Hi, Lisa here again.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from watching previous seasons of Big Brother, it’s that it’s often pointless to try to evaluate any of the house guests on the basis of the first week. During the first week, the house guests are often still trying to find their way and claim their niche in the house. Often times, nobody even comes close to revealing their true colors until after the first live vote.
Well, we’ve now had our first live vote and, as the house adjusts to being a Kara-free zone, we can look back at the first week of Big Brother 14 and come to a few conclusions about our current house guests.
Of course, there’s still a lot of game left to play and needless to say, I’m sure that, by the time we reach the finale, I will have changed my mind regarding 95% of the opinions stated below. But for now, here are my thoughts:
Ashley (Team Janelle) — Ashley, to be honest, hasn’t made much of an impression on me one way or the other. Is she laying low or is she just boring? Time will tell.
Danielle (Team Dan) — Considering how little Danielle has actually done, she certainly does seem to get a lot of screen time. I imagine that the Big Brother producers are probably hoping that Danielle will turn into another Jordan and she’ll charm everyone by being cute and niave. However, as the previous season showed, Jordan could be tough when she had to be. I haven’t seen any evidence of that from Danielle yet.
Frank (Team Boogie) — Do you know who Frank reminds me of? He reminds me of Hardy from the 2nd season. I used to have a huge crush on Hardy because he was cute, he was rough around all the right edges, and he came across like a genuinely good guy. During the first few weeks of the 2nd season, I think a lot of people assumed that the game was Hardy’s to lose. Of course, about halfway through the 2nd season, it became obvious that Hardy didn’t have much of a strategy beyond being popular and soon, he was ecliped in both the house and my heart by the wonderfully evil Dr. Will. So, I think the question for this season is whether or not Frank is going to turn out to be as strong a player as everyone’s assuming or is he going to be turn out to be another Hardy? Personally, I think Frank’s about as close to a front runner as you can have at this point in the game but I also think he’s a bit overrated. It’ll be interested to see how the nice guy handles being head of household.
Ian (Team Boogie) — I have to admit that, when this season started, I really wanted to root for Ian. He just seemed so cute and harmless with his boyish face and his glasses. But then, I discovered that Ian is kinda creepy and not in an entertaining way. Seriously, the sight of him leering at the female house guest makes my skin crawl. Add to that, Ian needs to realize that there’s a difference between getting to people to laugh with him and having people laugh at him. Being Mike Boogie’s puppet might keep him in the game for a little while but it’s not a winning strategy.
Jenn (Team Boogie) — Jenn’s strategy has been to be quiet and lay low. Since the first few weeks of Big Brother are usually about getting rid of the people who are the most obviously different from the other house guests, that’s a smart move on her part. As the game progresses, it’ll be interesting to see if she’s pursuing a strategy or if she’s really just that low-key.
Joe (Team Janelle) — Memo to Joe: STOP YELLING! I have to admit that, at first, I liked Joe because he seemed like a genuine person but then his post-eviction message to Kara was so petty and loud that I’m now really hoping that Joe either learns what an inside voice is or else goes home soon.
JoJo (Team Britney) — Just judging from the way that she was presented in this season’s first episode, it’s obvious that JoJo was being set up as this season’s “trouble maker.” So far, however, she’s been keeping quiet and laying low, which is not a bad strategy at all.
Shane (Team Britney) — Shane’s hot, he’s hot, and he’s hot. That’s really pretty much been my main impression of Shane so far. That said, being hot can you take you pretty far in Big Brother. My main concern about Shane is that sometimes there doesn’t seem to be much going on behind that dazzling smile of his.
Will (Team Janelle) — For all of his flamboyance, Will hasn’t made much of an impression on me so far. So far, his game has been pretty much epitomized by his “I’m taking 24 hours off” comment from Thursday’s show.
Willie Hantz (Team Britney) — Oh, Willie. He has definitely benefited from odd obsession that some people have with the Hantz family. (Seriously, I might just change my last name to Hantz. Maybe I’ll get a TV show out of the deal.) However, so far, Willie has just shown that while he has all of his brother Russell’s bad traits (paranoia, a tendency to be a bully, an inability to shut up), he appears to have none of the traits that allowed Russell to dominate two seasons of Survivor. At this point, Willie’s best hope is to be so unlikable that the house guests will keep him around just because they assume he’ll be easy to beat in the finale.
As for the coaches:
Britney — I’m still really not sure what Britney did during her season to justify her being presented to us as “one of the best players in Big Brother history.” If memory serves, Britney was competitive but she was also easily manipulated and tended to see things the way she wanted to see them as opposed to the way they actually were. That perhaps explains why, as a coach, Britney appears to be easily manipulated and short-sighted. Her decision to make Willie the first head of household was a huge (and, in retrospect, obvious) mistake and her reaction to seeing Janelle talking to Dan was just foolish.
Dan is one of my favorite winners of all time but I think he’s in a pretty bad situation right now. He only has one player left and, so far, she’s been one of the weakest house guests. Dan was wise, however, to ally himself with Mike Boogie.
Janelle was always good at winning challenges but she was never a great strategist and that’s why I have my doubts about how effective she can be as a coach. This season, Janelle seems to be almost bored with everything going on in the house.
Mike Boogie is definitely the strongest coach and he also has the strongest team. That said, Mike’s not as much fun without Dr. Will around. Still, he made the right choice by giving immunity to Ian (as opposed to a more obvious candidate like Frank) last week because, if he hadn’t, Ian probably would’ve been sent home.
Finally, a few thoughts on the two house guests that have already left the Big Brother House.
Kara — Kara was voted out on Thursday. Kara never made much of an impression and I can’t say that I’m surprised to see her go. She was definitely the strongest physical competitor on Dan’s team so I think she could have been a factor if she hadn’t been voted out. However, she was.
Jodi — I have to admit that I liked Jodi. She seemed to have a good, down-to-Earth attitude and I imagine that her family could have used the prize money. I’m not sure if she could have won Big Brother but I do think that she could have been a factor if Dan hadn’t sent her home during her first night in the house.
As a lot of people (both in the house and the viewing audience) have pointed out, there’s only 10 house guests in the house, not including the coaches. Obviously, there has to be another twist coming up or else this is going to be an extremely short season. While I think that it’s possible that a previously evicted house guest might return to the house (as in past seasons), I think it’s even more probable that the coaches are going to be given a chance to compete with the house guests.
Hopefully, we’ll find out soon.
Lisa
