BBCAN: An Irritating Case of HoHitis

I'm Brooks MacLachlan, someone who for some reason thinks his obsession with Big Brother in recent years makes him qualified enough to judge those who are actually playing the game. I analyze everything I can: the episodes, interviews with eliminated players, side show, and occasionally the live feeds to come up with the motivations behind what each player has done. I decide what should have happened, because I obviously know best, and I predict what should and what will happen in each player’s future in the game. And I’ll probably get it right every time because that’s just how I am.

DanuhNa Na Nuh Na. DanuhNa Na Na Na. DanuhNa Na Nuh Na Na Naaaaaaaaa!

I'd forgotten about that Big Brother Canada melody. It's very catchy!

Unfortunately, the show hasn't given a whole lot to write about here. Of the two episodes we've seen so far, a good half of the time has been spent introducing us to the houseguests and secret houseguests, so we didn't see a lot of the strategy behind Paul's nominations and Anick's eviction.

Although maybe it's just as straightforward as it seems. Anick clearly didn't fit in with the rest of the house. That, paired with her being the first to forfeit the HoH challenge, was very likely enough to make her an easy first target for the whole house. Andrew being nominated seems like it could've been fairly straightforward as well. He was the biggest physical threat of the six people who gave up HoH before Paul made his deal, and his obnoxious attitude was rubbing many the wrong way. Ika's nomination seemed the most odd. We didn't see any evidence of her not getting along with anyone besides Anick, and if Paul's reason for putting her up was really because she didn't pretend to be into Anick's little ceremony thing, that would be a little ridiculous. Paul said he thought she "wasn't willing to play the game" because of her actions towards Anick, but wouldn't that be a good reason not to want Ika out?

Paul's gameplay so far is downright horrible. He made enemies of six people in the first HoH competition by making his deal to win the competition. Winning HoH shouldn't have been important for him, as all being the first HoH can do is put a target on your back in future weeks. Then, after he won HoH, he let the power get to his head, and the others noticed. Usually it doesn't bother me when people get HoHitis. But this time it made me especially not like Paul. I think it's because the typical person who suddenly think they're the most powerful person in the house by winning HoH is someone like Big Brother Canada's first season's Tom Plant. Someone who you would actually expect to act that way. But I thought Paul, being older than the other contestants, would be wiser as well. I thought his only struggles would be with the social game, but clearly he's struggling with the strategic game as well. I'll be shocked if Paul makes it to jury.

So if Paul's nominations were really not based on much, is there any strategy going on in the house? Any alliances? Of course there are, and hopefully we will get to see them in the coming episodes. The only one we know of now is the "First Five" alliance. Based on the people who held up one and then five fingers as they voted in the Diary Room, there is an alliance between Arlie, Kenny, Sarah, Sabrina, and Andrew, the first five players to enter the house. I can see this alliance actually running things in the house, if the other houseguests don't know they're together. They've got some savvy players, and not so savvy players (like Andrew) who will at least be good at winning competitions.

It's too early to tell for sure, though, how effective this alliance will be. Hopefully the next episode fills us in on some of the other alliances forming in the house. Until then, there's really not a lot of strategic analysis to do here.

What I can do is give some updated impressions on some of the houseguests. Again, I haven't seen enough footage of many of them to really change how I feel about them since my first impressions, but a couple of them have impressed or disappointed me.

I didn't feel good about Anick's chances pre-game, and obviously I was right. But, I have to say that I absolutely loved her quirkiness, and am sad to see her go. I'm sure she would have been very entertaining to watch had she lasted a little longer.

My pre-game favourites, Neda and Arlie, have done nothing to disappoint me. Arlie seems to have gotten himself into a solid alliance, and while we haven't seen a lot of Neda, that at least means she hasn't done anything to hurt her game. She just seems to be staying under the radar, which is great for this early stage of the game.

As mentioned previously, Paul has really disappointed me. He said he wanted to play to the audience Chilltown style, and he's doing a very poor job of that. Doesn't he remember that Chilltown would never win an HoH when they didn't need to? The lengths that Paul went to to win the first HoH is simply outrageous. He's made a ton of enemies and is greatly overestimating his own strategic abilities. Thankfully, it's safe to say we won't have to watch Paul play for much longer.

I may have been a little hard on Kenny pregame because he said he'd miss his dog the most, but that turned out to be a fairly common thing. He is part of the only alliance we know of, and seems to be getting along fine with the houseguests. Seeing his beard and knowing the types of gay contestants usually cast by these types of shows, I was expecting Kenny to be one of those crazy contestants who really has no chance of winning. But Kenny is fitting in great, seems to have a good social game and a better strategic sense than I initially thought. He said in his "meet the cast" video that he plans on hiding his sexuality and then making a big deal of revealing it to people individual to gain their trust, and this could actually work very well for him. 

Kyle is someone I hated pre-game, and I still don't particularly like him. But I have to say, he's pretty entertaining in the diary room. Turns out he can form complete sentences, which is a lot more than I expected of him!

I thought Jon was going to be an obnoxious jerk along with Kyle and Andrew, but we haven't seen any evidence of that so far. Then again, we haven't seen much of anything. But I'm feeling a little more hopeful for Jon now.

The other houseguests haven't had enough airtime for me to really form new opinions on them. We were introduced to the three secret houseguests this week though, so here are some thoughts on them.

I really see nothing special in Nate. He doesn't seem to be a giant superfan, or a big personality, or anything. He's just boring.

I don't want Scott to get voted in, although, knowing Canada, he'll probably end up being the Final HG. He's clearly being portrayed as this season's Gary, and we know how much Canada loved Gary. I had nothing against Gary, but we'll be watching him all season on the Side Show. One Gary is enough for me. 

That leaves Allison. I'll be voting for her to enter the game. She has more personality than Nate, and more game knowledge than Scott (I watched a little War Room live feeds. Didn't see anything that can be considered spoilers, but Allison seemed to know her Big Brother trivia more than the others). In fact, based on what people are saying on Twitter, Allison is somewhat of a superfan. This season could certainly use another knowledgeable game player, and I think Allison can deliver on that, as well as being witty in the diary room. She may even have a chance of beating Scott, as she's being endorsed by lots of former players, and seems to have a lot of support on Twitter. Vote for Allison!

That's all for this week. The show may technically have started, but I feel like this week will be the true beginning, when we really get to see the house dynamics. I can't wait to really analyse the strategic games of the players, and hopefully by next week I'll be able to do that. See you then!