5 Things We Learned from the Season 21 Premiere of Big Brother

Casting leans on picking contestants that fall into neatly pre-established stereotypes of ideal competitors—the more boilerplate a contestant looks, the more you’re able to predict their gameplay. Unimpressionable “floaters” can be identified immediately (usually they’re the competitors with dyed hair, but there’s a severe lack of them this season), there’s always a CrossFit champion or two, some LGBT representation and “normie” underdog, plus every season has its “old guy.” (And, yes, we’re still waiting on this season’s 53-year old petroleum engineer’s party allegiance to surface.)

The imbalanced casting reared its angry head on the second night of the premiere as one of the only two black competitors on this season was the first to be evicted from the house. His final diary-room interview was even bleaker, where he admitted he wanted to be “the first black person to win Big Brother. I wanted to represent African-American culture in a different light.” Ouch.

Literally What the Hell Is Going on with Jackson Mitchie’s Jawline?
Listen—if we really wanted to see square-jawed “aspiring actors” woo and manipulate young women in the house, we’d just go to a standard-issue frat darty.

And Speaking of Jackson … Commandeering Power on the First Night Is a Hot Move, but You Need to Chill Out Brother
Big Brother likes to keep things interesting by beginning each season with a new “twist” that is always half-unbearable to sit through. This time around, the season’s first twist was the addition of the new “Camp Director” power, which guarantees one competitor safety for the week in exchange for putting four contestants up for eviction on the first night. To win the title, a competitor had to nominate themselves and gather enough votes to win by popularity, and our square-shaped hunk won by a landslide.

After being crowned, however, Jackson wouldn’t stop grumbling about his responsibilities. “I don’t want to do it, but I got to,” he kept repeating, hammering nail after nail in his coffin and reminding whoever is in the room that he now has three targets on his back, yada, yada—but weren’t you aware of this as you were nominating yourself?

Seeing that two-thirds of the incoming houseguests always rely on the strategy of not presenting themselves as “physical threats” at first, it’s a good thing to assert your power in the house right off the bat—a forward, brash competitor is always quick to form strong alliances and a band of loyal followers. Jackson’s self-nomination for Camp Director was a decent move, but his incessant nagging that it was his god-given duty to sacrifice himself on behalf of the entire house is tarnishing his sparkle.

The Larger Twist of the Season Might Have to Do with Connections Between Contestants
We learned on the first night of the premiere that contestants Christie and Tommy knew each other prior to coming into the house, and that Christie just ended a 7-year-long relationship with his aunt, a connection almost too coincidental for the show.

Even before the show premiered, shrewd fans and live-feeders were finding small connections between contestants: two attended the same university and another pair know each other from competing in pageants. If tying together players by existing relationships is this season’s twist, it’s not an original one (the “secret partner” twist was first used in Big Brother 6), and isn’t the first time the show’s producers have unearthed and recycled past reveals.

However, the secret partner twist seems significantly more interesting than Big Brother 17’s recycled “twin twist,” and it’ll be interesting to see who unearths all of the connections first: the online fan communities or The Powers That Be.

Whether or not the relationship between Christie and Tommy is at the center of this season’s twist, the serendipity is too strong to ignore (not to mention that Christie made it a point to emphasize she just ended a relationship with a “much, much older woman” in her introduction sequence). Former houseguests and Big Brother juggernauts Janelle Pierzina and Nicole Franzel both support the theory, so it’s not entirely far-fetched.

Though my patience for the show wears thin as each season inches closer to its midway point, I have faith in the forthcoming episodes. There are a few players that I find to be instantly personable and likable—Ovi, for one, alongside the tattooed, truck-driving Sam and Kemi, whose take-no-shit demeanor reminds me a lot of Cody from Big Brother 20. (Cody’s anti-obsequious, anti-brown-nosing strategy carried him through the competition but did eventually lead to his demise.)

Though the show’s format is not exactly a groundbreaking spectacle anymore (aren’t we all being filmed 24/7, after all?), it’s still fun to watch and live-tweet about, and makes for damn good content every once in a while.

Let’s get digging.