Reality TV Thoughts

Last year, the Big Brother Production team had outdone themselves in terms of ridiculous premiere segments by deciding to have Julie Chen get kidnapped for a competition and showing a badly edited clip of an island being blown up. For the Big Brother 28 premiere though, they have reached new heights, now killing off Big Brother legend Rachel Reilly via being pushed into a volcano by a velociraptor. At this point, you cannot do anything but simply admire production’s commitment to pushing away potential new viewers at every opportunity. Beyond ridiculous segments, what else did the Big Brother 28 premiere have in store for us?

House Tour: Time Travel!

This year, the house design and twists of the season all revolve around time travel. Of course, this being Big Brother, it’s the most cliche iteration of time travel possible. There are plenty of clocks all around the house, including an admittedly cool Lazy Susan for the dining table. There’s a board on the wall displaying different time periods, which will all seemingly become the places where competitions will take place throughout the season. Overall, this house design is, in my opinion, a huge step down from BB27’s Hotel Mystere, which was the best house in years. However, given it is a very small part of the season, I won’t harken on it too much.

The Houseguests Meet

I am very sad to report that, unfortunately, Jason ‘Salina’ De Puy walked into the house first and is now vulnerable to the first in curse. As for houseguest interactions, there aren’t many notable ones. That all has to do with the fact that the premiere is jam-packed of competitions. Before the houseguests even get a chance to do proper introductions, the first competition is underway. Julie announces that three reality tv legends will be entering the house and the newbies will ‘time travel’ to the past to bring them into the house. These reality tv legends will also be the only players eligible to win the first head of household competition. Now, I’ve jokingly made fun of a lot of production’s decisions for this premiere, but this is the first thing I have a legitimate problem with. The power of the first HOH is immense and limiting the eligibility to only the legends makes it clear that production is trying to give them an advantage from the start. It’s straight up unfair, but production tries to hide that fact by having the newbies play for safety instead.

The Competitions

There are twelve time capsules hidden around the house, all of which add up to 28 (Enzo’s employee number for Meow Meow Enterprises?). There are a bunch of decoys hidden as well. All but two houseguests will be able to compete for safety. Everyone is able to get a capsule on their first try, except for Ashley, who puts in three incorrect time capsules. As a result, she and Barrett are the only two houseguests to not get a chance to compete for safety.

Kamu, La Tice, Mallory, and Rome are the first randomly assigned group to compete for safety. They travel back to the 80s, where they must please a teenage Angela by balancing random store items on an unstable tree-like structure. After a bit of struggle and close calls, Rome is ultimately able to earn his safety for the night. In addition, Angela is brought back into the house. Reactions are mixed, as Melody in particular does not take a liking to her. But she’s here, and I’m excited to see how it plays out as she is by far my favorite recent cast member. She’s made no promises to be different and not blow up randomly, so nobody has any idea what to expect for the summer of Angela.

Chuk, Drew, Haley, and Taylor are the next houseguests to travel through time. They go to July of 2018, having to complete a Survivor-inspired competition to bring Rick Devens into the game. It becomes a race between Chuk and Taylor to win safety, which Chuk ends up winning. After a quick Jeff Probst cameo, Devens is officially in the game! He may have gotten off to a rocky start (more on that later!), but I am still so excited for him to play this season and bring some chaos to it!

Of course, that means the last competition is to bring Dee into the game. To bring her into the house, Jason Lyric, Melody, and Yash time travel to… Las Vegas? In 2010? To a bar no less? Throwing aside the confusing time period and setting, the four houseguests compete in a booth comp for the final safety spot. Once the competition is down to Jason and Lyric, Jason comes out victorious! And… Rachel Reilly is back in the house?! Yeah, in a blindside, it turns out Rachel is actually the final reality tv legend? She’s back for the double crown! And she really plays into her personality, telling the newbies to bow down to her and repeating how she’s an icon. Julie then gathers everyone in the living room to announce that the first HOH competition is about to begin. The houseguest time travel to the caveman era! Everyone is dressed in prehistoric clothing and come out to a jungle with a volcano at front and center. The three legends stand in front of the volcano. As Rachel is monologuing to Julie about being back for a fourth time, though, heartbreak strikes. A velociraptor comes out of the trees and runs toward Rachel, threatening her and pushing her closer and closer into the volcano. It pushes her right to the volcano’s ledge, where it forces her down into the lava as she screams “But I’m an icon!”

After the commercial break, Julie officially announces Rachel’s demise and says she will find someone to replace her, time traveling to the date of the Survivor 45 finale…

Big Brother Unlocked: Saving Rachel Reilly

Big Brother Unlocked was surprisingly enjoyable. After skipping all of the Big Brother unlocked episodes last season, this was a nice introduction to them. To begin, Dee comes out of the jungle trees, finally being officially announced. Then, Taylor Hale and Derrick L. go back in time to save Rachel from her untimely demise. She is then brought onto the Unlocked set, where she praises the newbies and tells everyone she’s excited to watch the rest of the season. Beyond that, we get Angela, Dee, and Devens’ intro packages, a nice surprise.

We get some sneak peaks from inside the house, the most important one coming from Taylor and Devens. After Devens enters, he’s quickly hugging everyone. In the chaos of the introductions, though, he ignores Taylor’s greeting and makes a comment about getting names later. Taylor is upset, as she believes he purposefully brushed her off. She goes to a bedroom to calm down and now has Devens in her hitlist. This is an unfortunate situation. I don’t think Devens meant to brush her off but it’s reasonable Taylor would be upset given the limited information she knows. Just a bad case of miscommunication that I hope won’t backfire on her given the legends will hold the power this week. To end off unlocked, the intern turns on the live feeds and we get to see the start of the first head of household competition…