Pow! Pow! Pow!
Well, now the nation can breathe a sigh of relief. Alex has been removed from the Big Brother house. The one-woman font of bad feeling took her permanent sulking that bit too far on Wednesday, after she found out that the rest of the housemates didn't appreciate her 'guidance' on, well, just about everything she could think of. They remembered she told them.
Oh, Alex. I suppose I knew, deep down, that you weren't going to change. The problem really lay with your inability to forgive and forget past arguments, meaning that anyone who hadn't tip-toed around you (hello, Sylvia!) had a black mark against them for the rest of their time in the house, and, if your remarks were to be believed, the rest of their lives. Your quickness to take offence and worrying desire to control the behaviour of everyone around you presumably makes you difficult to live with both in and out of the house. You certainly did 'keep it real', but that counts for little when that reality isn't very pleasant. Rex (your nemesis) had it right when he saw you as having the power to dry up conversations when you entered the room, as other housemates were starting to be intimated by your very presence, as the only predictable thing about your temper was that it would be sparked by the most innocuous of remarks.
The only person who couldn't see this was you, trapped as you were in your own little bubble of righteous anger. If only everyone would see things your way. If only everyone would follow your orders, then the house would be a better place. Hadn't you watched BB before, Alex? The one thing you could be sure of is that most housemates would have opinions every bit as strong as yours, and part of the challenge of the programme is to live amongst these people without consistently losing your cool.
Considering your effect on other housemates, then, it was unwise for you to make remarks about your 'gangster friends', talk about your plans when you got outside the house, and, just to top things off, impersonate gunshots. Actually, no, not unwise. Really fucking stupid. The trouble is, though, you're not very good at considering the effects of your actions on others. Your justifications for your behaviour centred on you claiming you were only addressing Darnell (and you also mentioned Dale a bit later), and that you were saying those things in an innocent context. Well, this is debatable, and other housemates that were in the room certainly seemed to feel threatened; after all, this wasn't the first time you had made remarks towards one housemate whilst seemingly talking to another. Even Darnell appeared to assume that you were making some kind of threat. You also made the (reasonable) point that if you'd been serious, you were unlikely to have incriminated yourself on national TV, and accused BB of taking your remarks out of context. The trouble is, BB DID take them in context; the overall effect of your behaviour whilst you were in the house on other housemates, and, viewed in that context, they start to sound downright sinister.
It's a shame in some ways that you couldn't have been evicted, as there would have been a catharsis for both the housemates and the general public, many of whom have been yelling at the screen for you to shut the fuck up once in a while and lighten up. But your remarks caused a real dilemma for BB; do they assume you're joking, and let the eviction go ahead (you were going, let's face it), or do they take your threats seriously, and consider the security implications of your mates turning up at the eviction, toting guns? It isn't BB's job to decide what you may or may not have meant; they have to go on what you say, put against your track record. And so you're out, presumably having learnt nothing from your experience, which is a real shame, as you have a lot to learn, despite your conviction that you knew more than anyone else in there. A tough life does not equal an enlightening one, and you really should think long and hard about the fact that every other housemate, including Steph, appear to be less childish than yourself. Remember they taught you.
About this entry
- By Tanya Jones
- Posted on Friday, June 20 2008 @ 9:10 pm
- Categorised in TV, Comment
- Tagged with big brother
- 12 comments
> "Remember they taught you."
Oh, very good.
I think the peak for me with the row with Mo, which was predicated on how offended Alex was by someone who didn't understand how far one can ignore Muslim doctrine. The amount she bends the rules is totally understandable - drinking, smoking, showing indiscriminate disrespect to anyone with a head - but Mo's wearing of a skirt is beyond the pale. CAN YOU NOT SEE THE DIFFERENCE?!
We fully expected her to suffer selective deafness - she heard the playback about "seeing families" but somehow missed the bit about having "gangster friends"; she heard her name in the diary room mic cock-up, but chose not to hear BB's explanation that housemates are asked about everyone. We knew we'd get selective morality - there's plenty of "If I spoke to someone like that" bemoaning when she hears other people talk, and demands to be properly heard (and "'membered"), but she'll talk to anyone as harshly as she likes and refuse to absorb their point.
But the religious thing? That surprised me. That she found fundamentalist ground to stand on - based on the idea that Mo, as a member of her faith, should be a beacon of unconditional respect from women just like her - was an unexpected final flurry of nutsness.
By Andrew
June 20, 2008 @ 11:33 pm
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They coached her well for the Davina interview, but it seems even seeing the footage wouldn't persuade her. It's all about the editing, apparently. How this warped the view of the other housemates is unclear. As is any explanation for the fact that she's the only housemate who COULD be edited that way. (I doubt there's as much irrational, aggressive behavior footage of ALL the others combined.)
Alex, even Jade bleedin' Goody figured this one out - you have to show contrition or you're finished. And, obviously, you are.
By Andrew
June 21, 2008 @ 3:29 am
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Oh, I forgot to say one thing; you can't get away with joking about the sort of thing she did when you haven't demonstrated a sense of humour previously. My god, she needs some serious therapy. How does *anyone* manage to get on with her?
By Tanya Jones
June 22, 2008 @ 5:45 pm
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> How does *anyone* manage to get on with her?
Fear. Obedience and fear.
By Andrew
June 22, 2008 @ 6:33 pm
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Bloody hell:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7477850.stm
By Andrew
June 27, 2008 @ 6:35 pm
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What IS the matter with him? No wonder he made friends with Alex so quickly.
By Tanya Jones
June 27, 2008 @ 8:10 pm
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Wow. Only Kat and Mikey didn't come out of that looking like a twat. Maybe the absence of Alex has created a hate vacuum which they can only fill by turning on each other.
By Tanya Jones
June 27, 2008 @ 11:20 pm
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Absolutely bizarre. Partly fueled by all the sexual repression, too - Jen's got the two washboard knobs battling for her attention (which will only get worse now Slyvia's gone), and her tears were partly to GET some attention, the painting being OF Hunk Number Two. Darnell's wound-up because he thought he was making progress with Bex (and his behavior's likely to have screwed that up). The whole thing's a train wreck.
I did think Dale was bizarrely impressive in handling Darnell - calming him like a hyped-up kid who doesn't really understand what's going on and why daddy was hurting mummy. (I never thought I'd use his name and 'impressive' in the same sentence.)
With the removal of Dennis presumably there'll be a new girl going in to balance things up...
By Andrew
June 27, 2008 @ 11:41 pm
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Well, Sylvia was as full of shit as I thought she'd be, but, yes, actually Dale was quite good at handling Darnell, which is the only reason he might come out of it with some credit.
By Tanya Jones
June 28, 2008 @ 12:04 am
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True to form, Sylvia played her interview exactly right. Pretend-shock at how she'd behaved, blah blah. But it was still way smarter than Alex banging on about how the editing has misrepresented her...
By Andrew
June 28, 2008 @ 2:45 am
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Unfortunately, Davina wasn't tough enough on Sylvia's behaviour. I know at least partly why - with all the stuff going on recently, including the Stuart stuff, and Dennis's departure, there's limited time. But when the whole crowd is booing you, you need to do at least delve into it *slightly*. The interview didn't really do that. The eviction nominations just weren't enough - it needed to be addressed from what *we* saw, not just from the housemates POV.
By John Hoare
June 28, 2008 @ 2:52 am
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I got the distinct impression that, with the show only in week three and already having two removals, they were trying to claw thing back a bit - “Hey everyone, remember BB’s meant to be fun!” (I suspect the same motivation for allow this week’s task to be ‘passed’ despite stacks of errors.) Unnecessary, really. Conflict is what makes the show. Avoiding the discussion just made the show look embarrassed at itself.
That said, the Dennis stuff was handled very well, and in a short turnaround time.
By Andrew
June 28, 2008 @ 1:14 pm
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