bad. 

Nick and Bella are cuddling (budding showmance) and Bella tells him that she doesn’t want Kemi gone yet. Nick says he will talk to Christie. Christie doesn’t want to get rid of Kemi either, that’s Jacks plan and this is her HOH. You mean there are already rifts in an 8 person alliance!? What!? Christie talks to Jack and says she isn’t putting Kemi up. Jack turns into a huge ass hole saying over and over again “The plan stays!” Like Christie isn’t her own person in charge of her own HOH. 

Christie really comes unhinged the rest of the veto episode. Very emotional about being pressured to backdoor Kemi which she really doesn’t want to do. She seems to be turning on Jack really hard, getting to the point of threatening to nominate Jack in the DR. She really hopes that Sam doesn’t use the veto. She pulls him aside seeing if he will not use the Veto. He says he is going to, as Cliff has been through enough. They are trying to think of a replacement and poor Ovi comes up to tell them dinner is ready…looks like wrong place wrong time for him.

For some reason, Sam agrees to an awful plan of letting it look like he blindsided the HOH and going against her when he uses his Veto on Cliff. It only makes him look bad, and her a victim. Either way, Sam uses it on Cliff, and the replacement is Ovi. He is really hurt because he thought the Fab Five alliance with her was strong, so it was a blindside for him.

The target appears to have fully shifted from Kathryn to Ovi now. She is still using the tactic of telling the other they are a pawn, just like she did with Cliff. Poor Ovi is very emotional and scared over the nomination. Jack and Christie are consoling him but still heartbroken. 

Kathryn did her damndest to try getting herself sent home. She was driving everyone in the house crazy. She went full paranoia and came up with a catchphrase “Are you Bitches conspiring against me!?”. There was a horrible montage shown where she just kept saying it over and over. It would have been tempting to vote her out just to not deal with that anymore. You know as soon as she is home she’s turning those into shirts and hats to sell in her 15 minutes of fame.

Ovi throws a hail mary. He sits Jack and Jackson down telling them about the Nightmare Power. I understand the desperation, but I still don’t like it. He is telling two very strong competitors who get to play for HOH next week that he has the ability to change their nominations. Ovi offers it for their use and protection to stay, but thats trusting someone. There would be a lot of incentive to just boot Ovi so the power is gone and can’t mess with their game. For what it’s worth, Jackson does consider flipping, Jack wants to stick with the plan though.

Eviction

Ovi did a great deal of campaigning when he was put up, and did almost everything he could to sway people. However, it wasn’t enough as he was voted out unanimously at 12-0. Its a shame he wasn’t able to use his Nightmare Power. That would have really shaken things up in the house. Everyone is saying goodbye as he is about to go to the door when the horn for the Wacktivity comp goes off. Everyone sits back down and we are introduced to “Camp Comeback”

The evicted houseguests don’t leave the house. They continue to live with the rest of the house and after 4 people, 1 gets back in the game. Camp Comeback members don’t participate in house comps, or ceremonies, but play the social game. Julie tells Ovi “but you won’t be alone…” then the door bursts open and David comes running in and everyone starts freaking out!

We are basically dealing with Edge of Extinction again from Survivor this season. I really like it so we can see more of David and Ovi. It does make the show a bit messy as we aren’t losing people so the screen time is still pretty spread out, but only a couple more weeks and we will likely be back to normal, but who knows!

I’m going to segment these from HOH to eviction. So even though the HOH comp is in this same episode that Ovi was voted out, I’m going to go ahead and save it for the next post. Again everyone, I’m sorry for the late post, I’ll try staying more diligent on it for the coming weeks! I’m gonna go now…..bye!

We are Back!

Big Brother S21E1&2

Many people look forward to summer for all of the outdoor activities and great weather. I however, love summer because that means it is time for my favorite TV show! BIG BROTHER IS BACK! I can’t wait to start writing about this season and talking about all the craziness happening in the house. 

My plan is to write one post per Head of Household cycle (HOH, Nominations, Veto, Elimination). I don’t want to write about each episode individually. If I was posting that much, I’m sure I’d have no followers. Also, I should mention, I don’t watch feeds. I listen to podcasts and read the posts about what happened in the feeds so I’m generally caught up. I can’t watch the feeds because I enjoy having a girlfriend, friends, and a job. WIth my obsessed I get with TV, watching the feeds, I would neglect a lot of other parts of my life. 

Episode 1

This post is just going to be about the first couple episodes since the first HOH cycle hasn’t been shown yet. Full disclosure, I did not take notes on the first episode since I watched it at a friends place and I haven’t gotten around to rewatching. The first episodes are usually pretty lackluster anyway. We had a pretty quick intro package for everyone thankfully, I’m not really here for the fake “finding their key!” that they film every year. I don’t think we learned a lot more than we could have found out in Jeff or Ika interviews.

We are shown everyone introducing themselves blah blah blah. Shortly after this, Julie gets the game started by announcing the role of Camp Director! The whole theme of the house this season is camping, and the house is decorated with that theme in mind and it looks really nice! Anyway, Camp Director, is position where the rest of the house votes someone into this position and they get unprecedented power in the game, the only one known to the houseguests at this point is they are immune for the first week. It doesn’t appear to be a clear front runner at this point until the idea is thrown out for people who want to volunteer. 

We get 4 volunteers for Camp Director. Jackson, David, Cliff, Jessica. David fizzles out pretty quick, same with Cliff. Or I should say, we don’t see much of their campaigning. The episode mostly focuses on Jackson and Jessica campaigning. It appears that there will be a girl alliance putting Jessica in power, but that quickly fades and Jackson is ultimately the winner. The winner is revealed in a fun, messy way… everyone who didn’t win gets blasted with different color paints. Jackson is the winner, and Jessica is pissed.

Julie reveals the powers of the Camp Director, which is Jackson needs to pick 4 players to banish from the game, where 3 will come back in and one will be eliminated. Julie keeps saying throughout all of this that the 4 banished houseguests are “out of the game”. This doesn’t really make sense, because they aren’t out of the game, just in a different part of the game. I guess it just sounds more dramatic to say “out of the game”. 

That was all in the first episode where I’m going off memory, sorry if it feels like I mailed it in a bit. The rest will be more detailed!

Episode 2

A majority of this episode was dedicated to people campaigning to Jackson to not be banished. Everyone except Kemi, who said she didn’t want to suck up to him, always a smart route to take…

We see the creation of our first alliance! Jack, Jackson, and Bella. This is the start of a snowballing huge alliance that we will touch on later. In this meeting Jack pitches the idea of putting up the other people who volunteered to be Camp Director (Cliff, Jessica, David). I thought this was a pretty good idea. It’s a good way to excuse why you are calling people out right off the bat. 

Jackson has to go upstairs into the room they have been using as the “twist room” like the trending power twist from last season. He selects 4 people to be banished. Cliff, Jessica, David, and Kemi. Only 3 people, other than Jackson, had volunteered to be Camp Director. Kemi’s brilliant decision to not even talk to Jackson is what got her banished. The people who were banished were “taken” by a person in a creepy squirrel mascot. It was hilarious seeing everyone run away from the mascot as it carried a person sized bag around and put it over the banished peoples heads. Then made a quick cut to the squirrel carrying them out in the bag. It lowkey fooled me if the squirrel was really carrying the people out…it wasn’t.

The banished people are in a pitch black wilderness setting. They need to feel their way around a course to find the right hole to get back into the Big Brother house. If they go in the wrong hole they have to go through whatever that room is to get back to the main room and keep searching. The first wrong room we see is “Camp Bee Bee”. Jessica and David go in there and wade through sticky honey and fall into a pile of feathers, it was a pretty good sight. The next room is “Camp B-Ball” where Cliff enters and is pelted with basketballs and an air horn goes off in his face, poor dude.

Cliff is our first houseguest back from banishment! Some retribution for poor Glenn in BB19 for the older guys.

Kemi goes into “Camp Boo” and that is all terrifying clowns and a whole lotta Nope from me. She gets out of there quickly and she is the next to reenter the game! Jessica goes into “Camp B&B” which is all sticky syrup and pancake obstacles. Right after that room she also re enters the game! That is all of the returned houseguests and poor David is eliminated. Julie tells him that he is out of the game….for now. Leaving us all hanging. 

WE didn’t really get to know David at all, he seemed kind of emotionless for the most part but he did show us emotion in the diary room. He was upset and said he wanted to be the first black winner of Big Brother. Apparently forgetting Tamar Braxton, though she did win Celebrity Big Brother, not Big Brother proper. These first night eliminations are so fucking stupid. Nobody wants them. They aren’t fun or interesting. Let the players play the game! Regardless of recruit or not, these people up-end their lives to come do this and they don’t even get a real fighting chance.

Everyone celebrates the returnees. Jackson immediately starts trying some damage control apologize to Jessica and hugging her. We get a couple quick conversations. One between Tommy and Christie where they acknowledge how they know each other. Also the previously mentioned alliance of Jackson, Jack, Bella gets a little bigger. It grows to include Nick, Christie, and Holly. More to come on that later still…

Head of Household Competition

For the HOH comp everyone is in pairs hanging on a log that’s lifted off the ground. Last person hanging wins. As Jackson’s last act as Camp Director he has to pick the pairs sharing the log. It really ended up being of no consequence since it was still an individual HOH comp.

The competition steps up a notch after everyone is hanging for a bit. Paint starts pouring on them making holding on even harder and vision is all messed up. Overall it was a pretty enjoyable endurance comp and the winner is Christie! It really worked out well that Jack, Jackson, and Bella included Christie in their growing alliance so they all could feel safe this week.

The first 2 episodes overall weren’t that fantastic in my opinion. It would have been better if it was a 2 hour episode on one night and we could get into it. Instead dragged out over 2 nights had a lot of unnecessary stuff. I’m still ecstatic we are back and looking forward to a great summer of Big Brother!…Bye!

Black Mirror Season 5 is Poop

It feels like years since I have last written. Survivor ended, I wasn’t feeling writing about Bachelorette, so here I am going on my third week straight doing nothing. Big Brother doesn’t start for a couple more weeks and I wanted to bust something out to stay in practice!

Nothing has really “wow’d” me the last few weeks to write about. I mean, the Game of Thrones finale was solid. Even though everyone likes to complain and say how bad it was, you’re wrong, but that’s okay! Everyone is entitled to their opinions, even the wrong opinions ;p. Still, I didn’t really feel like writing about it. This week was particularly bad with watching things I had high hopes for and they really fell apart. I’m going to discuss the worst, so here we go!

I love the whole vibe of Black Mirror. The eeriness, the messages, the quality of the show, all really drew me in. I was a little late to the party and didn’t start watching until the first couple seasons came out, but every time new episodes come out I get pretty pumped. There are some valid concerns of the newer seasons not being as good, but I still keep watching and enjoying. Black Mirror released Bandersnatch a few months back I was blown away by the creativeness of it, despite it having some poor plot issues, was still very impressed.

All last week my girlfriend Alli and I were excitedly waiting for Wednesday so we could start checking out the new season. Wow, were we disappointed.

Striking Vipers S5E1

Striking Vipers wasn’t too bad actually. It really captured the Black Mirror feel. Crazy situation, great acting, decent writing. I wasn’t too upset with anything in the episode. It definitely still had faults with the writing and gave us some red flags but figured it wouldn’t be a trend throughout the season. The concept of VR into a fighting game was a neat take. Also, it was funny seeing our new Captain America in a Black Mirror ep. I don’t want to go in to much detail what this one is about because it’s a fun ride. Check it out!

Smithereens S5E2

This is not Black Mirror. This was an episode of some cop drama that was accidentally snuck in when it was released. Any day now we are going to get an announcement of the mix up and we will get an actual episode of the show we all love. Nothing in this episode can be considered science fiction, nor does it involve any new or weird tech.

A man kidnaps an employee of a social media company called Smithereen (Twitter) by using a rideshare app Hitcher (Lyft/Uber). They eventually end up in a police standoff where the man talks to the creator of Smithereen and explains how he looked at his phone and caused a car accident that killed his fiance. That’s it…that’s the twist. We were led to believe the drunk driver involved in the accident caused the death of his fiance, but it was him looking at his app.

The episode is just really late. Maybe if this episode came out a decade ago before distracted driving stats got as bad as they are, it would be more impactful. Black Mirror just prides itself so much on being ahead of the curve on technology and social criticism but instead ended up sounding like a grandparent scolding their grandchild before they hit the road. In 2014, Black Mirror made us consider if a copied computer program personality of ourselves being forced to program our house is ethical or not (White Christmas). That same show is now giving us “back in my day kids weren’t so into their phones!”. Lazy take.

Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too S5E3

Lol…….What a steaming pile of crap.

For the record. I like Miley. I don’t want my criticism of this to come off as an uninspired “he didn’t like it because he doesn’t like Miley!”. Credit where credit is due, it sure did a hell of a lot better than Smithereens where it was actually about technology. My issue with Smithereens is that it wasn’t an episode of Black Mirror, but it was at least a cohesive story and for an episode of NCIS: London, it is serviceable. This episode is just nonsensical. Multiple times throughout the episode Alli and I looked at each other like “what the fuck is happening…?” Alli even compared it to a Lifetime movie.

It’s about a 15-year-old, named Rachel, who is way too obsessed with a pop star played by Miley Cyrus. Miley’s character doesn’t want to sing the meaningless pop songs anymore, but at the same time, her manager/Aunt is releasing little robot doll versions of the singer, called Ashley Too. When Miley reveals to her aunt she doesn’t want to sing this anymore, her aunt slips pills into Miley’s food, putting her into an “irreversible coma” and extracts songs from her unconscious mind. Somehow, the 15-year-old and her sister unlock the robot so that it becomes Miley’s full consciousness, and they work together to expose the aunt.

When I was watching these episodes I didn’t take notes, so I won’t have as much detail in my complaints as I would normally like, but this episode had a few that were so glaring I didn’t need notes. Black Mirror does a lot of amazing stories. Their attention to detail is something I always admire when watching older eps. The season as a whole suffers from some of the attention to detail aspects, but this one especially.

To touch on a few:

One of the biggest examples was when they unlocked the Ashley Too robot to reveal all of Miley’s consciousness in it. Rachel’s sister is an angsty teen who plays guitar. Nothing about her makes it seem like she has any tech skill. In order to make the Ashley Too robot into a fully functioning conscious person, they plugged it into the computer, saw a red dot, highlighted it, and pressed delete. The idea being that literally not a single person plugged their robot into a computer and saw an obvious error looking red dot. None of these people thought to highlight it and press delete? Maybe Rachel’s robot was different than the rest, but we wouldn’t know because there is nothing implying this.

After Rachel, her sister, and the Ashley Too robot wake up Ashley (Miley), they need to rush to thwart her aunt who is revealing a hologram version of Ashley so they can still perform. There is almost no establishment of stakes. When the aunt’s accomplice finds Ashley awake, but secured to the bed she tells him to put her back to sleep, that she needs to be alive until after “they sign”. Whatever that means. Once Rachel and company knock out the accomplice, they pile a severely atrophied Ashley to their truck and fly through traffic doing all sorts of dangerous stunts, being chased by police to bust into the stadium for the grand reveal. There is literally no reason for them to rush there. Why not call the police right from the house when Ashley was saved? When the police were chasing them, why not stop? Everyone in the world knows who this pop star is and how she has been in a coma. Explain to the officer what her aunt did. Episode is done.

These are only a couple of the many examples of how the entire episode was so sloppily written. There is no care or thought into the writing to make an actual interesting story. It’s as if they were able to cast Miley and were so excited, the story didn’t actually matter as long as they could cram her image and voice in as much as possible.

At this point I’m having a hard time having any excitement for the potential of a 6th season. I thought I remembered seeing this was going to be their last, but I can’t find anything confirming that now. I just hope that if they do another season they will try a lot harder than this to get back to what they are capable of. We actually ended up watching White Christmas right after we finished the season because we needed to enjoy an actual great episode of the show.

That’s all folks! I was considering writing about Ma which we saw on Saturday and that was a shit show of a story, but I decided to stay on just one topic today. Hopefully you made it through the season unharmed and we will wait nervously together for the next season. Watch Big Little Lies season 2 premiere tonight and I’m sure you’ll feel a lot better! Bye!