‘Big Brother 18’ episode 38 review: The season starts to run on empty

At this particular point in time, “Big Brother” always gets tough to watch. We feel like that’s even more the case when you have a cast missing that one dominant player who can count on to be entertaining, strategic, and insightful in the Diary Room as well.

It’s ironic that Nicole has compared this season at times to season 16, since we’ve certainly started to feel that she has developed a Derrick persona as of late. While she’s made some fantastic strategic moves as of late, she’s frustrating television since she doesn’t articulate her motivations as we as she would like. She’s perhaps a little too conscious of America watching, and it takes some of the fun out of her in the Diary Room giving what feels like press-conference answers. Corey is even worse, and James has been in pure pander mode for some time.

With that being said, the editors for some reason are also more than happy to continue to give James a positive edit. They certainly haven’t spent a heck of a lot time showing anything that would put him in a little more of a negative light for a long period of time. Even some of the stuff with Natalie feels short-lived now.

Ultimately, how much you’re enjoying the show at this point is directly related to how much you are enjoying the remaining players. If you like Nicole and Corey (or at least the version of them shown on TV), you’re probably loving the course of events; if not, you’re probably not feelin’ the friendship right now. With nobody really giving CBS a lot to work with footage-wise right now, we’re getting a pretty dull end to this season. Grade: B.

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