Big Brother isn't watching

A few more thoughts on Big Brother 10 as it draws to a close (the inevitable cancelling of the show is another matter whose inevitability renders it redundant - not many shows last as long, not many shows endure so much malicious publicity and still (relatively) thrive - they've been writing it off since what, the second series?).

First off Marcus, who has definitely outlived his usefulness. The key moment for Marcus came several weeks ago when he noted that everyone in the house had their roles and his was the role of "rebel," consequently he just had behave the way he did - he had no choice. I couldn't agree with him more in that. I often write on the structure of the house and the way roles are assigned despite, rather than because, of the housemates personalities (check the tags for Big Brother, save me searching for links... laziness on my part...). Since then the mistake Marcus seems to have made is in believing in his autonomy, or rather, believing his autonomy is his to simply declare, instead of being a constant work. In such a situation the only actual rebellious thing to do would be to not rebel. By simply going along with his assigned rebelliousness, he becomes a pawn. So, having seemingly forgotten his declaration he now seems to believe that he is special, different to the other "mugs" in the house. He really doesn't give a fuck you know. Has he mentioned that? Everyone else does, but not Marcus, he is special. Like everyone who goes into the house doesn't have this conceited view of themselves... His "rebellion is now simply boring. How many times can one see him in the diary room slagging off Big Brother before it becomes just as dull as the platitudes of other housemates on this being the greatest achievement of their lives? Of course there's people who'll say, "but he's being ironic, he's joking." Well yes. He is. But it makes it no less dull and it makes it worse. He's a rebel at one remove, a rebel whose rebellion has no effect, a rebel designed to make the system work: a joke.
Leading on from that I have a problem with the standard formulation that such and such a housemate is bad because they so obviously only want to win the money. So? It's a gameshow, they've spent 12 weeks in there. Let them have the freaking money and enjoy it. Why not wanting to be in the game when you've gone in there to play a game is a virtue is absolutely beyond. The desire to win some money does not preclude the ability act as a decent human being. Isn't that the defenders of capitalism's basic position?
Lastly. Rodrigo. With all the rule breaking, "rebellions," in the house isn't Rodrigo's position the only correct position. And I include Big Brother "himself" in that. When Big Brother announced that it was changing the rules to allow nominations talk, Rodrigo went in there and pointed out to Big Brother that this was a fundamental rule and how could they consider changing it. Brilliant and totally right. The rule change simply showed the lack of power of Big Brother. They could no longer find ways to make people abide by the rules, so they changed them. Rodrigo, by taking the rule literally - for Rodrigo it was divine ordinance, not some ironic rule to be changed on a whim - becomes a subversive figure that Marcus could only dream of. Everyone else was in the trap of irony, business as usual, not realising the shift in power. Rodrigo, having identified the lack of power, should have overthrown the rule of Big Brother and instituted his own revolutionary rule.
Now that would have been worth watching.