To Get the Real Orwellian Feel, Watch ‘Big Brother 3’ Online

It’s a guilty enough pleasure to watch “Big Brother 3” in the three hourlong slots each week. That may make watching it live on a special Internet hookup 24 hours a day almost shameful.

But it’s sometimes more interesting and illuminating to log into the activities of these chosen-for-TV schemers--who can be watched live online--than it is to tune into CBS.

Unlike the forced fun and games of the network broadcast, where the hosts keep them busy for the national telecast, the normal days offered by “Big Brother 3” video cameras can be excruciatingly dull--and thus more lifelike.

For those who have started to pick out the various personalities, it’s like checking in on old friends to find them washing up, making sandwiches or endlessly playing cards.

Actually, it’s more like spying on them.

While competing for a half-million bucks, the dwindling dozen have unwittingly allowed themselves to be the fodder of voyeur Internet peep shows, all for a season pass of $24.95.

Already the feed has provided the same sort of tawdry thrills of any Campus Cuties Live Webcam site you can name. Chiara and Tonya showered together. Lisa joined them for a peanut butter and flower bikini fashion show, and the preparations for that show are legendary mainly because of five minutes during which the now-evicted Tonya was topless.

Four of the residents have coupled up, so as to form the strongest alliances (isn’t it always that way among the young--be it dinner parties or do-or-die survival shows: the couples vs. the single people?).

So we get to see them snuggle up and spoon, although they must pull up the comforter when there’s more than just dozing on their minds.

And although there is a share of underwear and bikini parades, that isn’t the reason for the “Big Brother 3” hookup (honest). It’s that their real personalities come out amid the everyday banter, commonplace chores and, yes, the boredom.

Even with the boredom, somehow, the Internet show is better. Log on, put it on the corner of your computer work screen and turn up the sound when things get interesting (or if the guests are trying to keep from being heard).

“Chiara, please put on your microphone,” the disembodied voice calls out often. It’s so common that other house guests have put bets on how much she’ll be scolded for it each day (perhaps the microphone ruins the look of her teeny bikini).

The disembodied orders (“Danielle, please go to the video diary room”; “Josh, please wake up”) make “Big Brother 3” seem much more of the Orwellian nightmare than the show does.

Those who watch online might be more aware that the occupants are being watched all the time by the 38 cameras and 62 microphones. Sometimes, when someone is walking around the house alone, all you can hear is the whir of the motors under the cameras trying to keep him or her in focus.

Online, viewers can see the bright overhead lights needed to illuminate each player’s move. These additional pressures shed a new light on the game.

It’s clear that few of the remaining contestants dream of capturing the last-person-standing prize of $500,000.

After a few days of spying on the mostly young crew tanning, eating and scheming, it’s clear that the vibe is more like a summer time share, where the key is to just keep the vacation going.

“I just don’t want to be thrown out of the house,” whines Josh.

The great thing about having the feed on during work is that it serves as instant water cooler talk for passersby (what are they doing now?).

The bad thing about the live feed on the East Coast is that the contestants are usually sleeping until well after noon (except for the solitary Gerry). The night-vision cameras promise their own surprises, though, mostly through the nocturnal dialogue of the recently evicted Eric, the firefighter from Milford, Conn.

Internet viewing is as lifelike as the network will allow. A disclaimer online says “to protect the integrity of the TV show, the feeds may be edited, delayed and/or blacked out on occasion at CBS’ sole discretion.”

It’s understandable. Editing is the key to making any good reality show as good as any other soap opera on network TV.

But something is lost in the editing that is observable in the day-to-day.

Rapid editing on the network show may make it seem that, say, Chiara may be talking about sex all the time. But on the Internet feed, it’s clear she’s just always talking about all kinds of funny things, including the personalities on other reality shows and analysis of their strategies.

It’s been said, more than once, too, that after they’re out of “Big Brother 3,” they’ll be trying out for other shows, from “Survivor” to “elimidate.”

But whatever the program, you’ll never be able to see as much of them as you will this summer, online. For information on the 24/7 feed, go to www.cbs.com.

Roger Catlin is television critic at the Hartford Courant, a Tribune company.