Whats Hot On TV

What fascinates me watching certain reality shows like Big Brother, Survivor, and even The Amazing Race to a certain extent, is the interpersonal relationships that go on. I could go a long time and not get the desire to watch people eating bugs or seeing how long they can stand on a stump. What really makes me tune in is how these people treat each other and the ways they manipulate each other to earn the big cash in the end.

In those interpersonal relationships, the thing that seems to come up the most is their honesty. These are people they met just weeks or maybe even days before, so how they do they know they can trust each other not to lie? It becomes an odd way to relate, as in normal day to day happenings we don’t move about worrying if the other person is lying. Well, some might, but that’s their own personal hangup. It doesn’t become an overruling factor, worrying if our neighbor is lying about when he’s going to mow his lawn next, or worrying if our best friend is lying when she promises to invite us over for dinner soon.

On Big Brother, it seems to come into play even more than others, because when it gets down to it, the whole show is based on how people relate to each other and who they can manipulate. A certain paranoia seems to reach everyone at a certain point, as they wonder who they can trust to help them win a half million dollars.

The contestants in the house, and us as viewers as well, decide early on who we can trust. It’s more acceptable as the game goes on for some people to lie, but not others. Dan wasn’t supposed to be a trusted person in the household. From everything that he said in his pre-show interviews, he was a prejudiced person. Yet he grew on us, so now we want him to have integrity. He lied to Jerry about who he was going to vote for one week, and after originally trusting Dan, Jerry blew his top, and walked around calling Dan a Judas. Because he was a teacher and wore a cross, it became so wrong for him to lie, but we knew he was put in that position as America’s Player, so we were wiling to forgive him.

Now, the situation this week is all hinging on whether Dan will break his word again. He made a deal to win HoH, but gave all the power to someone else. He saw it as a good move, as he wasn’t going to be taking responsibility for anyone going home, but Ollie saw it much differently. Ollie realized he could be kept safe and keep his alliance intact, getting rid of his choice of people this week. Then after that, he could still play for HoH next week and possibly win HoH on his own, still retaining the power. It was a no lose situation … if Dan kept his word.

While Dan thought he wouldn’t have the responsibility of someone going home, he does, as everyone knows he made this deal. If someone from his own alliance goes home, they’ll blame him. It could prove to be the worst move in Big Brother history, even toppling Marcelas’ when he kept himself on the block and took someone else off, then ended up going home when they turned on him. Dan’s deal could prove to be worse if someone in his own alliance goes home and the others blame him for it. And next week he becomes the vulnerable one when he can’t play HoH.

But what if Dan goes back on his word? As he told his parents via a one-sided conversation with a picture, he has a choice of keeping his word or going back on it. We would have expected him to lie when we first met Dan, but now we’ve kind of grown to like him. Now we don’t want him to lie. We want him to have integrity and keep his word. If he ends up losing Renny, Keesha, or Memphis this week, the alliance will take a hit and may not recover.

It was a very chancy move to give all that power to Ollie, and Dan’s not going to be removed from blame as he had thought. Either way, he’ll have responsibility. Ollie and Michelle will blame him if he goes back on his word and puts one of them up, and the others will blame him if he keeps his word and lets Ollie decide who goes home. It was a risky move that is only going to spread doubt again among everyone about his character. It’s not what he needs this close to the end of the game.

Dan’s best bet is going to be to go back on his word to Ollie. He can possibly convince the others that he had this plan all along to lie, and Michelle will go home, since Dan will have the tiebreaker. He won’t be able to play for HoH next week, but if someone in his alliance wins it, he’ll probably be kept safe. If he keeps his word to Ollie, Ollie and Michelle certainly won’t keep him safe, and the others won’t either. He’ll go home.

No one can blame Dan completely for not thinking this out real clearly while he was hanging on that vine trying to win, yet it’s the name of the game. It’s all about being put in these pressurized situations, making deals, and keeping yourself safe. In the end, the person that gets others’ votes to win the game will have played it well. This week he didn’t play it well and needs to do something really quickly to save face with his alliance to earn their vote in the end. If, and and it’s a big if, he can make it come off as a smart move in the game, he can possibly still get the others’ votes in the end.

It will be interesting to see how he plays this out that will keep me watching Big Brother this week. No matter which way it goes, it will have given us a lot of entertainment this week, as we sit around the water cooler and debate this risky move of his.

Photos Courtesy of cbs.com

For more information on Big Brother 10, visit SirLinksALot: Big Brother 10 and Big Brother 10 News. See my other blog at Pursuing Martial Arts.

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