When I heard the news that Big Brother Mzansi's coming back I was as excited as a dead fish. In fact, I felt so unenthusiastic it pained me - I wanted and needed it to be different and yet I couldn't deny the feeling.
My addiction and passion for the concept of Big Brother never wanes - I could watch a million seasons and never get bored BUT it
has to be done properly and ours isn't. Big Brother Hotshots was crushingly disappointing and I'm concerned about what's going to happen next because the show seemed to put in Zero effort.
It felt as if the production crew was lazy and unfocused. There was nothing new nor exciting nor fresh in the season - it was exactly the same as the show's been for too long, with no new dynamic at all. You'd think the
house burning down would have lit a firecracker under the production which would have delivered some spark but nope, it didn't.
By the end of the season it felt as if the entire series needed an overhaul - which it does! It needs new energy and zest and changes and dynamic rhythms and careful attention throughout the next season. It needs to explode with energy from the first episode.
As a committed, long-time and very passionate Big Brother uhdikt, these are the changes I want to see:
The Sunday night show
A completely overhauled and refreshed Sunday night show jam-packed with reality content. There's so, so,
so much they could put in the weekly show and yet they never do. The show's had the exact same rhythm for years and seriously needs to go into retirement. It starts / then there's music / then they go into the house / then it's more music / then - you know the drill because it never changes.
The show should be an energetic cacophony of cool things instead - things like:
- Clips of crucial moments in the house that we might have missed. Snippets and moments that touch on the most important plotlines and relationships - that show us more - that zone into the heart of what's happening.
- Interviews with the family members or friends of the housemates who are nominated that week. If they can't be at the live show they can chat to us via skype. This would really connect us to who the housemates are in the real world.
- Chats to psychologists and other people with interesting perspectives on the dynamics in the house.
- Inclusion of the live audience into the action of the evening. Talk to them, get their opinions, make them a character in it all because they are. The audience is such an important part of the show and yet they aren't treated as such. They can't even give their honest opinions on the housemates because they have to cheer. No matter how disliked or what the story is with a housemate - the audience are only ever encouraged to cheer so they can't express their true feelings.
- The show needs to get out-and-about during the week and talk to uhdikts about it. What are people thinking and saying about it?? - show us. Not in some promo but
honestly.
There are more, I could go on but I won't.
Housemate overload
Another big problem is that there are too many seasons with too many housemates. There should never be more than one housemate per country. We need to get to know them from Day 1 and it's impossible when there are too many people. It's much better to get to know fewer people better.
Also, the sound crew suck at handling too many housemates - they never control the sound levels properly in the post-edits so all you hear is everyone screaming at the same time.
Fundamental elements of drama disappear when there are too many housemates - there's no immediate focus, no clear tension, no clarity of relationships nor dynamics within them.
Who's that again??
Not only do they include too many housemates but then they refuse to show their names properly!
Those belts are terrible - always getting hidden under their clothes. They should remedy this by clarifying their names during the weekly and daily shows. They should simply bring up the names of the involved housemates on-screen so when they're in a scene their names come up next to them and then disappear.
Same thing in the diary room. I've seen it on other Big Brothers from round the world and it works perfectly. They keep their names running throughout the season which is ideal too.
Multi-layered time approach
The show should never assume that all of the audience is watching in the same way. People must be assisted in watching in different ways because everyone has different time constraints. It's a demanding show time wise in people's busy lives and the show should take this into account.
For instance if you only want to watch the daily shows it needs to work for you - you must still know everything you need to know even if you don't watch 24/7. If you can only watch the weekly show, the overall picture must still make sense to you. If you decide to start watching halfway through the season you should be able to get to know the housemates quickly by their names coming up on-screen.
Tasks
These need to be reworked completely to push the housemates to the edge
MUCH more.
Casting
We need REAL people. Not actors or singers or DJ's or people who want to use the show to show-off some talent they supposedly have. Big Brother Mzansi was okay when it came to this but it's happened too much in the past and really sucked on Hotshots. As
Segololo said at the time, the season was much more like a low budget Project Fame spinoff than Big Brother.
The
auditions for Big Brother Mzansi are happening this Saturday and I'm really hoping against all hopes that they go for the right people and that they inject a fresh, new energy into the show.
Do you feel the same? If so, what changes would you like to see?