‘Big Brother Canada’ in review: Three things that should change for season 2
Don’t think of the title as a negative: As we begin to wrap up our “Big Brother Canada” coverage for the year, we come here to praise the show rather than to bury it. It was an entertaining season almost throughout, and even if you hate the way things ended, it’s hard to deny that the show’s first venture north of the border was more entertaining at times than many recent seasons of the American show (at least 12 and 13).
But every first-year show has things to improve upon, and when you tried as many different things as this show did, there will be some things that inevitably need tweaking. We applaud them for taking risks, though, since so much of it worked. The cast was dynamic and interesting, most of the competitions were inspired, and even the returning houseguest twist from the jury won us over since Gary making it to the final two created such a surprising way to close the season.
Note that season 2 has not been ordered yet, but we believe its odds are strong considering the ratings.
The three things that should change for season 2
1. No surprises that hurt the game’s integrity – Specifically, we’re talking about Topaz’s instant-eviction deliberation, which is really the only huge twist in the game that was seriously problematic. If there is one thing in this game that should remain sacred, it is the ability to vocalize what’s on your mind without is being unexpectedly broadcast for everyone to hear. This marked the beginning of the end for Topaz’s run on the show, and an ending that really will live on in infamy.
2. Fewer surprise evictions – If we could have fewer double-evictions / instant evictions, we’d be happy with fourteen people rather than fifteen. A double-eviction is interesting if there is maybe one or two of them a season, but this season it was much worse than that. If you include the first eviction of Kat along with the instant eviction and even the PowerShift that put Aneal on the block, there were really five times in this game when someone went home (whether it is Kat, Aneal, Liza, AJ, or Topaz) without really much of an opportunity to fight for their survival.
3. Live tapings – After being in the audience for the finale, we understand why none of the episodes this year were live. It’s a technical nightmare, especially if there is a snafu somewhere behind the scenes. However, isn’t there a way to work this out? Despite pleas by the show for people to keep the finale a secret, someone almost always spoils it and the winner was all over Twitter hours before the episode aired. Part of the suspense of the show is watching live and not knowing what will happen during the show. We had that feeling attending the taping and it was wonderful. It also reminded us how much we’ve missed it all season long.
If there is an honorable mention here, it would be to have more strategists late in the game, but that is more of a function of what happens in the season. This show did have people in Aneal, Liza, Alec, and Peter who were big-time gamers, but they were all gone before the final four. Emmett’s dominance is the big reason why since he wanted to ensure he had as much control as he could over the game. Meanwhile, the fact that Jillian would have lost to a returning player had Topaz voted correctly shows that there were holes in her strategy. We’re not trying to sandbag Jillian, as she did many things right. Her only major flaw was just not owning up to her lying in the way that many great players have done in the past.
Want more of our “Big Brother Canada” finale coverage? Be sure to check out our interviews with Peter as well as Gary, and we’re going to have some more coverage moving through the end of the weekend.
Photo: Slice
Big Brother Tiny
May 7, 2013 @ 5:34 am
Two major flaws in having Gary voted back in is one, they never should have kept all the jury in the same room until after that decision to bring one back…that make sense? I mean Gary had all the inside information, he knew Peter and Alec were tools and upset over Jillian outplaying them. He knew they would never vote for her….if he never had a chance to talk to them before, he may have thought they may have voted due to winning veto powers etc…..that was a major advantage. Another is Gary was brought back way too late in the game, they should have had someone come back when there were maybe 10 people left…not 5. Gary missed out in what…two ? three votes ? He had no blood on his hands….a huge advantage as well. The right person won the game….unfortunately for Gary he had Topaz on his side and it cost him 80 grand…but Gary was in it for show, and not the money…he’ll do fine. Funny how not one person mentioned Gary being a bully to Talla though…that was weird ?
SBB
May 6, 2013 @ 1:43 am
They could definitely improve the prize money. I’d much rather have more cash than a spending spree at the Brick. $100 thousand is not really much in the grand scheme of things. Pretty hard to do much exciting other than paying off student loans.
SBB
May 6, 2013 @ 1:42 am
Jillian did own up to her lying, many times, and defended it as good, hard game play.
Abby
May 4, 2013 @ 9:21 pm
So much about Topaz, from the replay the names were clearly visible and she looked at them before placing Jillian’s name in the slot.
So did she vote wrong or look for an excuse to pretend she cast a wrong vote.
It was very clear to me for whom she voted
Great show, well done, can’t wait for season 2
tigervixxxen
May 4, 2013 @ 5:37 pm
My positives are: The show was very well cast, the tasks, prizes and punishments were fun and felt fresh. I don’t mind new ideas for twists but it affected gameplay too much and caused the houseguests to play too conerservative because they were always worried something was going to come up. I like twists that keep them on their toes but not if it makes them stop playing the game of BB. I don’t mind the audience power shift element but bringing Gary back was just simply too late in the game. Also, the instant eviction with no veto wasn’t cool, they were more than capable to create and execute one quickly. It was a shame that the gamers couldn’t game, I’ll credit Emmett and the twists equally there. I hope BBUS adopts some of the more fun elements of its Canadian counterpart and BBCanada focuses on the game a little more.