At the End of the Day...
It seems like each year these assessments of the HGs get longer and longer. This year, BB through a wrench in the works by kicking the first one at the end of the first day, leaving us with almost no basis for judgement. I almost didn't even bother with an @tEotD for Jodi, but that just didn't seem right. So once again, we'll judge them all, from first out to first place. At the end of the day, we're looking for the whole package: gameplay, personality, strategy, drama, and fun.
[Terminology clarifications: "nominated" covers both original and replacement nominees; "survived eviction" means being on the block at time votes were cast, but not being evicted.]
Jump to:
Jodi | Kara | Willie | JoJo | Janelle | Wil | Mike Boogie | Ashley | Britney | Frank | Joe | Jenn | Shane | Danielle | Dan | Ian
Jodi
HOH: 0 |
POV: 0 |
Nominated: 0 |
Survived Eviction: 0 |
Oh, Jodi, we hardly knew you. I'm not a big fan of booting someone before the feeds kick in, and I certainly don't see the point of kicking someone on night 1. I kind of assumed she'd have a chance to come back, but according to the vast network of BB spies, Jodi's back home and out in the real world, so there's pretty much zero chance she'll be returning to the game. Unless it's some new twist where they let someone who has been able to watch the show go back into play, but that honestly doesn't seem fair. Listening the HGs talk during the first few days of the feeds, I picked up on a few comments that seemed to be saying that Jodi somehow managed to offend a bunch of them during the pre-HOH get-to-know-you chatting and that's why she was the last picked for teams, and the choice to get the boot. It could just be joking around, though there's no other obvious reason for her to go. Out here, we can't really judge Jodi, since she got maybe 10 minutes of air time, and an exit interview with Julie. Though I was amused by Jodi's answers to Julie's questions about the other HGs. She hadn't even been in the house long enough to learn their names, and did things like referring to Joe as "Chef Daddy." How on earth was she supposed to be able to make a guess on who would do well?
Kara
HOH: 0 |
POV: 0 |
Nominated: 1 |
Survived Eviction: 1* |
Kara came into BB as something of a legit celebrity to begin with. But she seemed to be a BB recruit, and I'm not sure she knew what she was getting herself into. She was a top pick for TeamDan, and did decently in the first HOH comp, but she didn't really know how to play the game of Big Brother. She kept quiet from the start, which actually contributed to her spot on the block. She was an easy week one target as the girl that no one really knew. At the same time, she was Coach Dan's favorite, so when Brit/Janie got the idea of targeting the top Dan/Boogie players, Kara hit the block over Danielle.
Kara's social game and strategy was practically non-existent. She interacted with the other HGs exactly how she would have dealt with them if she was in the real world. She struck up a true friendship with Wil and thought that would mean she had his vote, and in many BB cases, she would have been right. The fact that she didn't have his vote was a lot more about Wil's gameplay than Kara's. She tried to follow Dan's strategy tips, but the fact is that he was trying to tell her how to be him, and she just couldn't do it. And the more he went around and campaigned on her behalf, the more she looked like an excellent target as a means to take players off of Dan's team. We didn't get to see enough of Kara in comps to really say how she would have done. She didn't do too well in the one POV she played in, but that could have been in part because at the time she felt pretty safe, and not being a BB expert she didn't realize that no one is ever 100% safe on the block.
From an entertainment perspective, Kara didn't bring much to the feeds. Sure, she was nice to look at, but that was about it. And for a screencapper like me, she was a bit of a challenge just because she blinked like crazy and it was nearly impossible to get a shot of her with her eyes open. And despite being a former Playmate of the Year, she didn't play up that role. BB probably expected at least a couple weeks of her lounging around providing bikini shots for the feeders and viewers who like that sort of thing. But she didn't even tell many of the HGs that she was a Bunny, and most were surprised when it did come out. And she never brought much drama. Even when she was unhappy, she played things pretty cool. She got upset a few times, but she just cried softly, never threw a fit or raised her voice, or really did anything to fight to stay in the game. Even if she'd survived the first week, she probably would have been gone sooner rather than later.
At the end of the day, Kara was just a nice girl. There was no reason for us out here to want her gone, but there also wasn't a strong reason for her to stay. Most of the feeders who wanted to see Frank kicked over Kara were thinking more of the coaches. All the Dan fans hated to see him dropped to only one player. Kara herself did just fine on the like-ability scale, but otherwise she wasn't the kind of HG to get excited about.
Willie
HOH: 1 |
POV: 0 |
Nominated: 0 |
Survived Eviction: 0 |
Willie will certainly be one of the more memorable HGs of BB14, thanks to his expulsion. He's going down in BB history as the first HG to be ejected for actually assaulting a fellow HG. While that certainly created drama, the fact is that it's not the sort of drama we really want to see. We're here for entertainment, and though we want a certain amount of reality in our reality TV, we don't want to see violence and true nastiness. When it comes to my assessment of Willie, I try to look at him as I would any other player, and not just judge him on that one act that got him booted. But we can't ignore that he did, in fact, get booted.
When it comes to gameplay, Willie didn't really get to do much. He was crowned the first HOH, but that was a gift from Britney, not so much something he had personally earned. He did play a part in his team's victory, and he gets credit for that, but Shane and JoJo get equal credit. We also have to acknowledge that Brit picked Willie as the first HOH because she thought he'd be a huge target. That was probably poor strategy on Britney's part, but it's not Willie's fault. If he was destined to be a target, making him HOH was just going to make it worse. It might have been better for Willie if Britney had chosen the more even-tempered Shane as the first HOH and left Willie down among the HGs. Surely she would have been able to trust that Shane wouldn't nominate Willie, and he could have spent the extra long first week getting in good with everyone else and not risked a fall from the arrogance of an HOH week. Regardless, once he had the HOH, it's all about what he did with it. The strategy of nom'ing the top player from each of two other teams was a decent one, though it wasn't really Willie's strategy, it was Janelle's. Willie's big problem was that he made an early deal with Frank but then later let paranoia get to him and turned on his ally. If Frank had been the target from the beginning, Kara would have been an easy save and the whole game would have been different. But by the time Willie went off on Frank in the famous Froot Loops blow-out, he just looked like, well, a Froot Loop.
In terms of entertainment and the like, Willie had a lot of potential. He certainly wasn't going to sit back and be quiet about anything. He could be definitely get the livefeeders laughing, sometimes with him and sometimes at him. Had he not turned into a raging psycho, there was a huge potential for a very entertaining Ashley and Willie show. And even outside of the Incident, he brought the drama. He wasn't afraid to confront anyone over anything, whether it made sense or not. And that gives us both drama and entertainment.
At the end of the day, we have to give Willie low scores all around. He committed a suicidal game move that wasn't even based on bad strategy or gameplay, just poor judgement as a human being. Ironically, he showed a lot of potential, but did himself in with one headbutt. And, I didn't realize until I was putting this section together that he pretty much never took off his hat.
JoJo
HOH: 0 |
POV: 0 |
Nominated: 1 |
Survived Eviction: 0 |
JoJo would like to think she was a victim of circumstance and got bounced from BB all due to Willie's bad behavior, but the truth is she wouldn't have lasted long regardless. She came in with a love-me-or-hate-me-I-don't-give-a-crap attitude, that could have served her well, except that she told everyone that was her attitude. Just like explaining a joke or telling people how smart you are, if you have to spell it out, it's not working.
It's hard to judge JoJo's comp gameplay since she barely played in any comps. Just like Kara, she had a decent showing the the HOH comp, and played in one POV with her BB life on the line, but couldn't pull out a win. JoJo's strategy was to team up with the strong guys and ride with them to the end. This might have worked pretty well for her for a while if Willie hadn't lost it. If Willie hadn't flipped out at Frank in the first place, all of TeamBritney could have gone into Week 2 in good shape. Even after the flip-out, JoJo would have been pretty safe behind both Shane and Willie. The problem for her would have been that in BB the guys always screw over the girls in the end, and she wasn't even a good 2nd place option, so she would have been dropped fairly early on.
I do have to give JoJo major entertainment points. Her accent and Jersey Shore demeanor alone were worth something, and added to things like making fun of Danielle's accent, it was great. JoJo talked trash about just about everyone and that led to some humour too. She always talked, never listened, so it wasn't uncommon for her to be trashing one HG to another who not 10 minutes earlier was the topic of her derision themselves. But nothing tops the most entertaining eviction vote barter we've ever seen: swapping cigarettes for votes. Not only was that crazy, it actually led to a tiny bit of drama. JoJo was done-for anyway, and the cigs were going to get her nowhere, yet by packing them away she got Joe on a tear. It didn't last long, but it was good feeds all the same.
At the end of the day JoJo came in and played her role and left when we were over it, which was always going to be pretty damn soon. She was a walking stereotype and Willie-gate only made things worse for her. As the loud, over the top, love me or hate me type, being teamed up with the guy who got booted for fighting just amped up the negatives. She didn't get to play much game, but it really didn't matter. And she was fun while she lasted, but just while she lasted. We didn't really miss her when she was gone.
Janelle
HOH: 0 |
POV: 0 |
Nominated: 1 |
Survived Eviction: 0 |
Coaches Comp: 2 |
Janelle has always been a favorite here at myBBPOV. Like many Janie fans we were hoping third time would be the charm for her. But in the end the coaches twist didn't really allow her to play to her strengths, and when she was thrown in the game she became a big target in a way that didn't allow her a chance to defend herself. Janelle has always been more the Energizer Competitor than the strong social player. Her way of playing also didn't really lend itself to coaching others. She could tell her players that they needed to win comps, and even give them strategy tips for winning different types of comps. But since no one knows in advance what each comp will be, it's hard, especially early on, to prepare for the right thing. It also seemed like for whatever reason, her players didn't want to listen to her. She told them all that Frank was a huge threat and they needed to vote him out week 1, but they all blew her off. When she would try to get them to Jedi Drill, they often looked at her like she was crazy. And in the one area where she could use her strength, the coaches comps, her efforts often went unappreciated. When she won safety for Wil in a week where he was a sure nom, instead of being grateful, he took it as an insult and said he felt like she was implying that he couldn't win POV or sway votes.
When it came to competition gameplay I think Janelle did as well as she could have. After all, she did win 2 of the 3 coaches comps. The one HOH she played in, the endurance comp, she probably didn't think it would have been smart to win, though she might have thought to make a safety deal, no matter how little it would really be worth. Getting backdoored was a little insulting to her status as a comp killer, but it was the best way to attack her. And her social game actually wasn't as bad as the other HGs wanted to make it out. For whatever reason they decided she was playing dirty when really she was just playing. She probably should have been more careful about not seeming to disappear off the face of the earth each week after the POV meeting, though I'm not sure there's anything she could have done better. The problem is that perception is reality in BB, and once people decided to hate her they were going to hate her. If she didn't talk to them they called her aloof, and if she did they called her fake and an ass-kisser.
Janelle didn't bring quite the drama and entertainment to the feeds that she did her first two turns in the BB house. A lot of that may well be that she was older and wiser, and just more settled in life with her husband and baby. For the same reasons she might not have felt quite the passion for the game that she once did. Not that she wasn't still one of the most fun to watch. There was always something intangible about Janelle that made her fun to have around and it was there again. Janelle also shows us that BB is, in fact, a team sport. In her previous 2 seasons she had others to play with, play off of, and play against. This time around no one wanted to truly team up with her, so she didn't have the partners for the witty banter, or the support when she needed votes. It was truly foolish of them not to team up with her, as she would have been both a fantastic ally and a bigger target than most going forward. As far as those against her, Danielle certainly played the mean-girl role, supported at times by Britney, but never directly to Janelle, so we didn't get the drama that could have come out of it. And Boogie had a personal vendetta and took his shot to get her back-doored and out before she had a chance to fight. Might have been the best move for him, but it was the worst for us. To have had that battle go on for even a couple more weeks would have made BB14 better.
At the end of the day, Janelle is still one of the greatest BB players of all time. She's great at the game, charming to the fans, and fun in the house. On all the scales we use here at myBBPOV, Janie gets top marks.
Wil
HOH: 0 |
POV: 0 |
Nominated: 1 |
Survived Eviction: 0 |
From the very beginning, I didn't know quite what to make of Wil. Obviously he was there to play the stereotypical gay guy role and sometimes it seemed like that was all there was to him. But there were other times when he seemed to really want to play the game. Wil's problem, like many of them this season was that he wasn't familiar enough with BB to be able to figure out how to best play the game. He was on Team Janelle, and anyone who knows BB history would be able to tell you that Janelle is all about 2 things: winning comps, and staying true to her alliances. Yet every time Janelle tried to get Wil to Jedi Drill he treated her like she was just screwing with him and didn't take it seriously. And when the coaches came into the game, rather than joining up with Janie, he quickly turned on her. He also took her saving him with the Coaches Key as an insult, rather than the show of loyalty that it was.
It wasn't always clear what Wil's strategy was. I think he wanted to win comps, he just didn't have the skill to do it. He had all the potential, but didn't put it together. He was physically strong and fit enough to keep up with the likes of Shane and Frank, but couldn't add the BB strategy aspect. One of Frank's huge advantages was his BB knowledge and understanding how different comps worked in advance. Again this was wear Wil could have learned from Janelle, but he never took that opportunity. I also think that Wil really wanted to build a strong alliance somewhere, but again, he didn't know where to start. He had a great option in TeamJanie, but threw that away. He then tried to rally the leftovers when it was obvious that there were powerhouse alliances, and what he had was Ashley and Jenn, with a fake deal of Joe on the side. I do thank him for the name Team Tits for the Ashley/Jenn/Wil alliance just because it lent perfectly to my calling them Team Twits. But even with forming that alliance, he accomplished nothing. He basically teamed up with 2 people who were already with him. What he needed at that point in the game was to take the team he already had and make it stronger by bringing in someone else.
I do have to say, when it came to drama and entertainment, Wil brought it pretty much all day long. He was always one of the first with a witty, snappy comment. His DRs were good, and even when they were staged, they were well staged so they were funny. And he held on to the same humour outside the DR. And he didn't go in for the personal attacks (or at least if he did, I have to admit I didn't notice, so it must have been funny and not too personal). His straight-man act was just too good, and proof of how entertaining Wil truly was. It seemed so put on, but that was only because we'd seen what we assume was the real Wil. The fact is if he came in the house and acted like "Craig" from the start no one would think it was an act (and ironically if he'd then come out as Wil, it would probably have been taken as "offensive"). Wil was just a true character, and a tremendous amount of fun to watch.
At the end of the day, Wil wasn't the best BB player in the world, but he did make up for it by scoring high on the non-game scales. He was fun to have around, but he was a perfect mid-season out. He was a little too good to keep around as a floater to be cannon fodder for the big-guns later, but not good enough for anyone to truly make a run with him. But, hair twirling aside, he was fun to watch, and that really does matter as much as anything.
Mike Boogie
HOH: 0 |
POV: 0 |
Nominated: 1 |
Survived Eviction: 0 |
Coaches Comp: 1 |
I've never been a fan of Mike Boogie. As part of Chilltown, he was sort of like the annoying drunk uncle that we put up with because we wanted to hang out with super-cool Dr. Will. Boogie won BB AllStars mostly because Will was right there having a strategy for him. Every time I heard Boogie complain about how much harder he was having to work in BB14, I just thought "well, we all know why that is." It was also pretty clear to me that of all the coaches Boogie was the one who was the most interested in being a true coach and wasn't just there to get himself into the game. Since Boogie has always lived in Will's shadow the only way for him to get out of it was to do what Will had already done and help someone else to win the game. He probably could have accomplished the same thing by winning a second time, without Will, but I think even he knew he could never do that. I do think Boogie was genuinely surprised at the untwisting of the coaches twist and really would have preferred to just stay on the sidelines and not have to play his own game.
It's a little hard to judge Boogie on his gameplay as a player because he never really played for himself. Instead we really do have to look at his strategy as a coach. In Frank and Ian I think he really was trying to pick the New Chilltown. He saw Frank as a version of himself, and figured Ian's brains could make him a mini-Will. I'm not really sure why Boogie picked Jenn. He honestly may have seen her as the disposable alliance member. They would use her for votes and so forth for the first few weeks and then cut her as soon as they needed to. While all the picks were decent, Boogie made his grave tactical error in that he only really worked with his #1 draft pick, Frank. Ian knew he wasn't the favorite son and that's what made him so susceptible to going off with another group. And, let's be honest, Ian's switching sides was what got Boogie out the door. If the Quack Pack hadn't had Ian in their pocket, they never would have had what they needed to backstab the Silent Six alliance.
Boogie's other mistake was not teaming up with the coaches. For as much as he hated Janelle, if he'd agreed to that deal, he would have gone much farther in the game. Sure, he would have had to sacrifice Frank, but he would have been in the game himself. It goes back to the question of whether his strategy was to play for himself, or to get Frank to the end. If, even after the reset, he was still more committed to getting Frank further, then it wasn't a bad move. But for his personal game, it was a mistake.
My personal dislike of historical Boogie made it hard for me to see any value in his social game. But the truth is that if I just viewed him as he was this year, he really wasn't so bad. I started noticing early on that Boogie was not as nasty as he was in his previous seasons. He seemed to have matured beyond the personal attacks and the super-crude language. I really think that becoming a father really did help him to grow up at least a little bit. But once he was in the game as a player, and especially when he was going to go, he reverted a bit to the same old Boogie. In addition to the personal attacks, Grandpa Boogie spent a lot of time sleeping, and letting others do work for him, which certainly doesn't increase his drama and entertainment scores. On the plus side, he got up early and talked to the livefeeders, and anyone who does that gets a few points from my BB POV.
At the end of the day, Boogie played a decent coach game, but wasn't able to turn it into a strong individual game. He does get some game credit for getting Frank into a good position, even while he was on his way out the door. He was less offensive than BB2/7 Boogie, but still not exactly a joy to have on our feeds. While he doesn't score real high on our scales, of all the returning players he actually does get the Most Improved award. Though that's in part because he had nowhere to go but up.
Ashley
HOH: 0 |
POV: 0 |
Nominated: 2 |
Survived Eviction: 0 |
I could never quite decide what to make of Ashley. Just when I would start to think that no one could possibly be that much of an airhead and the whole thing had to be an act, she would do something to convince me that no, she really was clueless. And then when I would start to think that she was just a silly girl who got lost on her way to audition for the Bachelor, she would pull out something that would make me believe she actually was paying attention and she did have some sort of game plan in her back pocket. For some reason she often ended up the swing vote on eviction night, and she certainly kept both them and us guessing right up until the last minute. No one could ever figure out what she was going to do, and I think that was in large part because she herself had no idea. She said herself from the beginning that her plan was to go in and play the floater role and stay below the radar so she could coast for a while, letting the big targets take each other out. She also definitely wanted to play up the "dumb blonde" reputation. But the best acting comes from a place of truth and a think a lot of her hippie-dippy dream board nonsense wasn't complete nonsense. And the problem with her floater strategy is that the way the early weeks of BB14 played out, it wasn't the Big Threats going out, it actually was the floaters. But for someone who claimed to have a plan, Ashley sure made some really bad strategic choices. She aligned herself with Froogie, just as they were about to meet their demise. If she'd hooked up with Frank (gamewise) from the very beginning, she could have maybe pulled of something a little bit better. As it was, she just became the fall girl for comp-master Frank, and all it got her was a one-way ticket to the first seat in the jury box.
You can't say Ashley wasn't entertaining. She played so dumb it was hysterical. And she was a good partner for the Wil show, and a perfect Team Twits member. Her showmance/flirtation with Ian started out super-cute, but it was so insincere that it didn't play well with livefeeders. I imagine the TVOVs loved it, but for those who saw the full story, it was clear that it was all for TV time. And that's not what we want to see. We want at least a bit of reality in our reality TV. And when Ashley then turned around and starting showmancing with Frank, she just looked like a horrible person for stringing Ian along. And on top of that, with Frank's association with Boogie, it was all too reminiscent of how Boogie played Erika in BB7 and if it hadn't ended in such a sudden eviction, it would have been deep in 'homance territory before long. In fact it was pretty 'homancey right from the moment he suggested they just dive straight from gametalk into making out on the couch.
At the end of the day, Ashley doesn't score too well with us. Her gameplay was minimal, her strategy was bizarre, and the moves she tried to make went horribly wrong. I do have to give her credit that even with her back injury (which some people thought was act, but I'm pretty sure was legit) she was always pretty upbeat and happy, and that's worth something. She gets a few points for the amusement factor, even going out on a great note with a completely incoherent eviction/save-me speech where she forgot to ask them to save her. She gave us some good TV, and a few laughs, but that was about it. She made the jury by the skin of her teeth, and she won't be completely forgotten from the season for that reason, but she certainly wasn't the most memorable HG.
Britney
HOH: 0 |
POV: 0 |
Nominated: 1 |
Survived Eviction: 0 |
I've always had slightly mixed feelings about Britney. On the one hand, she's a great competitor, and a lot of fun to watch. She can be extremely entertaining, with her quick wit and slightly sarcastic sense of humour. Even her Catty Girl act is usually in good fun. Every once in a while she does take the nastiness too far and goes from funny to mean, but for the most part it's good. in BB12 she played a pretty good game, though in the end she couldn't pull off crucial comp wins when she needed to. But most importantly, she got played dirty by the Brigade. Of everyone that got done wrong, she got the worst of it, being dragged to the Final 4 when she had no shot of breaking through. And then to add insult to injury, the way they told her about it was downright cruel. So of all the coaches she was the one who most needed redemption and a second legitimate shot at playing the game.
Being the only coach who wasn't a former AllStar and/or winner, Britney definitely came in as sort of the kid sister of the coaches. In addition, the fact that she wasn't a particularly strategic player herself, she wasn't necessarily built to lead others. On top of that, the Willie incident pretty much decimated her team. Though she was convinced already that the coaches would be going into the game, after Willie and JoJo were gone, Britney really needed to play for herself. Once she was in the game, she actually did pretty well from a strategic standpoint. Joining up with the Quack Pack worked well for Brit. This time around, rather than being the victim of a large alliance, she was right at the center of one. She already had this odd alliance with Shane where they both stuck with each other, but really, they were each ready to drop the other as soon as they could. But by putting themselves in with others, they were actually even more likely to stick together. Britney then worked hard to develop a close relationship with Danielle, and another with Ian. She also had the "coaches bond" with Dan, though that probably wasn't ever going to get her much. Britney worked really hard this year to not make the same mistakes all over again, and she didn't. From within the QP, Brit was in the best position, and Dan was in the worst. So when it was clear they were going to lose someone Britney thought she was golden, and the fact was she wasn't too broken up to see Dan go. The ironic thing is that that's exactly what did her in. Once Ian had the PB veto, if Britney had managed to win the regular POV and they'd saved both nominees, the QP would have stayed intact. But once Britney didn't win the POV, whether she threw it or simply lost it, Dan was left with no choice but to save himself. And his only way out was through Britney.
This time around Britney was a bit lower on the entertainment scale than she was in BB12. She was much more focused on the game, and though that was better for her, it wasn't necessarily great for us. Nevertheless, Funny Britney came out to play often enough that I give her strong scores in the entertainment arena. And though I do deduct points for the personal or particularly bile-filled comments, on balance Britney was definitely more funny/bitchy than nasty/bitchy. I also give her points for putting up with Danielle's drama, and especially for contributing to it when she could. Brit is great with the cutting comments that could set Danielle off, yet subtle enough that she stayed off Danielle's hate radar.
At the end of the day, Britney played a good game, and lost only because she was a casualty of what is quite possibly the best move ever in BB history. She gets decent scores for game play, entertainment and drama. All around she was fun to have back.
Frank
HOH: 3 |
POV: 3 |
Nominated: 6 |
Survived Eviction: 2** |
Frank certainly ended up being one of the more memorable characters of BB14, and that's saying something, because this was not a dull cast. Even though the week 1 eviction is always the one most quickly forgotten, the survivor of it usually makes it pretty far. If you get put on the block week 1 it's usually because you've either pissed people off, are seen as a big threat, or are an easy target. Kara was certainly the easy target, and Frank started out as the Big Threat. But despite being the threat Frank actually had a deal with the HOH, who wanted to keep him around specifically because he would make a great ongoing target. Excellent plan, and had Willie not descended into the depths of paranoia and HOH-itis, the two of them would have made an interesting duo going forward. But Willie went crazy and now we'll never know.
From day 1 Frank proved he was a competitor to be reckoned with. He was a top contender in the Teddy Bear comp (and that was actually the stated reason he went on the block), and fought hard in the veto. And after surviving that first eviction, it seemed to be all about the comp wins. As he would eventually start pointing out, he was either HOH or on the block just about the entire game. But to prove that there was more to Frank than comp wins, you just have to look at his stats. Not only did he save himself twice with the veto, but he also managed to survive eviction twice without it. It takes some serious work to be that fierce at competitions and still convince the other HGs to let a chance to kick him slide by. To be fair, the first week wasn't really about saving him as much as it was about keeping someone who would fight against Willie. And the only reason he survived the block the second time was because he was up against Janelle. Getting Janie backdoored was really thanks to Boogie, with the assists from Britney and Dan, but you've got to give Frank some credit for sliding by.
At the same time, I can't think about Frank without thinking of all the strategic mistakes he made. Frank wanted to be not only a competition beast, but also play a stellar social game, and he seemed to have all the tools to do it. Yet somehow his social moves never seemed to work out. A large part of his problem was most definitely his association with Boogie. On the one hand it was a great alliance, probably the most solid in the entire game. You also could hardly fault Frank for sticking with Boogie; Boogie clearly had his back. But everyone knew what Boogie was all about and no one wanted to see the two of them stick together. They were clearly going to be targeted as a pair, and given the choice the rest of them would have kicked Frank over Boogie. Once his mentor was gone, Frank did make a valiant effort to stick with former teamies Jenn and Ian. If Ian hadn't already wandered off with the Duckies that might have worked, but the fact is he had. And the reason Ian left Team Boogie was precisely because it really was a 2 man team and Jenn and Ian were afterthoughts.
But of course Frank's ultimate downfall was succumbing to Dan's Mist. Again, it's hard to exactly fault Frank for what he did. When Dan presented him with the information about Britney and Ian, it almost seemed like the deal of a BB lifetime. Here Frank finally understands that Ian has been playing him for weeks, and Frank has a shot to severely wound Ian. It certainly would have been even more of a power move to get rid of Dan, but teaming up with him was too big a temptation to pass up. And the fact is that if Ian had not won the next HOH things would have gone quite differently for Frank.
Frank really rounded out his game with his drama and entertainment skills. No one will ever forget the Froot Loops and salmon fight, or the screaming carrot. Frank never really stirred up drama, but when it landed on his doorstep he handled it the way a good hamster should. He responded with passion, but never (or at least rarely) with such nastiness that it overrode the fun factor. He also responded, rather than diffuse, which gave us the drama. But he cooled off quickly enough that things were never awkward even after a big fight. I give him major entertainment points for wearing his costumes without unreasonable complaint. He did complain about the Spirit-tard, and never quite fully had it on, but that was more a failure on the part of the BB wardrobe team that on his part. And he proved that by taking the carrot suit without a word of negativity.
At the end of the day, Frank was a great all around HG. He was a fierce competitor, saving himself week after week when he should have been doomed. There was lots of talk out here of producer manipulation on his behalf, and it definitely was odd that he was saved by a twist the one week he was sure to go early on. Whether there was something fishy there or not, it was hardly his fault. Frank's strategy was decent, though it was destroyed by his ego, since he never seemed to consider that anyone could be pulling a fast one on him until it was too late. And though Boogie was the least likeable thing about him, he did manage not to get pulled down to that level, and at times even seemed to pull Boogie up a bit. He gave us drama and entertainment, and overall scores high on our scales.
Joe
HOH: 0 |
POV: 0 |
Nominated: 5 |
Survived Eviction: 3** |
Joe will always be remembered for a number of things: his cooking, his BOOMING VOICE, his non-handwashing, his tall tales, trying to trade a vote for cigarettes, and whatever that thing on his chin was. You will note that none of that has even a little bit to do with Big Brother, but yet, he was a great part of the season. Joe was a late addition to the cast, apparently, and he was really a lot more interested in getting onto a reality show that actually had something officially to do with cooking. Yet, he took what he was given and he worked with it. He learned just enough about BB to be able to play the game and get far enough to be remembered, and he took his shot to get noticed for his reality cooking potential. I hardly think one reality show casts off another (unless they're actually sort of related like BB and Amazing Race) so I don't think Joe's Slop creation are going to get him on Top Chef or anything, but at least he's got material to market now. But as BB viewers we hardly care about that. Nevertheless, Joe's cooking was a storyline all it's own on the feeds this year. Sloppers have never had it so easy, not to mention the fact that he made dinner for the rest of them nearly every night. Sure, they complained non-stop about the quality and his not washing his hands, but they kept eating.
As far as his actual BB game, Joe really didn't do all that bad. Sure he never won a competition, but that's not actually that uncommon, especially in the "older" HGs. And at least he had a sense of humour about it, especially by the end, labeling himself the oh-fer (as in, being 0 for 10 comps or whatever). When it came to strategy, Joe desperately wanted to have one. At the reset he jumped into the spotlight by trying to lead the anti-coaches alliance. But then once Janelle got backdoored, he showed that getting the coaches out wasn't really his true goal and he legitimately tried to save the JanieDoll. Of course being the one against the house didn't really help him at that point and from then on out he joined up in probably more fake alliances than anyone has ever heard of in the history of BB. Sad thing was he had no idea that none of them were for real. I always got a kick out him whenever he'd mention the "headhunters" around Britney. Like Brit, I had totally forgotten that Joe was under the impression he was in an alliance with Dan/Danielle/Shane/Britney. Then there was the one that he thought he had with Shane/Danielle/Ian to go against Dan. Unfortunately for Joe, the other 3 were still in an alliance with Dan, so they were hardly going to make one against him. And of course there was Joe's "final 2" deal with Ian, which was just an attempt by the QP to cover their bases in case Joe ever stumbled into an HOH. Oh, and I almost forgot, Joe also thought he had a "guys alliance" with Frank and Shane.
Yet by far my favorite Joe alliance was the one I named for him with Shane, the Comic Relief Alliance. The deal between Shane and Joe was probably the most legit deal that Joe was involved in. Joe was certainly going to be loyal to Shane, and even though Shane had Danielle and the Quack Pack all lined up ahead of Joe, Shane was such a terrible strategist that I don't think it really occurred to him that he would have to shank Joe at some point. The two of them would sit down and attempt to have serious study sessions, but since neither had half a clue what they were doing it was just pure comedy. It got to the point toward the end of Joe's time in the house where everyone else had become so nasty and bitter that I'd actually jump at the chance to listen in on CRA convos. Though nothing these two decided was going to have any effect on the game, it was just so damn entertaining to listen to them. Also, with Joe's voice, even his attempts at stealth whispering were perfectly audible.
Joe also provided great entertainment in the form of his outrageous storytelling. Everything from picking the name for I Can't Believe It's Not Butter to tales about his family were just fantastic. So many of his tales were so ridiculous that it got to the point where no one (out here or in there) would believe him even if he was telling the truth. Turns out that black olives really are dyed with squid ink, who knew? More importantly, Joe was the only one to recognize that Dan's performance at the funeral was pure bull sugar-pops and completely a game move. But no one would listen to a word Joe had to say so he walked out the door leaving the rest of them in a haze of Dan's Mist.
At the end of the day, Joe certainly wasn't the best gamer of the season. He couldn't seem to win a comp to save his life, or find a real alliance to take him in. For a while he was holding on to the prime floater spot, and looking good for everyone to want to take him to F3 or even F2 because anyone could beat him. The problem with that spot is that if someone has to be sacrificed the floater is the first to go. Joe's other big problem was that he was the only one in the house who was completely immune to Dan's Mist, and therefore Dan needed him gone. So even though Joe doesn't get gameplay points in the traditional sense, I give him some for having a clue in a season where most of the HGs were pure puppets. He also gets major points for entertainment. I wouldn't have pegged him as all that amusing when the season started, but the feeds were way less fun after he was gone.
Jenn
HOH: 0 |
POV: 1 |
Nominated: 3 |
Survived Eviction: 1 |
At the beginning, I didn't figure Jenn was going to last all that long in BB. Rumour has it that she was there to somehow promote herself/her band, and that she possibly even got a bit more money out of BB than the typical HG stipend. I have no idea if that's really true or not, but it seems a little silly. First place, why would BB pay someone extra to promote themselves? It doesn't get CBS anything (I also heard that Kara might have gotten extra, and that's a little more believable since some people probably would tune in just to see a Playboy Playmate, but whatever). And just like Joe, the few seconds of airtime she might have gotten aren't likely to really make any major career doors open for her. But unlike Joe, Jenn couldn't really do anything to promote herself on BB. She's not allowed to sing, and even though there wouldn't be a copyright issue with her singing her own original material, it would just be odd to let her perform when the others get scolded for it. Regardless, Jenn ended up lasting a lot longer than I expected. She really was the expendable player on Team Boogie, but when push came to shove, she stayed loyal to her team. Getting nom'ed when she did the first time actually worked out to her advantage. Even though she was loyal to Team Boogie, by ending up on the block against her former coach, it put her enough against him that when the rest of the house was going after Frank and his allies the next week they didn't really think of Jenn as his top ally.
Jenn wanted to believe she had some great strategy, but the truth is she was really just a big time pawn in Dan's chess game. She won the veto after a DQ, and had Frank not spoken to Britney, he would have surely taken that pretty little necklace. Jenn didn't have to win it, and while I can't blame her for taking it rather than letting Britney get it, Jenn didn't really make her move for strategic reasons. She did it mostly because she was tired of people thinking she was useless. And the most strategic reason to take the POV was to keep Frank's nominations in place and hold on to his loyalty. Yet when Frank came to her and asked her to use the veto to save Dan, Jenn barely blinked. Of course she went on to see this as her Big Move, saving Dan with the veto. It certainly was a big move, but it was in no way hers. She was used by Dan and Frank, and it really didn't help Jenn in any way. Well, it helped Jenn the next week when Dan was able to "repay" her veto with his own, but a.) if she hadn't vetoed him she never would have needed the help in the first place, and b.) she wasn't going home anyway even is she stayed on the block.
Jenn also tried desperately to make good alliances. She was truly on board with Team Boogie and it wasn't her fault that Boogie's not a team player, just a loyal to one person to a fault player. And then with Team Twits, she was completely on board with that deal. Too bad the rest of the team got voted out pretty much as soon as the alliance was formed. Her attempts to make a Grrl Power alliance were also for real, but she got to the rest of them too late and they were already teamed up with others. Then finally, Jenn was completely on board with the deals with Frank/Dan/Danielle and Dan/Danielle, mostly because she really did have a legitimate deal with Danielle. Again, unfortunately for her, she was about the fifth person Danielle made an F2 deal with, so it wasn't going to do get her very far.
When it came to entertainment and drama, Jenn really didn't bring all that much. Sure, she contributed to the drama by vetoing Dan. It couldn't have happened without her, but she really wasn't the impetus for making it happen in any way, shape or form. She did get a couple of drama points for the way she flipped out when she was on the block against Boogie and for the fight she got into with Ashley over those votes. But other than that, Jenn stayed completely out of the drama, just chilling by the hot tub most of the time.
At the end of the day, Jenn doesn't really do all that well on any of our scales. She wasn't much of a gameplayer, either comp-wise or strategy-wise. She didn't bring the drama or the entertainment. In fact she was practically the invisible houseguest for much of the first half of the game. All that being said, she also wasn't annoying or anything and she was a different type of person from the typical BB HG. Jenn, as a person, definitely brought a dimension to the show (well, more accurately to the feeds, since she was barely on the CBS show) that was interesting, and did a good job at breaking down the stereotypes that a lot of the rest of them held. And she did it just by being herself.
Shane
HOH: 2 |
POV: 4 |
Nominated: 3 |
Survived Eviction: 0 |
Shane was another one I didn't expect to be long for the BB14 world. He came into the game, clearly intended to fill the beefcake role, and he did it well. But people like that usually get kicked fairly early on as the "big physical threat." Part of what helped Shane out was the fact that Frank was also seen as a physical threat, plus as a strategic threat, he was going to be targeted before Shane. Not to mention that the side going against Frank wanted to keep Shane around as a force to go against him. In addition, being right in a number of strong alliances, worked really well for Shane. Not only did have the F2/no-mance deal with Danielle, but he was right in the middle of the Sickening Six and the Duckie Alliance. But Shane's true value to from my BB POV came out of the one alliance he didn't realize he joined: the Comic Relief Alliance.
Shane knew absolutely nothing about Big Brother when he signed on. He literally got lost on his way to audition for the Bachelor. (Okay, not literally lost but he really did start out trying to get on dating shows and got recruited for BB.) He had never seen a single episode of the show before going into pre-season sequester, and even then he only watched partial seasons. He watched BB11 until Jeff got kicked, and BB12 until Dominic got kicked. And it never occurred to him to question why these people went when they did. He'd never seen the end games, so he had no idea what he was working toward. And even after he had teamed up with Ian, Encyclopedia BB, Shane didn't listen enough to learn what he didn't know about the game. He also wouldn't listen to Coach Britney when she tried to tell him what he was doing wrong, instead he planned to go against her and team up with Danielle even before the reset, for all the good that would have done him. In fact, the only person he really talked game with was Joe, his fellow CRA member. Though this was horrible strategy, it was great fun, and by the end of Shane's time on the feeds, he was simply Comic Relief Gold.
When it came to competitive gameplay, Shane certainly did well. He won every comp he could, and quite a few that he needed to win. But since he never had the strategy component, he didn't really know what to do with his wins. Both of his HOHs were controlled by others, and though the first one didn't result in an eviction because of the reset, he still had to live with all the consequences of the nominations, and they weren't even the noms he really wanted to make. He did a little better with his POVs, using 2 of them to save himself, and one to keep an ally's noms in place. One thing Shane never did learn was how, or when, to throw a comp. And that was part of what did him in in the end. Dan knew he couldn't count on Shane to throw things, or to lose them, so Shane had to go.
But any shortcomings that Shane had in the gameplay department were more than made up for in his entertainment value. His no-mance showmance with Danielle went from pathetic to hilarious, the more irritating and bunny-boiler-ish she became. His Comic Relief Alliance itself, not to mention his role as the Comic Relief in his other alliances made him worth keeping around. Walking around wearing the stuffed dog was just adorable. And finally, the way that he went out, though it wasn't his doing, was one of the entertainment highlights of the season.
At the end of the day, Shane does pretty well on our scales, especially considering he really shouldn't be playing BB at all when you look at him on paper. I went from thinking that BB should require them to pass a test on BB knowledge before letting them on the show, to seeing some real value in BB-morons like Shane. His comp play was quite respectable, and his strategy was so bad that it was funny. He didn't bring much in the drama department, staying out of most of the fights, and never being in the loop when big game moves were going down, though he did play his role when he found himself in the midst of drama (or the Mist of drama). But no matter what he makes up for it all with his entertainment value. And though it was good to have him leave when he did, and we wouldn't need to see him play BB ever again, he was a great part of BB14.
Danielle
HOH: 2 |
POV: 2 |
Nominated: 4*** |
Survived Eviction: 5* |
In order to do my final assessment of Danielle, I had to go back to the beginning and read over my early blog entries, to try to remember how I felt about her at the start. I never did like her job-lie. I don't generally like when HGs come in and lie about something for no particular reason. Danielle thought she had a reason for lying about her job, but in truth (no pun intended) she didn't. She got a lot of flak for what she did, with people saying that she was insulting the intelligence of kindergarten teachers. In fact, what she said was that she wanted to be seen as a naive girl who spent all day playing with little kids. She did go on to say that if people knew she was a nurse and "working on 3 degrees" they would think she was really smart. What she said was insulting to teachers; there's nothing saying a teacher is naive, and kindergarten teachers are more than just glorified babysitters: they do a lot more than "play" with kids. But Danielle's real problem is that she thinks too highly of herself. If she'd walked into the BB house and said she was a nurse, I don't think anyone would have concluded that she was too brilliant to stay in the game, but that would have just offended her. But the job lie aside, at the beginning Danielle wasn't overly offensive. I did feel like she was incredibly needy, and I got the impression she was just fine with Kara getting kicked week 1 so that Danielle didn't have any competition for Dan's attention. Early on I also picked up on Danielle having a life-threatening crush on Dan. The fact that he is married, not only doesn't deter her, it actually adds to the attraction. For someone as needy and afraid of rejection as Danielle, unavailable men are the best kind. Nothing will ever come of it, but it's not because he rejected her, it's just because it's not an option. And because most men are completely clueless about this kind of pathology they'll not even notice the inappropriate behavior, much less say anything about it. And if another woman says something, she can just respond with "I don't know what you're talking about, we're just friends, he's married."
Moving on to Danielle's gameplay, I have to say, especially at the beginning, it was pretty good. She was well-matched with her coach and she actually listened to him. Whether it was strategy or not, getting down to being his only player by week 2 was good for her. Since their fates were tied together, Dan had every incentive to help her. He told her to throw all the comps early on, and even though she was a bit hesitant to do it, she followed his instructions. She also played a great social game, getting pretty much everyone in the house to like her. The few that didn't like her, she worked on getting out. And when it came time for her to start winning competitions, she was able to do it. Though I didn't personally like what she did to Janelle, it was a good game move for her. Janelle was going to be fierce competition for Danielle, and getting her out while saving Frank created an alliance with Froogie that kept her safe the next week. Danielle's game only really started to fall apart at the end when she was apparently simultaneously high on Dan's Mist, and overly loyal to Shane. If she had let Dan take out Shane during the double-eviction she would have proven her loyalty to Dan and saved herself the massive blindside later. It's hard to blame her for wanting to keep Shane, but the fact that she couldn't cut ties with Dan is what really did her in. Falling for Dan's Mist and using the POV on him was just plain stupid.
Danielle's entertainment and drama factors couldn't be higher, but that's not because she was trying to be entertaining. She really was the trainwreck of the season, which could have been just annoying and horrible, but for some reason was fascinating. The no-mance Showmance with Shane was so pathetic it was funny. They were like a couple of 7th graders, with him acting like he hadn't hit puberty yet and still thought girls were yucky, and her talking to her girlfriends about how it looked when he kissed her, and whether they thought he like-liked her. Everyone and their brother, in there and out here, could tell he just wasn't that in to her, but she just kept going back for more. And of course, there were her crazy health stories, and tragic life stories. I'm sure there was a grain of truth in most of what she said, but she made Joe's exaggerations look like CNN reporting. When it was convenient, she'd claim kidney issues, and proclaim that she would absolutely die if she drank dark liquids, but if she wanted a diet coke, she'd have one. 
She kept her breast implants secret, and then took what is probably a related cosmetic procedure and turned into a possible cancer. For me, she really crossed the line there. Not only is it a serious issue that has effected the lives of a lot of people, it was just such a ridiculous lie. I don't believe for a second that CBS would let someone come into the house if they had such a serious health issue. And even if you want to go with "it's just a possibility" anyone who would delay a diagnostic procedure to go on a reality show and literally risk their life would have to be insane. Danielle's stories about her family were equally crazy. One day her father was an abusive alcoholic, and the next he was her hero who carried her for miles with a broken back (her back being broken, not his) to save her from paralysis. I'm quite sure she does have legitimate "daddy issues" because no woman could end up like Danielle without them, but based on her other lies and exaggerations, I doubt her father was the ogre she made him out to be. And since at times she defined her mother as having been "abusive" for such sins as making her walk her little brother to school, she clearly doesn't know what the word means.
At the end of the day, Danielle gets seriously mixed reviews from mybbpov. Her gameplay started out great, but ended up with such huge mistakes it's hard to give her high marks. She was entertaining, but annoying at the same time. I do have to say, no matter how bad she got, I never put her on permanent mute, or ran from any feed that was on her. She actually did end up in the category of "love to hate." I really do try not to hate any of them, and for much of the season Danielle was just in that "oh sweetie" category of being super-pathetic. But her cancer lie put me over the edge, along with her talking smack about redheads (a personal issue for me). But now that it's all over I have to say that I truly do wish her well in real life. Danielle's probably going to have a hard time coming out of the isolation of the BB bubble and finding out all the comments that have been made about her, and all the unflattering screencaps that are out there, and hopefully she finds a healthy way to get past it. As far as BB14 is concerned, at the end of the day, Danielle brought a lot to the show and the livefeeds, and that's really all we can ask for.
Dan
HOH: 1 + Part 1 of Final HOH |
POV: 1 |
Nominated: 2 |
Survived Eviction: 1* |
Dan has always been one of my favorite BB players. He was so easy to root for in BB10 because he played such a good game, and kept things about as clean as could ever be expected. Dan followed one of my first rules for BB players: play your own game. Though I always said Dan was Dr. Will with a moral compass, Dan was never trying to be the next Dr. Will. He certainly admired Will's gameplay, learned from it, and emulated it where appropriate, but he added his own dimension to it. Dan also played an ethically above-board game, but was never moralistic or preachy about it. He wasn't above deception, but he kept it to a minimum. So I was excited to see him coming back this year as a coach. We knew he'd be great at coaching since it is his actual profession, plus he had demonstrated his skills during BB10. Early on when things didn't look so great for TeamDan, I wasn't worried. Things didn't look so great at the start of BB10, but he took what he had and worked with it, turning it into the first 7-0 win in BB history. This year, as the weeks moved on, it became clear that Dan's powers of persuasion had only grown over the years. When he managed, immediately after the reset, to keep Boogie off the block it was clear that Dan had complete control of Danielle. Even when she first started talking about backdooring Janelle, I was sure Dan would fix it. I still maintain that he could have fixed it, he just chose not to. And perhaps that was the best choice for Dan. He probably wasn't going to be able the manipulate Janelle the way he did the rest of them.
Dan's gameplay this year was near perfect. He threw comps with abandon at the beginning, and advised Danielle to do the same, to avoid looking like a competition threat. It worked so well that even though they all knew this had been part of his strategy in BB10, most of the believed that Dan just sucked at comps and couldn't win if he tried. But Dan was able to pull off a couple of wins, including the ulta-critical OTEV POV. By the end games, I do think Dan was relying too much on his social game, expecting people to throw comps rather than having to earn his wins. But one can hardly blame him for ending up there after such a successful Misting campaign up to that point. Because that is, of course, where Dan's true genius lies. His strategic game was beyond anything we have ever seen before. Week 1 he obviously would have preferred that Kara stay, but losing her wasn't terribly detrimental to his game. (In fact, if he'd had 2 players to worry about, it might have hurt his game a bit.) But from week 2 onwards just about every eviction was what Dan wanted, often as a direct consequence of his Misting. Dan was at the core of just about all the serious alliances in the game. And just when it seemed it had all caught up with him, and he lost the POV, he pulled out the Best.Move.Ever. Dan's Funeral was beyond amazing. Not only was it a brilliant strategic move and perfectly executed, but it worked! From that point on it became almost humourous how much Dan was owning them all, culminating in the way he convinced Danielle to basically hand him the POV to evict her own number one ally, Shane.
Dan was never known as one of the most entertaining HGs. When there's drama going on, he tends to duck into a bedroom and hide under a pillow. He's generally not emotional, so he doesn't set off sparks to cause his own drama. But this time around, Dan caused plenty of drama. He did let his emotions get the better of him once or twice, including the confrontation with Ian and other fights during the PB veto game. And of course his Big Moves caused plenty of drama, most of them including tears and/or "shocked face" moments from Danielle. We also got a share of entertainment out of Dan with the odd little things he would do, jabs he would take at Danielle, and odd quirks like still refusing to wash his swimsuit.
At the end of the day, Dan walks away from this season without the $500K, but with the respect of many in the BB-verse as one of the best to ever play the game. He lost to Ian because the jury voted personally, because he couldn't manage to get Danielle to the end beside him, and because he pulled one too many (or maybe several too many) "dirty" moves when people wanted to see him as a "clean" player. From my BB POV, all his "dirty" moves were just fine. As someone who appreciates semantics, I actually thought he was pretty careful not to be doing anything too dirty. For example, in the Bible swearing move that CBS so carefully edited to make it look like he was swearing to keep a F2 deal with Frank, he was actually swearing that what he was about to tell Frank (outing the QP and Ian's duplicity) was true, and it all was. Not to mention that at the time Dan made the F2 deal with Frank, he actually did mean it. The bottom line for me is that Dan played a great game, provided drama and entertainment, and at the end of the day made BB14 a fantastic season.
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Ian
HOH: 3 + Parts 2&3 of Final HOH |
POV: 1 + PB veto ball |
Nominated: 2 |
Survived Eviction: 1 |
Ian came into the game with two sort of big strikes against him. First, he was a super-fan with an incredible knowledge of the game which could make him seem a big threat, and second, as he himself said, he was such an odd duck that he'd be lucky not to be the first evicted. There's a good chance he would have been nominated against Kara week 1 had he not been saved by the Coaches Comp Key, and he probably would have gone over her her. Lucky for him, Boogie saw his potential and saved him. Because once he had a chance to let the rest of them show their own kind of crazy, his oddness seemed a little less odd. The SuperFan thing just made him incredibly endearing to us, though he wasn't as much of an expert as some people wanted to think. I'm pretty sure he wasn't actually a livefeeder, just a Showtime viewer. While that's better than being a CBS-only, it still makes one a TVOV and you clearly miss some insight into the HGs. There were a number of times when Ian would be going over past seasons and would comment on someone's motives or whatever and I'd think "that's not at all how that happened..." The other possibility is that he was just so young he didn't quite see the full picture. He talked a lot about BB5, and I'd have to constantly remind myself that he was only 14 years old when he was watching it, so of course he had an immature viewpoint. But the upside of Ian's youth was that he was just so happy to be a part of BB. He wanted to win almost entirely for the distinction of it, rather than it being all about the money. Ian enjoyed the game to the fullest possible extent. He was fine with being a Have Nottie for weeks on end, and never once complained about it. Sure there was strategy to that move, but still, he did it. He was truly grateful to be handed just a few thousand dollars, and when given the choice between a dog suit and a vacation, it was no contest for him. No one else would have made nearly such a cute puppy.
Ian's gameplay was pretty darn good. He threw comps when he needed to, and won them when he had to. He made deals at the right times, and most importantly he won the final comps and took control of his own destiny. He made great alliances, both real and not so real. We know he came into the game with the 5 person alliance idea already set up. The argument about who formed the Quack Pack will probably continue in the same vein as the one about who formed the Brigade. Ian definitely had the idea coming in, but the actual formation was orchestrated by Dan and Britney. Regardless of who started though, Ian was the one who kept it together. Everyone else was ready to jump ship at the first opportunity (including Britney who was ready to ditch Dan before his body was even cold for his funeral) and they only stuck with it because Ian kept winning stuff. All the major QP shankings were committed by Dan, though Ian definitely benefited from most of them. Ian would have been gone at F4 if Dan hadn't Misted Danielle and kicked Shane. But part of the reason Dan was willing to save Ian was that he knew Ian would be loyal to him, and part of how he knew this was that Ian had stayed true to the QP. Throughout the season I kept noting that social game matters, and in the end it was really Ian's social game that won him all the marbles. The jury simply liked him better. Even though he turned on his coach and betrayed Frank and Jenn, and had a 100% fake alliance with Joe, they all forgave him.
Ian's entertainment and drama scores are pretty high. He didn't particularly try to stir up drama, but when he found himself in the middle of it, he handled it well. He was right in the center of a couple of the biggest blindsides of the season, and unlike Dan, he didn't go hide under pillows when it was time to deal with the fallout. We'll always remember things like Ian fighting with Boogie at the door, or having a confrontation with Frank the Carrot. He entertained us with his stupid human tricks like kicking himself in the head and with his encyclopedic knowledge of so many things. He could talk for hours not just about BB, but also about Survivor or Pokemon, or the etymology of the question mark. (Okay, I'm making that last one up, but he probably could tell you all about it.) No one will ever be able to think about Ian without thinking about his hammocking. He forced BB to replace the old creaky metal frame hammock with a really nice wooden frame one that was silent for about a day (I seriously think the audio department probably took up a collection). I do take points off not so much for the hammock creaking, but for Ian's muttering. If he had just spoken a bit louder and more clearly during his rocking sessions, we would have a better idea what was going on his head, and that's what the livefeeders want. The hammock time was clearly for him, and I do give him credit for finding a way to deal with his personal issues, but for us, hammock time was mute the feeds time.
At the end of the day, Ian scores pretty well all around. His comp gameplay and social strategy were both pretty much spot on. He was reasonably entertaining and gave us a lot of good drama this summer. He does lose a few points for those moments when he'd get a little too cocky and make inappropriate comments, but we forgive him fairly easily because he is young. Bottom line from my BB POV is that even though Dan was our real winner this season, Ian's a very close second. He played a great game, was fun to have around, and his sheer joy at just being there made us root for him all summer and happy that he won.
