Big Brother Fever

My heart is crushed. Rico, the hunk with six-pack abs and seductive eyes, my favorite housemate, was the first to be evicted from the Pinoy Big Brother house last Saturday. *Sob*

Assuming that the tally of text votes is accurate (as I had no choice but to assume that, in the absence of auditors from SGV to verify the count the way they used to for awards nights before the Manila Filmfest “Take it1 Take it!� scam) I think Rico’s eviction was brought about not because people didn’t like him but because people, like myself, voted for Franzen, thinking that Rico would have enough votes anyway.

In the first place, it was Big Brother and not the housemates who nominated Rico for eviction. His nomination was spurred by a series of misdemeanors he committed due to his lack of focus. His body was inside the Big Brother house but his mind was floating, drifting away outside. Everybody conceded he wouldn’t have been evicted this early had he not been distracted. Come to think of it, his “distractions� were capitalized by the show: his “aunt� who is actually his real mom, for the first time, admitted to the public the *truth* that Rico was her son and not a nephew, just as Rico was about to step inside the Big Brother house. To compound his woes, someone had the bright idea of showing him a VTR of his ex-girlfriend giving a message to him and saying “minahal naman kita dati�. For someone who is still pining for a love lost, those words confirmed that their relationship is now a WAS. It was putting a three-dimensional period using an ice pick. It was a stab; right in front --- a nail in the coffin. Who wouldn’t jump into the pool and forget to remove his lapel (a wireless, most likely very expensive microphone) after that?

In short, Rico got evicted because he was distracted, which distraction was created by the show itself, in an attempt to stir things up in the precarious first week of the reality show when the housemates weren’t really doing much interesting things to tickle and prick the televiewers’ interest. In hindsight, much of what was shown on the show during the first week was all about Rico: Rico getting close to Chx, Rico staring at his ex-girlfriend’s picture, Rico talking to his ex-girlfriend’s picture, Rico confiding his thoughts on his ex-girlfriend’s interview --- Rico, Rico, Rico! It was out and out an exploitation of a person’s feelings. If this was an experiment in psychology, Rico should have gone straight to a shrink for debriefing. And I didn’t mean that literally.

No wonder he was warmly received as he stepped out of the Big Brother house and even just as well at The Buzz – with his own dressing room and autograph signing at that. It’s just like having the character of the bida of a teleserye killed right when the show is beginning to gain popularity. Well, with the deluge of offers and an avalanche of admirers, Rico will surely gain a three-month headway over other the artistahin among the housemates. Cass, who correctly predicted Ate Racquel’s retention, could be right in predicting a fruitful career for Rico. After all, his charm is so potent even Dwight the dog is nabading. Who wouldn’t, as Papa Rico cared for Lola Dwight for one week, bathing and feeding it, and teaching it tricks.

Well, with Rico out, my interest in religiously keeping track of the goings on inside the house was surely diminished but not totally eliminated. There are other reasons to sustain my interest, but it’s primarily the excitement of prying into 12 peoples’ lives as they go about their daily activities sa Bahay ni Kuya. I will not take my hats off to the creative team of PBB for their choice of housemates as I didn’t think they were able to capture each and every slice of Pinoy life and bring them inside the house, but considering the MTRCB factor, I think the current mix is not that bad. You basically have a glimpse of the lives of 20-something Pinoys from different backgrounds, with different priorities and preoccupations. You have Bob who is an aspiring politician in his town whose initiative to be a leader clashes with the independent minded and sometimes even rebellious housemates. You have Nene who is a woman in the military who magnificently is a misfit in any kind of stereotype and seems to be unobtrusively in her own world as shown by her obsessive-compulsive autistic dancing in one of their weekly tasks. You have Jenny who is married with a kid and is a very nurturing companion to her housemates. She didn’t get a single nomination for eviction, which I think, is a very bad sign– she is just too bland and just blends into the background. Her purported budding attraction with Jason is quickly doused by suspicions of the latter being gay or at the very least, silahis. Jason, of course, is charming with his Batangueño accent and sincere probinsiyano ways but apparently has piqued his housemates’ interest and curiosity about his real sexual inclinations, emphasis on “s�.

Franzen, whose jologs factor is rocket high, easily became my early favorite among the housemates. Even with my liking for Papa Rico, I’d like Franzen to win the house and lot, Nissan Frontier Titanium and 1 million pesos, plus a career as a comedian too. He is very poor as evidenced by his very prominent rib cage and unintentionally small waist. With a body, scarcely with muscle and bereft of fat, and a face, etched with pain and suffering for having a hard life, Franzen is none other than Juan dela Cruz personified.

Everyone I’ve mentioned up to this point qualifies as magaling makisama. All the others I’ll mention next are not necessarily bad, but I think, are very imposing and at times domineering -- sometimes endearing but most of the time, annoying.

Ate Racquel, the eldest among the housemates who is a teacher who pronounces “hot� as “hat� (As in, “Franzen, I think you’re hat!�), is very irritatingly diplomatic – the one who is most conscious of the fact that the whole Philippines, and all the other TFC subscribers in the world, are watching her. She is the one who seems most comfortable with the idea of having a “Big Brother� around. Unbelievably, she never bashes any of her housemates inside, or outside the confession room and simply accepts the way she is treated by rude housemates such as Uma. I hated her even more when she nominated Franzen for eviction when her vote should have gone to Uma who didn’t show her any respect during one of the housemates’ major quarrels. I feel she didn’t want to appear to be vindictive but she ended up hurting one who didn’t have anything against her.

Of all the housemates, my degree of dislike descends inversely to their names’ sequence in the alphabet: Uma, Say, JB and Cass – the sosyal bloc of the group.

My dislike for Uma is quickly decreasing, as I increasingly appreciate his true self. Pinoys do not generally favor brutally frank people and prefer to be always polite and tactful. No wonder Uma is already in a clash with Kris Aquino due to his “Kikay si Kris� remark on his very first day inside the Big Brother house --- nagalit ang taklesa queen sa isang taklesa king. I first got wind of King Uma’s rude frankness – telling Ate Racquel not to speak with him as he is not talking to her, and his persistent refusal to apologize to any of the girls after he made them do a sexy dance in front of him after they have chosen him king. Uma is, hands down, one of, if not the most colorful personalities inside the Big Brother house. He has a love team/catfight team with Cass, he is the only one who can match Nene’s dancing prowess (not the stamina though), and can rival Jason at being suspected as the resident faggot inside the Bahay ni Kuya, with his pitch high and frantic screams when face to face with a cockroach, or a grasshopper.

Very thin and un-sexy Chyx, who was supposedly the “liberated girl� among the housemates (but who didn’t even got on first base with hunk Rico) looked like a nun if placed side by side with almost-always-clad-as-if-ready-for-an-FHM-photo-shoot Cass and Say (yes, “backstabber of Cass� Say with a “salamat po dok� nose) who unabashedly sleeps in JB’s bed (with JB beside her, of course). For that, Say merits a kurot sa singit but after her mom’s appearance at the PBB nomination night and implicit approval of her daughter’s behavior on national (could qualify as international) television, I conclude that her mom deserves a more severe kurot sa singit.

JB in super mareklamo! On the other hand, he somehow redeems himself in my eyes for being a sweet and caring boyfriend to Say. I just seriously doubt if he didn’t have a girlfriend before he entered the Big Brother house. He was the most beautiful in drag but he earned negative points from me for not liking Dwight (as I believe in the you-are-kind-if-you-are-kind-to-animals test) and for insisting on including yosi in their meager budget of 1,500 for 12 people.

Cass is a bimbo, as Uma has accurately assessed. She has a kind heart but she simply sees things differently. I think she is haunted by her insecurity about being a sexy star and bastusin that she has become paranoid about it. She almost always is the source of conflict inside the house. It is perplexing why she is easily offended by the acts of the guys when she herself creates situations for them to lose their respect in her. For one, it’s the way she dresses – pang Baywalk Bodies. Second, her demeanor does not inspire respect. Could you blame Uma for thinking she wouldn’t be offended if he made her soak herself in the pool before doing a sexy dance after she, unprovoked, straddled Uma (as in sat on Uma, facing him) in the living room in full view of everyone? And what about her prank at Jason, persistently pulling down his towel despite Jason’s protestations and declaration that he was not wearing briefs? She would rouse the house with the big tantrum if she was the one who was stripped naked as soon as stepping out of the shower. I see a major fight coming once Cass finds out that Uma thinks she is so cheap and she will be the cheapest sexy star after PBB. But who can she trust to tell her the truth? Surely, not backstabbing Say. Lagot si Uma pag nauna lumabas si Cass sa Bahay ni Kuya.

I think I will remain to be hooked on Pinoy Big Brother. It is certainly a fun and interesting take on the grim and pessimistic, then futuristic, novel by George Orwell entitled 1984. The challenges and punishments inflicted by Pinoy Big Brother on the housemates pales so much in comparison with Orwell’s Big Brother who, if displeased, can totally wipe out a person and leave no trace of evidence that he ever existed. But Uma was surely endearing when he innocently told Big Brother, on the verge of tears, “Naiinis po ako sa inyo…�

(Check out http://www.pinoybigbrother.com)