It's way too early for me to say the cast is that bad. There's at least a few people I like and most people haven't had the chance to be featured yet. But yeah, so far on the below average side. Just not nearly as bad as certain other ones. Nobody I want to punch.
I'm still trying to tell a few people apart. I guess Paloma's leaving will make that easier because she and one of the other women looked so much alike.
Taylor needs to shed the "Pageant Girl/Miss Michigan" (or wherever it was) persona for me to even begin to tolerate her. That preening, strutting around, attention-seeking sexualized behavior she was doing is not something that other women tend to relate to well. She was basically looking down on all the other women in the house, telling them, "I'm BETTER than you."
That offer for them to wear her fancy outfits was so damn condescending and disingenuous, given that most of them could never have fit into them in the first place, even if they'd wanted to wear them (after Taylor had made a huge splashy entrance in them, and who can follow an act like that?).
At this point I like Michael, Kent, Turner, Brittney (however her name is spelled), and Ameerah. I'd add Terrance to the list if he'd actually
do something. He's an entertainer, so he should let that part of himself out. Even if they don't have a karaoke machine there, they can flange something up. Let him go into his working persona and get some fun going in that house. If he stays meek and quiet, of course they're going to vote him out early.
Now that "jousting" comp had me rolling my eyes. As a medieval history buff and someone who spent 12 years active in the Society for Creative Anachronism (which is a hell of a lot more historical accuracy-minded than Ren Faire, thankyouverymuch), I found that whole thing so unbelievably ridiculous. First of all, the hat Kent was wearing was 18th century, so not even close to medieval. Was the food actually something that could be eaten? It looks like some were eating... but I was told that it's a misconception that feasts were mostly meat (I suppose they could be in regions where game animals were abundant and the lord of the manor/castle was rich enough to afford it). But I used to organize feasts in my SCA branch (that person is called an Autocrat), and the first one I did was titled "A Fruit Festival in Spain." The story behind it was that a ship had arrived from the New World, bearing exotic new foodstuffs and the local lord decided to throw a feast. This was in late September/early October in RL, so the occasion was our Shire's annual Harvest Feast & Champion's Tournament.
Personal anecdote follows; skip if not interested...
Designing that feast was a challenge. I figured that harvest meant there would be loads of vegetables and fresh fruit available, and of course there'd be meat available, and of course there were some new and exotic things that came on the ship. So this was how I was able to design a historically-plausible feast that included the staples you'd find in Europe of that time, plus New World foods like bananas and chocolate (the Aztecs used chocolate in their cuisine, though of course it wasn't as sweet as modern chocolate).
There were, of course, fighters and guys who loudly proclaimed that they preferred meat, thankyouverymuch, and not "sissy food" like fruit and veggies. Well, the beauty of medieval feasts is that they're actually several meals in one and are served in "removes." Most feasts have 3 or 4 removes. I think that feast had about 5, possibly 6 (it's been 30 years so my memory is a bit foggy on exact details). I made sure to include at least one dish in each remove that was entirely meat and one that was a hearty meat dish such as a soup or stew. There was plenty of each dish (these feasts were usually planned to feed about 50 people), so nobody would go hungry. As I stated at one of the meetings when I was making a report on the menu, "This way the anti-fruit/veg guys can have a completely fruitless meal."
Well, the feast turned out great. Nobody complained about the menu (other than one of the guys at the meeting who questioned the bananas, and I told him I'd done my research and bananas had been brought to Europe before the stated timeframe of the feast). Documentation is expected in the SCA when something is New World; there must be documented evidence that whatever/whoever had contact with Europe before the year 1600.
I was rather proud of that feast. It was my first time as an organizer/event planner (naturally there were others who organized parts of it like the archery and heavy fighter tournaments, and others who did most of the cooking; I did the chocolate part of it) and it worked. Research done, and the people who were sticklers for accuracy were impressed that there were so many fruit and veg dishes. Most feasts emphasize the meat, but they said this was what they would expect of a period-accurate harvest feast. It was a good balance, and I'd taken people's RL preferences into account. I'd also flat-out ordered the cooks to find a garlic substitute because the Seneschale's husband is deathly allergic to garlic (he has some really weird immune system; garlic will kill him like peanut butter will kill people who are allergic to nuts). So he could safely eat anything he wanted of that feast, and he appreciated it.
The final thing that topped off that feast was that the Order of the Ravening Horde (one of many households that specialize in certain aspects of medieval life; this household was dedicated to food, cooking, and being feast critics) came out to render their judgment of the feast. They each offer a review and what they liked about it. Then they'd rate it as x-number of kisses out of 5. It's rare for them to give a 5-kiss rating, but that's what they gave it. I was on the proverbial cloud 9 for the rest of the evening.
So that's why I had to snicker at Big Brother's notion of medieval pageantry. It's the sort of thing an elementary school teacher would come up with who knew very little about history. And while I know BB isn't a documentary, they could have at least tried a bit harder. At least not had Kent wear a hat that was 200 years out of date. I won't judge the mashup of centuries in the others' costumes or the rest of it (though the highway sign was ridiculous; medieval banners don't have numbers on them). After all, everyone in the SCA chooses a time and place to be from (my own persona is a Norwegian merchant's wife based in the 10th century but with connections to Constantinople, to allow for variations in costuming). So the average SCA gathering features people from a variety of places, cultures, and centuries. Our local group even had an Aztec.
Hopefully BB never tries anything as exotic as Minoan. One night I arrived at a meeting and the Senescale's husband had evidently been trying and failing to pitch an idea for a future feast. So as soon as I got into the room, he said, "Freydis!" (my SCA name) I was thinking we should do a Minoan feast in period costume. What do you think?"
I've studied that culture and general historical time. I promptly said "No, I wouldn't want to do that," and he muttered, "Damn, she knows..." Apparently he figured that if I'd said yes - presumably looking at it as an opportunity to research and put on a Greek/Mediterranean feast even though it was vastly out of the medieval period (there is documented evidence that the court of Henry VIII liked to put on feasts and entertainment from Greek and Roman times), we'd go ahead with it.
The historically accurate costume for noblewomen in that time and place was topless. So indeed, no thank you.
