This season of Big Brother has been one to remember. Although, some people are hoping to forget it. For those of you who don’t know what Big Brother is, it’s a show about 16 strangers living in a house with cameras on them 24/7 competing for half a million dollars. They compete in challenges, nominate 2 people for “eviction” and vote one person out each week. Along the way, they form alliances with each other to hopefully ensure their safety for another week. At the end of the game, 9 of the evicted houseguests form a “jury” and vote on who will win the $500,000. There are lots of fun twists and turns to keep the game interesting, but also a lot of lying and backstabbing among the houseguests, which was especially prevalent in Big Brother 19. If you want to know my thoughts on the season and Wednesday’s finale, keep reading.
This was the season of temptation, which means the houseguests were tempted with prizes or something to help them further their game. The catch was if they took the temptation, something else would happen in return, usually not good. On the very first episode, the houseguests were tempted with $25,000. Kevin was the one who accepted and the consequence of him accepting was that a Big Brother contestant from the previous season, Paul, would take someone’s place in the house and compete with the others for the $500K. For me and a lot of other people in the Big Brother fandom, this kind of ruined the season.
One would think that being the only returning player (one who placed second last season) would put a target on your back. However, with Paul this was not the case. In week 1, Paul was tempted with the power to be safe from eviction for three weeks, which he accepted. This made it easy for him to form alliances with the other houseguests. Almost everyone in the house was in an alliance with Paul at one point with the exception of Cody, Jess, Jillian and Cameron. I believe this was half great game play, half Paul getting lucky that the other houseguests never compared notes while in the house and were basically willing to throw their entire game to him.
Another frustrating thing was the cast. I found it hard to root for any of them. By final 5 I was reluctantly rooting for Josh, who ended up winning the entire season. Just about everyone was willing to throw their games for their “showmance” or for Paul at some point making it boring to watch. Aside from that, the amount of bullying that went on in the house was overwhelming, most of which was orchestrated by Paul. A big flaw in his gameplay was that he somehow got the entire house to agree to isolate and verbally attack whoever his target was for the week. The fact that no one stood up and said something was infuriating to watch. There was even one occasion when he prompted Josh to make personal attacks against Kevin, even though it was already a sure thing Kevin would be evicted. Josh rightfully refused. Another huge event was the house ganging up on Cody and Jess, also instigated by Paul.
The finale went as good as it could’ve gone considering who was left. I did want Josh to clip Paul in final 3, but seeing him answer questions for the Jury members, and come in second place for the second year in the row was just as satisfying, especially since it came down to Cody’s vote. Also, Cody winning America’s Favorite Houseguest was the reality check the rest of the houseguests needed. It was also entertaining to watch the jury recognize the shocking behavior that went on throughout the season, aside from Matt and Raven who remained as delusional as ever.
Overall, I would give this season 2/5 stars. Most of the houseguests following Paul made it kind of boring, but the drama created some excitement, and the finale was great. Some may argue that Paul deserved to win because he played the best game. I would argue that he overplayed, his moves were cowardly and his bullying tactics/mob mentality deservedly led him to second place once again.