‘Big Brother 16’ review: The first Battle of the Block; the Nicole – Christine alliance
We’re always fascinated to watch an episode of “Big Brother 16” this early in the game, given that it sets the tone for the season, and also some of the editing. What we had tonight therefore was interesting; we’re stubborn, and it will take us a while to get used to the new nomination ceremony and also the changes to the theme song.
The biggest issue the show runs into is that there is absolutely no way that the show could show everything that is important in the house in the hour-long run time. At least tonight’s episode brought in most of the good stuff, with the exception of maybe the alliance between Frankie and Zach that seems to be a legitimate final two, just like the super-entertaining one between Christine and Nicole that we saw here.
The way that the entire formation of the “Bomb Squad” was handled was perfect, from the guys initially making their pact to Devin completely screwing it up by bringing in two random women in Amber and Christine just for the sake of having eight members. There are two major mistakes here:
- You bring in two people into an alliance without talking to a single person in the alliance about it.
- You pretty much tell these women they are #7 and #8 in the alliance! As soon as they get a bigger deal, they are going to sell you out!
Devin is a terrible player, and there is no working around that. Him believing that Donny is some sort of secret comedian is also more hilarious than many jokes from actual comedians.
The Battle of the Block was supremely entertaining as a competition, largely because there were actual stakes that weren’t in the Have / Have-Not Competition. Also, the idea for Brittany / Victoria (Frankie’s nominees) and Donny / Paola (Caleb’s nominees) was fantastic. Great costumes, and a fun competition that involved skill and teamwork.
We really enjoyed this episode. We were worried with the nomination ceremony happening early that there would be no strategy talk; but, removing the Have / Have-Not Competition and replacing it with the Battle of the Block makes it about equal. Grade: B+.
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Photo: CBS