The halfway mark is approaching on CBS's Big Brother 17, and fans are determining if this is shaping up to be a good season of the long-running reality series.

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Big Brother 17 is now past the fourth eviction of the season, and the jury stage is approaching. This means that the gameplay will escalate, the backstabbing will get more personal and some of the twists will thankfully be phased out.

So how does BB17 compare so far to other recent seasons like Big Brother 15 and Big Brother 16? Frankly, it's been refreshing to see unanimous votes every week like there was throughout the extent of BB16. Many BB17 players have their heads in the game and are doing what's best for their game.

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As far as comparisons to BB15, at least there hasn't been any racial scandals or wildly inappropriate comments like that season. For the most part, the BB17 houseguests are sensitive to people of all stars and stripes, and have never explicitly called out any minority group.

Where BB17 may be lacking, however, is in creating compelling characters. Other than John McGuire, a.k.a. Johnny Mac, there have been very few breakout characters from an entertainment perspective. Say what you will about the last two seasons, but they were filled to the brim with dynamic personalities like Zach Rance, Amanda Zuckerman, Caleb Reynolds, Donny Thompson, Aaryn Gries, Nicole Franzel, Elissa Slater and more.

In BB17, it seems like the most dynamic personalities have already been evicted from the house. While Jace Agolli, Da'Vonne Rogers, Jeff Weldon and Audrey Middleton were seen as negative forces in the game, at least they brought some entertainment value to the show.

Luckily there has been plenty of gameplay since the beginning, so things will likely get more exciting as the player start whittling down.

There is still a lot of game to play, so we will see if Big Brother 17 shapes up to be a strong season or simply a forgettable one.

Big Brother 17 airs Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays on CBS.

Tags: Big Brother Reality TV CBS