Big Brother Canada is one of the proudest iterations in the history of this global reality franchise. I’ve recapped the first season a few years back, and most of my opinions continue to hold up to this day.
It… is one of the saddest fucking things I’ve ever experienced.
This season was meant to embody the superhero theme. Instead, the show ended up feeling like they just lost the Infinity War. Everything just went wrong for them in ways that can’t be explained. It was so cursed, that I can’t even call this piece a recap. It’s more of an analysis. There are so many questions that I have. How did this superhero-themed season get loaded with so much kryptonite? This is what I’m calling Take Off, You Hosers!: The Tragedy of Big Brother Canada 8.
I can sense great things out of this crop.
The next episode is where we begin to see everything go off the rails. Nico, one of the nominees determined by that night 1 comp, chose to self-evict.
Mihn-Ly had enough of this shit and called for a house meeting, which is always bound to open a can of worms in any country. All Jamar had to do was calmly plead his case like a civilized black man.
Unfortunately, he fulfilled every expectation that those targeting him had. Jamar lost his cool.
Jamar was expelled for his choice of words. But it doesn’t end there, either. Kyle, the instigator in all of this, who had been leaving a trail of racial insensitivity in the house, was also told to fuck off as well.
At this point, this season was dysfunctional. I’m talking Rivals III dysfunctional. Even Champs vs. Stars 2017 dysfunctional. The only thing you could do was hope that it would get its shit together in the next week. When you’ve already hit rock bottom, how much lower can you go? Unfortunately, the reality TV gods had one more punishment.
Leave it to the COVID-19 pandemic to add illness to both insult and injury. A fraction of its sixty-member crew had quit. One of the houseguests, Carol, wanted to do the same. The virus had single-handedly sent what should’ve been a normal week into another topsy-turvy one in a season already full of them.
And then, it came back to finish off whatever was left of the season. Due to Ontario forcing every non-essential workplace to shut down, Big Brother Canada prematurely ended production. No final vote, no final winner, no grand prize money. That was given to a COVID relief charity. A complete halt to a show that was ironically perfect to keep running in a lockdown. Other iterations around the world did get to continue their seasons during that time. Heck, we still have one taking place in our own country, which is still trying to turn things around. Unfortunately, between the poorly-received drama and the crew walking off, there was possibly no way for them to save this one and just wanted it to be over with. I wouldn’t blame them if that were really the case.
Okay, one more time, just for kicks.
Do you realize the pain that this season has suffered? Some of the worst luck that any reality show has ever been dealt with. Micro-aggressions, disqualifications, self-evictions. This all took place within the first 3 weeks. Everything came at a rapid pace and knocked it down to the ground, and then it never got the chance to get back up. History is going to look back at this time and immediately try to forget it. And as much as this cast was pathetic, I have to feel sorry for them. They barely got to play the game the way that they had hoped in the small amount of time that they had. These houseguests will never get the chance to resume the game. Most of them probably won’t even get invited back to play on another season.
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