Big Brother 17

[JirinPanthosa]

James' social game is the best but his strategic game is awful. That's why all his friends are gone. Vanessa even gave him a blatant opening to turn her against Austin and he kinda stared blankly.

The Austwins are a bit annoying but I kind of admire their defensive game. How often in BB has an obvious power of 3 capable of winning HoHs gotten this far untouched? And they did that by always being friends with the person in power. I give Liz most of the credit. She managed to calm down a Vanessa paranoia episode. That's no small task. She's just good at being on good terms with people.

 

[Timewalker]

Something's been bugging me for weeks now. Why do so many of them wear toques (or berets)? This is filmed in California, so why the fall/winter hats? Why do they have thick quilts on the beds? Why are they walking around in sweaters?

Is the place air-conditioned to the extent that it's like a Canadian November?

Forpetessake, Vanessa didn't even take off that silly hat to curl and spray her hair!

 

[Danny99]

I'm very worried that Austin, Liz or Julia will "bumble their way" to the money. Austin, I'll admit, has put himself in a good spot between the most hated player of the season and a twin alliance, but his whole Judas thing and weird stalking of Liz turned me off of him. Liz and Julia have the most annoying voice and are super vindictive from what we see of them.

The sooner the three of them are gone, the better.

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

Something's been bugging me for weeks now. Why do so many of them wear toques (or berets)? This is filmed in California, so why the fall/winter hats? Why do they have thick quilts on the beds? Why are they walking around in sweaters?

Is the place air-conditioned to the extent that it's like a Canadian November?

Forpetessake, Vanessa didn't even take off that silly hat to curl and spray her hair!

Judging by their game play this season, not a lot of blood reaches their heads.

 

[Timewalker]

I'm very worried that Austin, Liz or Julia will "bumble their way" to the money. Austin, I'll admit, has put himself in a good spot between the most hated player of the season and a twin alliance, but his whole Judas thing and weird stalking of Liz turned me off of him. Liz and Julia have the most annoying voice and are super vindictive from what we see of them.

The sooner the three of them are gone, the better.

I wouldn't be unhappy if Austin won. His RL job requires a fair share of "performing" so his "Judas" persona is not meant to be taken as his real self. I think he's trying to separate what he'd like to do as a person from what he thinks he has to do for his game plan.

As for either of the twins winning... well, if they make it to the final two, of course one of them will win. But if only one of them makes it and is up against James or John, she'd lose since both of the guys have done a lot more on their own behalf than either of the twins have. They (the twins) have done a lot of coasting, and they need to realize that if Vanessa hadn't seen the strategic opportunity in keeping them as a voting bloc, either Liz or Julia (pretending to be Liz) would never have made it past the first 5 evictions.

People may loathe Vanessa by this point, but as Steve says, she has phenomenal game. She's incredible at manipulating people to vote as she wants them to, and she's pulled out a decent number of competition wins as well.

When it comes down to deciding who gets the money, juries tend to respect strong gameplay over floaters and coasters, and Vanessa definitely has had strong gameplay. And there's not one person in that house who can claim that they never once had a vindictive thought toward anyone else.

 

[svenden]

People may loathe Vanessa by this point, but as Steve says, she has phenomenal game. She's incredible at manipulating people to vote as she wants them to, and she's pulled out a decent number of competition wins as well.

When it comes down to deciding who gets the money, juries tend to respect strong gameplay over floaters and coasters, and Vanessa definitely has had strong gameplay. And there's not one person in that house who can claim that they never once had a vindictive thought toward anyone else.

Oh she would absolutely have my vote! But my concern is that this jury will hold her gameplay against her. It's been a few years since I watched this show, but I was a fanatic since season 2. This voting based on who was less of a jerk always frustrated me. Maybe the juries have been less emotional about it in recent years?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Juries tend to vote for the backstabber with good gameplay if they were nice to them as people and not if they were not. That's why Rob has a title and Russell didn't. Russell spent his season condescending everyone and Rob made them feel good about themselves before backstabbing them.

 

[svenden]

Russell spent his season condescending everyone and Rob made them feel good about themselves before backstabbing them.

I don't know who those people are, but that made me LOL.

Did anyone watch season 3, the one with Danielle? She's my favorite all-time player, and she made it to final 2, but lost because of this very reason. IIRC, that was before the jury house, so all the houseguests voted against her because they'd seen all her diary room smack talk. The woman who won was a total floater / non-player.

Perhaps I'm still traumatized by that, and that's why I worry that Vanessa won't have the votes. She reminds me of Danielle in some respects.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Rob and Russell are the two most famous Survivor players. Willie Hantz who was thrown out in the coaches season for violence was Russell's brother.

Russell played Survivor three times, was one of the biggest backstabbers in the game, and got nothing but hate from the jury the two times he made it to the finals. He was famous for statements like "This is my dumb girl alliance" and constantly insisting he was the greatest player ever to play the game. Both times, the non-player he dragged with him won. Rob played four times. His second time he lost in the finals on jury hate because it was an All Star season and the people he betrayed were people he was friends with outside the game so they took it extra personal (But the woman who he later married won). The third time he lost to Russell, and the fourth he finally won playing an even more backstabbing game and swept the final vote because he was nicer to people.

 

[svenden]

^ Can't say I've ever enjoyed Survivor much. Not sure why. I watched one season but it just never really caught my interest.

How about that veto comp last night, eh? I feel like Vanessa and James are the two champions here, and it's so fun watching them maneuver their way towards an inevitable showdown. Can't wait to see how the eviction goes!

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

They should take the opportunity tonight and evict Julia. Make a bold game move. But, given the history of voting this season, they'll probably evict Meg unanimously (with even James casting his vote to keep Julia).

 

[fonzob1]

There is no way James votes to evict Meg.

 

[Timewalker]

With the double eviction tonight they could both be gone anyway.

I'm hoping that both Meg and James will end up going. I've never liked Meg and James is just too strong a player.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Who goes home tonight is based on just how on board John and Steve are with V. Meg needs both to stay.

 

[Danny99]

I've been done with the twins for weeks now and now we're stuck with them longer. Ugh.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I've met people who love Survivor and hate Big Brother but never met people who love Big Brother and hate Survivor. Huh. They're really similar shows, just Survivor tends to cast more likable people and in BB the minority has more power. Last two seasons BB did a good job casting but before that it's usually had terrible casting.

A week ago, Vanessa was public enemy #1. Now she's in an alliance with everyone else in the house. She's totally a Dan!

And I totally think Liz is a great player. I would not be mad if she won. Multiple HoH victories, and like I said before, she is really good at being on good terms with everybody who is ever in power.

If I were to rank victory preference right now.

1. Vanessa
2. Liz
3. Steve
4. Austin
5. Julia
6. John

 

[svenden]

^ I wasn't saying I hate Survivor, just that it's never appealed to me the way BB has.

I am in awe of how well this week has gone for Vanessa. She is in a great position now! I was a little surprised they evicted James, I thought the twins might want John out again.

But she must must must realign with Steve and John to start breaking down the Austwins, who now control everything with their voting block. If any one of those three wins HOH, then they're practically a lock to the top 3. Vanessa can't rely on them for any protection from this point forward.

I am sad that James is gone though. He made the show fun, and was a great player. But I think he could be a vote for Vanessa, depending on who she's up against. My biggest worry on the jury is that Shelli is going to lobby everyone against Vanessa - for reasons I still don't fully understand. I mean, Vanessa kind of did all of Shelli's dirty work. Don't fully understand the grudge.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Don't worry about James, he probably wins the fan prize.

James was fun but not a good player. Game is almost over anyway.

It's all about the next HOH how the rest of the season goes. I can't imagine Vanessa wouldn't put the twins up. I would expect her to try to throw the comp to John.

 

[TheAlmanac]

I've met people who love Survivor and hate Big Brother but never met people who love Big Brother and hate Survivor.

You have now.

I can't stand Survivor and its artificiality, whereas Big Brother at least has the transparency of the feeds to get around any accusations of creative editing. (There is still some artifice in its casting and in the setting itself, but it doesn't pretend to be in a "real" house the way Survivor pretends its casts are actually isolated from the rest of the world.)

As for how BB17 is going, I hope everyone else is as prepared as I am for how boring and predicatable the rest of this season will be.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I like them both but I like Survivor better. I agree that it's easier for people to learn 'The real story' with BB because they have less control over what people see. But in my opinion, BB had good casting this year and the previous one, but before that usually had terrible casting. Survivor has median age in the mid thirties and BB has median age in mid twenties, and BB tends to have more superficial, more openly hateful people. (Although some of that may be editing. On BB Hayden seemed superficial and hateful and on Survivor seemed like a cool guy.)

Also BB has had dumber gimmicks in its history. "The X Factor". The spring season during the writers strike making people "Couples" and making one group that were an actual couple not matched together. America's Player. I think Big Brother finally learned what makes the show work and what makes it unbearable, and only because they were forced to by a racism scandal.

Survivor IMO also tends to create more interesting strategic plays with the hidden immunity idols. More surprises and reversals at the last minute because at TC everyone is vulnerable and anyone could have an idol.

My father refuses to even watch BB anymore because of how much he hates the Chenbot.

I think next week could be pretty interesting. It's three against three. That makes the veto more powerful than the HoH this week. Think of it like this. Say John wins HoH. John nominates Liz and Julia. Austin wins Veto, Austin uses Veto on Liz. Now John has to put up Steve or Vanessa, and Liz and Austin cast two out of three votes. No matter what happens, at the veto competition two people will be trying to throw it to a third. If one side dominates every competition, they make it to the end. Otherwise, somebody has to thread the needle between two groups not to get targeted. There are much more scenarios in this season than last season. Last season it was pretty obvious from the start Derrick was going to win. (Best BB player all time, IMO).