The weekend episode of every Bigg Boss show, across languages like Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Marathi, is what garners the most attention. We want to know who is evicted. We want to know if the host would address a particular issue that we were debating about among our circle of friends. We want to know who will be schooled. We want to know who will be elevated. We want to know who will be put in their place. Basically, we want to see if our comments while watching the show gets repeated by the host. We want to imagine ourselves as the contestant, the host, the audience, and everything. We want to feel part of the circus, and that’s why the weekend episodes are very special. The first such episode aired the past weekend on the Bigg Boss Tamil 8 show, which is hosted by the latest addition to team Bigg Boss, Vijay Sethupathi. Kamal Haasan was the face of Bigg Boss Tamil for seven seasons, and recently stepped down from the position to concentrate on his acting and political pursuits. Nevertheless, Vijay Sethupathi has taken to the show like a fish to water, albeit with a few initial troubles. 

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While Vijay Sethupathi made an assured debut on the Bigg Boss stage, it took some time to warm up to his style of hosting, which was completely different from Kamal Haasan. But this was just the first step in a really long journey, and it was time to see how the reality show was played by the new set of contestants. He began the Saturday show by addressing the major issues plaguing the house, including the activity that nudged the contestants to label each other as ‘fake’ or ‘real’. Vijay Sethupathi didn’t shy away from calling most of their activities as a big bore and safe. However, there were sections of netizens who didn’t really like Vijay Sethupathi’s hosting skills, and said it paled in comparison to the style of Kamal Haasan. Vijay was more stern, and cut off the long drawn explanations, and at times, came off as quite intimidating. The way he addressed the live audience didn’t help his case either. But it was almost like watching an elder brother admonish his siblings who were stepping out of line or not playing an entertaining game. “I have to be stern with them right from the start to ensure they play a good game. I am not here to pamper them,” said Vijay Sethupathi, and that is clearly his style, and ready or not, that’s what we would be getting. 

One of the most random things to have happened in Bigg Boss Tamil is the eviction of a contestant within 24 hours of the start. While Sachana was the unlucky one, most of us knew she wasn’t really evicted. Honestly, the fact that she wasn’t housed in the famed ‘secret room’ made us think that she was indeed evicted, but Bigg Boss had other plans. She crawled back into the house to a mixed response among the contestants and the audience too. No one likes to be taken for a ride so early into the journey, and her reentry didn’t really get the high the show assumed it will. Also, her insights into what the outside world thinks of the contestants was a trick that happened too early to have any solid impact. Nevertheless, the fact that after seven days, the only entertaining play was the one involving a planned fight between Ranjith and Ravindher, proves that team Bigg Boss hasn’t done enough to pique the audience’s interest. 

Even before the contestants got acquainted with each other, Bigg Boss pitted them against one another with a ‘Men vs Women’ kind of a contest that has split the house right in the middle. However, this archaic thought is unbecoming for a show of this stature, and pushes all the contestants into a corner, and forces them to put on a facade on top of the mask they already wear. Considering it has just been a week, most of their words are already measured, and this onus of being politically right at all times, is a good step ahead for humanity, but a bad step backwards for ‘entertainment’ in a show. Who watches Bigg Boss for moral science lessons? But it is impressive that Vijay Sethupathi, and some of the contestants including Jacquline are quick to call out people when their words are demeaning. While this is like a challenge primed to see them fail, that is the whole game.

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Anyway, the week passed off rather uneventfully, and even the ‘heated debate’ or the ‘unplanned grocery list’ didn’t really add to the proceedings. While the contestants can be blamed for not providing the ‘entertainment’ the show’s format is limiting them from playing their natural game. Everything seems too staged now, and it would take a tremendous amount of reinvention to brings us, and them, back into the groove. It didn’t help that the first, technically second, eviction was filmmaker Ravindher, who called himself Fatman. He was one of the strongest contestants, and made a huge mark for himself by reviewing the reality show over the past seven seasons. The fact that Ravindher was the first to be voted out of the house went on to prove that the audience has the final call. All his strategy and schemes didn’t matter on Sunday, as the audience tends to get overly moralistic when it comes to voting. He was a good player, yes. But he played the game a bit too hard, and didn’t know when to stop and be himself inside the house. 

We all love an underdog, and Ravindhar was positioning himself as the alpha. Nothing warms the cockles of the audience’s heart, with the power to vote them out of the competition, more than showing a contestant their place. We love cutting people down to their size, and Ravindher was the patient zero of such an operation. 

He went out with a flourish by giving one-line reviews to the remaining contestants. Some were fun, but it was clear that most were acerbic, and it would be interesting to see if the housemates take his words to heart. The man played his game right till the very end, and for that, Ravindher, you have my respect. 

Despite two evictions, 18 housemates, new rules, same-old tasks, and simmering tension between highly individualistic contestants, the focus of Bigg Boss is still on Vijay Sethupathi. He has started strong, and is doing his best to stand out of the giant shadow looming over him. But it is important that our attention is shifted towards the happening of the house throughout the week, and not just waiting to see how Vijay Sethupathi is faring in the eighth installment of a franchise that has its roots in the proficiency of Kamal Haasan. This is a new season with a new show, and just like how the contestants, the production team, and the host himself has accepted this reality, it is time for the audience to embrace this change. Isn’t that the only permanent?