...and well done Frankie too!

It was also pretty edifying to see Frankie come in as runner up and to witness the general turnaround in his fortunes. Another glorious reality TV phenomenon: the fogiveness of the public for the errant or misunderstood celebrity. We witnessed the return of the prodigal son in Frankie. Oh the redemption of it all. Marvelous! It's probably just as well he didn't come first. We don't want to send him off on another celebrity spiral. We want him to keep his feet on the ground, and to continue to grow up a bit like he seemed to do in the house. So Frankie probably got just enough public (re)approval but not too much. As Michael Madsen says, lets hope now that it doesn't swallow him up. Go Frankie!...just not too fast!

Big Brother concludes...And order is restored!

Well after my last post I'm glad to see that the world has regained its sanity. The twins have been kicked out, followed by Michael which is fair enough. The final three were appropriately upstanding and decent people and the final two were decent, vulnerable sometime underdogs, which is as it always has been and as it should be. At this point I would have felt satisfied whatever the outcome. However, when Denise was announced as the winner, it did all make a poetic kind of sense. The crowning ceremony is somehow especially gratifying when it imbibes a wounded contestant with the healing energies of approval, when it reinvents the underdog as a winner, the ugly duckling as a swan.

After Denise's self esteem had taken such a battering on the show, it seemed entirely fitting that it would be she who was thus transmuted. It was all the sweeter considering her background and those she represented like the older woman, the working class girl, the survivor of mental health problems. Justice was beautifully delivered, after she had been bullied and castigated so mercilessly by the arrogant American 'mean girl' style Playboy Bunnies and the flashy, cool, priveleged American movie star. These people who no doubt considered themselves natural born 'winners' were left to sit by whilst she took the crown and received the love and vindication of the British Public. Lovely!

Big Brother Madness - An Unwelcome Paradigm Shift - Could the twins win?

First Aaron won...(what was that all about?), then Natalie got kicked out... Now the twins get kept in whilst Romeo goes out. 

The results of shows such as this used to be so reassuring, it renewed one's faith in human nature. Nice guys finished first and evil doers were punished. Even looks and sex appeal did not necessarily count for much. Vulnerability and courage, kindness and moral callibre, were the order of the day and would win through. Yes there were debates from time to time on what a shame it was that the 'interesting' characters were getting voted out and wouldn't the viewers ever learn not to shoot themselves in the foot in this way, but there was something so edifying about seeing justice be done, and decent behaviour be rewarded. I may be alone but I enjoyed watching BB when it was harmonious and people got along. I enjoyed the 'boring' series when this was particularly the case.

However the cynical attitude of finding disharmony and evil entertaining seems to have finally caught upo with us. Now strategic votes keep morally reprehensible characters on shows and reward bad behaviour. Now contestants renowned for 'game playing' can win, like Aaron did, loving, nurturing characters like Natalie can get kicked out and Romeo, renowned for being a 'gentleman' is the latest to bite the dust. Ho hum. Not satisfactory at all. How far will this strategic voting go? Will we get yet more unworthy winners ironically crowned winners in anti-climactic finals?  Surely for all their new 'sophistication' the British reality TV consumers haven't lost their love of an underdog and their instinctive distaste for arrogance. If this is the case then maybe the maligned, flawed but ultimately decent boy, Frankie 'Coke up his nose -a' will win as tipped, rather than - god forbid - those godawful twins