Put another tally on the board. With the conclusion of Big Brother 27 on Sunday night, I have now watched 15 seasons of the show with Sidney. With each season averaging around 40 episodes, that equates to 600 episodes!

However, I am not here to talk about the episodes of past seasons. Instead, I am writing tonight to briefly summarize my thoughts on what transpired during the 35 episodes that comprised season 27.

I enjoyed Big Brother 27. This photo was taken before Rachel was introduced as part of the cast.

Let me start with the best thing to happen this season: Rachel Reilly. It was a stroke of genius on the part of the producers to let her loose on a house of “newbies.” Her previous seasons on the show came prior to when I started watching “Big Brother” so I had the pleasure of watching her style of gameplay for the first time. What a treat it was to observe her passion and strategy play out. I couldn’t help but admire how long she stayed in the house while I laughed at her constant frustration with houseguests who she felt didn’t know how to play the game. I was crushed when she was eliminated (not evicted) but I don’t need to utter the Big Brother cliché to make sense of it.

Perhaps I should now follow with the worst thing to happen this season: the theme. I panned last year’s AI theme and while I don’t think I can say “The Mastermind” was worse, I don’t think I can say it was better either. I didn’t mind the murder mystery vibe and I thought the potion POV competition was fun/hilarious, but the Mastermind figure(s) himself was kind of a dud. He was hard to understand, didn’t quite seem to fit, and was a little too dark for me. Everything was salvaged a bit on finale night when Dr. Will was dubbed as the Mastermind only to have three other former houseguests from prior seasons revealed as co-conspirators later on in the show. However, even though the producers tied it together at the end, I think it was finicky throughout the season.

Okay, let’s get to this year’s big winner. Ashley slipped in as the season 27 champ. Did I think she played the best game? Hardly. Do I think she was still deserving? Yes. When it mattered, she won the necessary competitions on finale night to give her the choice of who she wanted to bring to final two. After Makensy chose loyalty over strategy last season, Ashley “did what was best for her game” and evicted Morgan. With her sitting next to Vince, a guy who burned almost everyone on jury, she was a shoo-in to win. I called her 6-1 margin of victory. I think her journey to champ was noteworthy considering her rocky start with Showergate and she did a nice job concealing her occupation as an attorney. With that said, while she is a worthy winner, the best player surely didn’t come out on top.

I was hoping Morgan would win out of the final three but better Ashley than Vince.

And that best player was undoubtedly Morgan. She played a masterful game from competition wins to social prowess to manipulating the HOHs to do her bidding. Although never my favorite in the house, I grew to respect the way she played and I was pulling for her once Keanu left the house.

Speaking of Keanu, I think he had an even bigger redemption story than Ashley. Tabbed as a villain and put on the block countless times, he kept persevering and thrived under pressure when it mattered most. I actually wanted to see him voted out during the first half of the show but as he continued to defy the odds, I jumped on his bandwagon. Apparently, 65% of the show’s viewers did too as he was named America’s Favorite Houseguest. I was really hoping Rachel would take the honor but at the end of the day, I am not upset that Keanu earned the $50,000.

Just a few random notes…

– The relationship between Morgan and Vinny was scrutinized the entire season. I really hate to judge, but I do think it hovered on inappropriate for a man in a committed relationship.

– Kudos to Julie Chen for another superb season as host of “Big Brother.” It seemed like more things went haywire this season than usual (hey, it’s live TV) but she always remained calm and rolled with the punches. I still chuckle when I think of Ashley re-entering the diary room and trying to change her eviction vote.

– Didn’t appreciate the Sunday episode where we were forced to watch “Big Brother: Unlocked.” Did the ratings of the spin-off suck so much that they had to shove it down our throats? With that said, I did find “Unlocked” entertaining but not enough to tune in on Fridays to watch.

– But I will say this: The component of inviting super fan celebrities on “Unlocked” to analyze the game did bode well for the actual “Big Brother” show. I very much enjoyed the episodes when Julie would get first crack at the celebrity guests—her interview skills always brought out the passion and insightful game commentary of the guests.

– After a couple years of lame Zingbot routines, he brought his “A Game” this season. He was funny and a little controversial.

It was another exciting summer/late fall for the Reser household. With Sloan invested in this season as well, we enjoyed the 35 chances we received to sit on the couch and watch one of TV’s greatest social experiments. Thank you, CBS and “Big Brother.” Don’t Blink.