HurricaneVal

Caleb's obsession with Amber is scary, and I am concerned for her safety. That said, just for my selfish purposes, Caleb needs to stay in the house because right now he is the most interesting person there. Look at his little tete a tete with Brittany in the backyard, where he looked so soulfully concerned and really seemed to listen to her with sympathy and reassurances which fooled her so much that she wrongly selected him as houseguest's choice for the Veto competition. Then there was the whole ninja!cowboy antics and the looking daggers while brandishing a plastic dagger while pacing ominously as Cody caressed Amber's hand while utter awkward silence reigned in the HoH. Then the whole bizarreness around selecting the $5K reward instead of taking the Veto away from one of the people on the block. You know, the one person people really wanted to vote out. I really can't tell if he's actually an idiot, or if he's playing some sort of deep strategic game. I'm leaning toward "idiot."

Hoo boy, that baby blanket thing is...really going over the line. It is weird enough that he wears her clothing like a scarf, but appropriating a cherished token like that is really, really into bunny boiling territory. We made fun of Gina-Marie last year and her unrequited crush, but at least he was out of the house during the worst of it. And G-M was mainly kookily harmless. I don't get a "harmless" vibe of Caleb at all. Not at all. I really hope that production is keeping a close eye on the situation, because if Caleb is taking Amber's childhood loveys and kissing/touching her while she's asleep, that is some scary stalker stuff the likes of which are regularly featured on Law and Order: SVU and Criminal Minds. Plus, Caleb's insane obsession with her is affecting Amber's game. She can't play for herself, or make her own choices, or tell him to go fuck off. She has to carefully weigh what she says or does against the Caleb-is-crazy meter to see what affect it will have on her personally, her game, and the perceptions of the rest of the house. That must be exhausting. Amanda ruined MacRae's game in a similar fashion last year, except MacRae just threw in with her because he's lazy and it was easier. Plus it got him laid.

I heard that production looks through what the hamsters packed to bring with them into the house, and then they accept or reject based on logos, how it will film on camera, or other criteria. Then they take them to Target or Walmart for cheap clothes heavily focused on clingy with lots of exposure. Sometimes I wonder if that's why the hamsters leave their stuff laying around everywhere, sure, they're probably slobs, but because production bought clothes for them they didn't really want or choose for themselves, they don't really feel any particular "ownership" over the stuff, so they don't treat it as carefully as they might if it was their very own.

What do we really know about the whole "Team America" rules? If Donny is voted out, doesn't that break up TA, and Frankie and Derrick can no longer rack up $$$ for accomplishing TA tasks? Or does a new member get voted in? I thought part of TA was to create a viewer built alliance, and the TA members had to dance to our* tune--as in be a real alliance and not vote each other out, or nominate each other, and campaign for each other if one of the TA is nominated. Maybe there is our (Donny's) saving grace. Watch for DR summons for Derrick and Frankie now, and see if they start subtly campaigning for Donny, that might give a clue. That might put a spanner in Derrick's works, if he is summarily reminded of his duties as a member of TA is to protect TA. Thought he and Frankie have been treating Donny as the idiot cousin member of TA...but you've still got to have your family's back, "idiot" or not. Donny is NOT an idiot, but he certainly plays one on TV... * I say "our" here, but I have never, and will never (unless I have a blood relative or a very close friend competing in reality TV), vote for anything related to a reality TV show. Just...no. Nothing against those who do, just a line in the sand I've drawn for myself. That rationalizes my very shallow obsessions with shows such as BB, so I can remain a snob in other matters.

I don't hate anyone yet. Is this a sign of the Apocalypse?

Jocasta and Victoria seem to be so invisible and apparently aren't really socializing with everyone enough that they're probably considered cannon fodder by those actually playing the game. There's a fine line between "under the radar" and "golly, I sure won't miss you when you're gone."

The most interesting thing I found with the coordinated corridor greetings was some folks didn't have any snappy-cute high-fiving action, just a polite nod as they passed. I need to go back and re-watch, and see who those people were. By the time I twigged to it, I only noticed that Victoria was the only one who wasn't enthusiastically greeted. Don't remember about Devin, or Jocasta. I think that give us real clues about actual relationships in the house. And, boy oh boy, have Jocasta and Victoria totally faded into the furniture. Just based on their initial footage on the premiere before entering the house, I assumed they'd be incredibly obnoxious and annoying. But...not hardly a peep out of either of 'em. Did Frankie's "betrayal" that first week really upset Victoria so much that her entire fire is doused? And I assumed that Jocasta would be holding enthusiastic and LOUD revival meetings in the backyard, but she's been pretty quiet, and seems to keep her bible-spouting to those who appreciate it, or ask for it. It would be interesting to see what happens if either one of them get HoH, but only a crap-shoot of a HoH competition would get them there, both of 'em seem to suck at challenges.

Devin is a "close talker" and with his size and the subject matter he's close talking about, that is intimidating if you're the one he's close talking to. Look at Hayden and his body language when Devin was having his "don't worry, bro, we're keeping you safe" conversation with him. Devin was telling him what he wanted to hear, and Hayden was happy (though confused) about that, but his body language screamed "I wanna get away! I'm really uncomfortable here! Please back off!"

Yeah, I've often wondered about that. Especially last year, with how odious most of the hamsters were. I'd be tempted to swing the remote cameras around all night to disturb their sleep, purposely only film them from unflattering angles, rewire their battery packs to give 'em a little *zing* shock every once in a while, provide only the really nasty, cheap booze etc. But those in production probably sign contracts and are closely supervised to prevent that sort of stuff.

Soooo... If all a viewer ever did was watch the broadcast shows, they would be left with the impression that Frankie and Zach are honeymooners, what with all the cuddling, spooning, princess carrying, and dry humping. But now y'all are saying that Frankie is actively working behind the scenes to get rid of Zach at the earliest opportunity. I really don't know if I admire or despise Frankie for whoring himself out to keep Zach confident that he's staying in the house. If Frankie were a woman playing these sort of cock-teasing games, she'd be vilified. It will be interesting to see if Zach leaves this week what the fallout of Frankie's leading him on will have on the house. On another note, weren't those the the most mechanical of "caresses" that Frankie was giving out to Zach during Sunday's broadcast show? I mean, that's how I pet my labrador retriever when he's annoying me with his demands for attention when I just want to go to sleep.

I think there are people in production watching the feeds 24/7, but I also think that if things are getting dicey between some of the hamsters, production dithers around between houseguest safety and their liability and what they think makes compelling "good" TV. Remember the second season when the whacko held the knife against the drunk girl's neck? He wasn't expelled from the house until the next day, and they only found it when the house was in an uproar over the incident and then production reviewed the footage. That situation nearly went very, very badly for all involved, so I think production stepped up their oversight of the feeds after that incident. But I still think there's a delay in their response to a truly bad situation because they're mulling over the balance between the excitement spiking the ratings and the bad publicity if someone really does get hurt. Edited to add: Here's a question to you live-feeders...do you have some sort of "panic button" you can push to alert production to a potentially bad situation? I can see where something like that could be either a help or a hindrance to production. I've always been curious if you had some mechanism like that--you know, like how Internet forums have "Report This Post" buttons to alert the moderators when something is questionable or violates standards.

I have questions about the timeline that I think only you live-feeders can answer. So the have/have not competition happens before the Big Battle, right? But they didn't show the H/HN competition last night, only the big battle. So I wonder if they're just not showing it this week because there's too much right at the beginning to cram into the episodes required, or are they just not going to show the H/HN stuff? Plus, last night, Frankie's hair went from very pink to nearly all blond in some of his talking head segments, then back again to pink. Obviously we all know the broadcast shows are edited to create a "story" but this hair fade and back again is really highlighting that.

Yeah, but you see, these folks don't mind about losing their jobs. Because once they're on Big Brother, they're going to be spotted by some studio bigwig, and they're going to be a STAR!!!!1!!

I'm going to go out on a limb here (see what I did?) and say I kind of dig the new look of the house. Yeah, the walls in the living room are kind of busy, but it does give the feel of looking through the tree branches if you were really in a tree house. I wonder if they'll continue the theme into the back yard, or if it will continue to boringly generic like usual. I'm also wondering if the builds for the competitions will be likewise themed... Let me take this opportunity to thank everyone here in advance for contributing to the real-time live feed threads. I can't subscribe to the live feeds--work and shame interfere--but BB is my guiltiest of guilty pleasures, and I love to compare/contrast your descriptions of the live feeds vs. what is edited for broadcast. Last season was a hoot with the mid-season course correction once the producers realized the groundswell of disapproval from the live feed viewers and online boards discussions had reached critical mass. I look forward to your snark, sarcasm, and robust descriptions of the activities in the house.

I think Wo Fat released Samantha because he wanted her to be his messenger, and mess with Steve's head. Or maybe he's got a tiny kernel of compassion. Or maybe he needed the dog kennel for some other part of his nefarious plan.

Spencer flat out told the no-brains that if Tony goes to Final Tribal Council, he will get Spencer's vote, then Tasha spoke up and agreed, and Jeremiah (<snerk> Jeremy) nodded his head. Did they show the jury? Were they nodding? Tony will not be a goat. Why don't people in his alliance see that? Trish is good at reading people, and now that she no longer has a personal target to pick at, she's not as annoying as she was a few weeks ago. She's playing a great game. Except for her blind loyalty and support for Tony. Was LJ massively hung over? He looked more than just bitter...he looked ill. And not handsome at all. Very disappointing. Jeremiah was awfully stone-faced during the letters from home segment. He was handed a folder, but maybe he doesn't have any loved ones who sent him a letter? Or there's bad blood with his family? It was more than just the typical macho "keeping stoic in the face of an emotional situation" strategy. I found it very strange. Barring a miracle, Tony is going to win. Right now, with the SHII(T), he's pretty unstoppable. Now that "Jeremy" is gone, he doesn't really even need it anymore--the other side just doesn't have numbers now, and I don't see anyone on the no-brains alliance flipping at this point. I hope Tasha keeps her immunity challenge run going, like Kelly from the first season, and makes it to FTC against all odds.

I'm still scratching my head over last night. I've never seen anyone go from the top of the heap, catbird seat, to the dumpster so quickly. Kass was sitting pretty as a very tight alliance of three inside a fairly good alliance of six. That's a very strong position in the game. But she blew it with her paranoia, and by doing so, screwed her other two alliance mates, Tasha and Spenser. You could see it in Tasha's eyes as she was trying to get Sarah and Kass to kiss and make up. Sarah, also, should have just kept her mouth shut and went with the majority six on her alliance. Who the hell cares who's on the "other side" when the tribes merge and who goes? Per the Sandra Credo ("anyone but me") it makes no difference if it is Tony or Trish or LJ or Woo. To argue differently just shows your new alliance that you're really not in their alliance and are thinking of potential allies on the other side. Sarah imploded herself. I missed the initial steps of the Tony/LJ bonding, but now that they've exchanged HIIs in TC in front of witnesses, I think that makes them officially married in some cultures. I have three questions. Why did Tony give the HII to LJ? Why did LJ give his HII to Tony? Why did Tony use the HII when all the shouts of "the other one, the other one!" when he revealed his clearly told him that nobody was voting him that night? I don't get it. One thing that came out of this, is now there will be a pretty tight bros alliance between Tony and LJ--which is kind of dangerous considering they're probably the biggest, strongest guys out there now. I was impressed with Tony at the IC. They've done that challenge--or a very similar one--before. I was convinced that a smaller woman would win, or Woo because of his surfing/martial arts background. I was right, but I pegged Tony to go out first, not be Woo's main competition. How crazy was that sudden burst of wind that came up and tossed everyone around. At that point, I don't think Woo's fancy foot shoes helped him, unless he also wears them when surfing and is used to them. They offered protection when on the tiny ledges, but may have been a liability on the top of the floaty thingy.

I only found this show because I hate basketball, and The Big Bang Theory was pre-empted by March Madness. This show is great! NBC had two episodes back-to-back, and I have to say that Michael Chiklis was unexpectedly hilarious. Cobie Smulders was great too. Henry Winkler wasn't an asshat, but he was kind of slow in comparison with the rest of the group. He just mostly seemed bewildered to me. How much booze do they actually drink?

~waving~ Aloha everyone from TWoP! I'll be here to "talk" about one of my favorite shows. I hope everyone makes the jump over here...

Props to Alana for sticking it out, but we sure didn't get to see very much of it. We hear her partner isn't returning from being medivac'd, she does a little commentary, the narrator does a little commentary of the "there's ten days left before extraction, will she choose to survive on her own...Naked and Afraid?" ilk, then *bang* she's hiking to the extraction point with very little to show of those ten days. She seemed a little chummy with the production team, looking straight into the camera (and therefore the cameraman) and said "Let's do this!" so I think after she was there on her own she grew attached to the production team. I think all we saw was the "something is charging the shelter!" panic--which, hello? hells yeah I'd be wigging out if it were me and I was all by myself in the freakin' wilderness--and the footage of her making her clothes out of Keith's sack. Wait, that didn't sound right.... I found it quite interesting, sociologically and psychologically, that nearly the first thing she did after learning her partner wasn't returning was to make herself some clothes out of his burlap sack. Yes, she's a fair-skinned redhead prone to burning from the sun, but then why make yourself a skimpy bikini top and give yourself full coverage down below? If she were interested in protection from the sun, she should have gone for more coverage of her back and shoulders. I found that very interesting. You spend half your time in intimate naked company with a man unknown to you and don't attempt to engineer clothing, but as soon as you're alone, your first instinct is to cover up? Very interesting. Did she feel more vulnerable to the environment, and therefore saw the clothing as protection? Was she attracted to someone on the production team, and felt awkward? Did she feel threatened by being the sole focus of a (presumably) all male production team, and clothing gave her back some control? I'm really on the fence about this "After Dark" show. I hate, hate, HATE "Bob the Blur." Please get rid of him. The inane twitter flirt crap back and forth between the host and the "Queen of the Twitterverse" needs to go, but I find the twitter questions from fans interesting, so that actual content part can stay. Guest stars, and the silly "eat a bug" competitions are just a waste of space. I want them to spend more time on the castaways, because I find their experience so fascinating. I can see if you have a couple of boring or awkward castaways you'd need the filler crap to make up for the fact that a lot of folks are lousy interviews, but for the most part, their perspective and inside details of their experiences are far more interesting to watch. Like when they show "never seen before footage" and immediately and directly ask "and what were your thoughts there, at that moment?" you get some interesting stuff. Dagny, they didn't really figure out why he had the seizure, and the guess is that he was his complete dehydration that caused the seizure, but they couldn't confirm for sure. So, not knowing, and not being all that confident in the third-world medical care he was risking should something like that happen again, he elected not to return after they had completed their testing. I don't really call that a "quit" in my books, but they kept calling it that during the "After Dark" show, and I kept shouting at the screen "He didn't quit! He had an effing seizure and got medivac'd! He didn't quit!" but they didn't hear me. When my sister had a seizure out of the blue during her chemo treatments (for non-neuro related cancer) and extensive testing was inconclusive, she was not allowed any activities, had to have someone with her for at least a week, and was restricted from a lot of things from a long time. There's no way--even if the cause was dehydration--he would have medically been cleared to return to the ordeal, so saying he quit was totally bogus. I don't really like the guy, but I do think that was unfair.

I suspected this before, but last night confirmed it. Tony isn't good at math. "Final Five! Final Five!" Erhm, no. Not really. Maybe he meant "Final Five" in the new "No Brains" tribe, that is a true statement. But not final five in the whole game. I've never seen a set of castaways play too hard so quickly. Garrett, Marlins-dude, Tony, and even J'Tia played too hard from the start, and Tasha wanted to scheme deeply from day one, and was so disappointed when nobody else wanted to. Thankfully, Tasha has backed off from that and now seems to be more thoughful, and Tony is due to be exposed any minute now. I was watching with a friend of mine, and after Trish (jokingly) said "I'm really a man," my friend was absolutely convinced that she is a post-op trans and kept obsessively looking for evidence. I could only half watch the show, my friend was cracking me up so much. Edited Cross-posted with JustAlison... I meant to add something here about Morgan. She was totally invisible last night, wasn't she? When the brains+Sarah decided it had to be one of the beauties, it only came down to Alexis or Jeremiah and Morgan was not even mentioned. She went from front-and-center to waaaay in the background. Trish isn't my favorite, I haven't been very pleased with her behavior, but neither have I been impressed with Lindsey's. I wonder if there is something else going on with Lindsey's quitting--like if she has serious anger management issues and was fearing she'd act out and actually assault someone which was why she absented herself from the rest of the tribe. Hair aside, she kind of had that vibe to her. It wasn't very nice for the rest of her tribe to idly wonder where she went, all alone and upset in the cold and dark, and then just shrug and go "meh" over it. That's some real concern and compassion right there. To be fair, I'm sure they knew she was accompanied by a camera crew so wan't going to be eaten by jungle beasts or anything. The message scribbled in the sand wasn't very mature. Pretty petty, and pointless.