Television Tuesday: Big Brother Season 20 is Great, Thank God

I have written about the show, "Big Brother," and its seasons ever since I started religiously watching the television program (and sometimes its live feeds or at least reading-up on what happens besides what is broadcast) around season 15. For those unaware, "Big Brother," is a CBS reality-show that has been going since the early 2000's and involves putting a bunch of people into a house, isolated from the outside world, and making them compete in challenges to have the power to send other house-guests home--while cameras tape their every move. It is a mixture of silly contests and genuinely interesting social drama as people's real selves become apparent once folk start to, "Crack," being stuck in this household with each other. One big thing about the show however is depending on who exactly is in the house, that can drastically impact how interesting things are. Thankfully, season 20 has been stellar so far.

I and basically everyone else hated season 19. It brought back someone from season 18 we all liked--a man named Paul--but then he proceeded to run the house as the only, "Veteran," of a previous season and those who didn't do what he said were bullied and treated horribly, until at least in the last episode a bitter jury robbed him of wining (people voted-out pick between the remaining two house-guests who gets a half-million dollars), which was admittedly funny to see. Before that, seasons alternated between solid and dull generally, but for real, 19 was awful and after going through something as boring and tedious as it I feel like we earned season 20 of, "Big Brother." As for why it is good, well, people are actually playing the game, making an effort, concocting plans, watching those plans fall apart and/or come to fruition, and its just thankfully fun to see all this happen. As happens any season some stronger personalities are getting more air-time, but that is to be expected and usually as the house loses some of the many people living within it week after week other folk get attention. Yes, "Big Brother," is good again, and it is glorious.

Tyler from this season.

Reality television is arguably by nature trashy and voyeuristic. "Big Brother," knows this however and leans into it, with the title itself being a reference to  George Orwell and his idea of a future full of constant surveillance where we are always being watched and scrutinized. That is what fans of the show love to do, whether we are gawking at hilarious things like Kaitlyn failing to solve an absurdly easy puzzle to avoid, "Eviction," from the house, witnessing Tyler clearly be more than a dumb surfer-bro with how expertly he is tricking people into allying with him, or observing a tense discussion about hurtful words between J.C. and Bayleigh that hopefully helped those watching to discuss such things too--there is always cool stuff.

After season 19 being boring, full of bullying, and just otherwise lame, I am so thankful that Season 20 of, "Big Brother," has so far been immensely entertaining and appears as if it will continue to be a great time as the season proceeds. Whether it is a great season or a bad one I like to watch the show, but a fun season always is wonderful, obviously.