Am I the only one who thinks Pinoy Big Brother isn’t all that? I know that the show is ending tomorrow, but even after more than one hundred days of gluing to the TV set wondering what the hype is all about, I still don’t get it. Frankly, Pinoy Big Brother comes across as nothing more than a money/popularity-wagon for the station. From day one (and even before that) they have been milking the show like nothing we’ve ever seen on TV. Despite the tagline “Teleserye ng totoong buhay” PBB reeks of something fake, of something coined by the popular media to make us believe that this is the truth (sounds family, doesn’t it?). The multitude of celebrity walk-ins, ridiculous tasks and punishments (obviously, Big Brother doesn’t give a damn about health care and psychology), hyped-up rules and regulations scream absurdity and yet we Filipinos still lap it up as if we were given trash and think its gold. Ask any ordinary Juan de la Cruz why they are hooked on PBB and they’ll give you the trademark answer, “Kase Teleserye ito ng totoong buhay” and all that yatiyatiyata about “katoohanan”. Has anyone of them even considered what was “totoo” about this show? About the only real thing in PBB are the people and their relationships, and this is pretty much the only good one gets out of it. Everything else are carefully molded to tap into the Filipinos’ most primal indulgence --- ang mangusisa.
Take for instance the very famous Say-JB breakup. What was the logic is putting Say and JB, who obviously are not comfortable around each other, in one room just to explain what the hell happened between them? Since when did a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship suddenly become a nationwide affair? Whatever happens between Say and JB beyond the house is their own business. They had no obligation to explain to the world why they stopped liking each other, most especially after such a painful breakup. Big Brother should have been decent enough to know that and respect their privacy. Instead, he calls them back for another 100 seconds to explain, to announce, and to be subjected to a one-of-a-kind big brother intervention set to make you wonder what kind of Pinoy values do they really want to show.
I suppose one can’t really blame the show. The pressure to try and project themselves as a credible show aside from being plain vulgar has been too much. All the criticism about PBB having no positive Filipino values and too much sexy scenes have gotten to the producers. They simply had to MAKE the show more credible. Hence the charities; while I firmly believe in charities, I don’t believe in charities that have to be glorified. Charities are helpful and they are great source of hope for the poor, but to saturate primetime with the PBB charities and housemates being heroes and other celebrities suddenly jumping in the charity bandwagon makes a mockery of it. The point of charity is to help those who cannot help themselves, not you. What we are being presented instead is a glorification, charities that help propagate the popularity of the show. In other words, an Advertisement and like most advertisements, it leaves a bad taste on the idea of charities. Charities are not supposed to end with giving away things. It’s supposed to start with that and end with change. Unfortunately, the charities that are being constantly shown to the viewers doesn’t give one a chance to see that and it’s betraying us into believing that charities are the end to our poverty.
The media is a powerful tool and PBB has proven itself the best in its field. Every PBB episode, ad, and special episodes about PBB in other ABS-CBN shows come across as propaganda, strikingly similar to what George Orwell’s “1984” Big brother would have; each propaganda carefully controlled and manipulated into deluding us that what we are being presented with is the truth. This is nothing new in Philippine media, a hotbed for sensation rather than truth, and it is tragic that this should happen to our country wherein a growing majority of our people does not finish grade school. The irony of it all
Vous,
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