In the most recent episode of The Traitors UK, the ultimate eight gamers gathered at a candlelit feast. After weeks of fraught gameplay, they shared what they’d do with the prize cash in the event that they have been to win. Their teary tales have been emotional: donations to incapacity charities, IVF journeys, placing youngsters by college and long-overdue honeymoons. The message was clear: these are good individuals. However immediately, the sport recommenced and we as soon as once more questioned: are they?
“To complete that dinner and say goodnight to everybody, realizing certainly one of them may be ‘murdered’ that evening …” says Minah Shannon, one of many titular traitors who might be secretly deciding which faithfuls to kill off that evening, earlier than breaking out into laughter. “Oh my god, I’m a psychopath!” Alongside her fellow traitors, the 29-year-old name centre supervisor from Liverpool has betrayed and backstabbed her manner by the sport. However removed from being thought-about a villain, she has develop into a fan favorite. This stunning flip is usually all the way down to the format of The Traitors. For its viewers, the present upends the same old expertise of watching a actuality TV present – and that’s what makes it so fascinating.
For the reason that first iteration of The Traitors – “De Verraders” – aired within the Netherlands in 2021, the present has develop into a worldwide actuality TV phenomenon. The Traitors UK is certainly one of 33 worldwide sequence, together with variations from the US, Australia, Canada, South Korea, Russia, South Africa, Finland and India. (A few of the worldwide exhibits function well-known individuals and a British superstar sequence is predicted in 2025.)
A part of the present’s success is as a result of the format avoids a number of the pitfalls that actuality competitors exhibits usually succumb to. Fatigue is certainly one of them. Aside from Alexandra Burke duetting with Beyoncé, The X Issue normally obtained extra boring when it reached the reside exhibits, partly as a result of it was normally fairly apparent who was going to win. And the ultimate episodes of Massive Brother and I’m a Movie star, when there are fewer contestants and alternatives for drama, is usually a little bit of a slog, too. On The Apprentice, essentially the most controversial and ineffective contestants return for the ultimate, as a result of frankly the present doesn’t fairly work with out them. In distinction, The Traitors will get considerably extra intense because it reaches its conclusion. In the course of the nail-biting closing episodes, you by no means know what’s going to occur and the sport can change immediately – as within the first BBC sequence, when one of many all-time nice traitors, Wilf Webster, appeared to have the sport sewn up however dramatically fell on the closing hurdle. The viewers has no management over what occurs – there is no such thing as a public vote, so being a “fan favorite” doesn’t equate to changing into the bookies’ favorite, and only one tactical error can ship even the most effective gamers crashing out of the sport.
In some methods, the premise of The Traitors is paying homage to the fact medium’s origins, the place most exhibits have been described as a “social experiment”. The essential distinction, although, is that exhibits resembling Massive Brother nonetheless relied on normal ethical codes, the place backstabbing and deception would see somebody changing into unpopular. We noticed this within the very first sequence of Massive Brother UK again in 2000, when “Nasty” Nick Bateman was ejected from the home in a cloud of villainy for plotting towards his fellow housemates with a smuggled pen and paper.
The Traitors challenges these norms, as a result of mendacity is a foundational a part of the sport. The present permits its gamers and viewers to let go of the “guidelines” and morals they’ve been taught to abide by since childhood, the place we study that mendacity is among the greatest societal taboos. And if that wasn’t thrilling sufficient, the followers additionally get a birdseye view to the deception – we see a rigorously edited model, the place potential pitfalls are foreshadowed earlier than they happen to even essentially the most perceptive gamers. Because the all-knowing, all-seeing eye, it permits us to indulge within the fantasy that we can be the most effective participant of all. As we watch, we really feel highly effective.
Within the present sequence of The Traitors UK, probably the most entertaining storylines has come from Charlotte Berman – a faithful-turned-traitor who has been faking a Welsh accent all the time to seem extra reliable. (There was one specific second the place Charlotte, then a trustworthy, cried within the kitchen that she was “simply attempting to be herself!” in her fabricated Welsh accent.) This may sound counterintuitive to say a few present the place gamers inform such weird lies, however The Traitors nonetheless stands out due to the authenticity of its contestants.
Within the goldfish bowl of the sport, the gamers not solely appear unaware of how the general public will understand them, however they don’t appear to care. It’s a breath of contemporary air on a backdrop of actuality TV exhibits like Love Is Blind or Love Island, the place quite a lot of time is dedicated to understanding who’s there for the “proper causes”, versus those that wish to use the present to promote teeth-whitening strips and “wellness” laxatives on Instagram. On The Traitors, nevertheless, success shouldn’t be gained by public vote and even by doing the “proper” factor, so gamers have little or no management over how they’re perceived. This avoids contestants enjoying as much as the cameras an excessive amount of, or covertly attempting to self-produce the present to offer themselves a leg-up on the fact TV-to-influencer pipeline.
The authenticity that the format’s depth causes can also be helped by the casting. On the BBC present, nice effort has gone into discovering individuals who characterize the entire of the UK. This sequence alone, we’ve seen retired opera singers, vicars and former military officers – precisely the kind of individuals we aren’t accustomed to seeing on actuality exhibits.
Because the sequence finale approaches, followers are gearing up for a tense, gasp-inducing week of Shakespearean twists. In some methods, the present’s success highlights that quite a lot of actuality TV merely doesn’t really feel difficult – or stunning – any extra. Regardless of being a camp, glitzy and slickly produced present, The Traitors nonetheless in some way looks like a nod to the medium’s extra humble beginnings of filming a bunch of strangers in a home collectively and seeing what occurs. For anybody who’s fearful that actuality TV is changing into predictable and off, The Traitors is a purpose to be trustworthy.
Supply hyperlink
