I really like Survivor, however I feel I’d love The Traitors much more.
In case you’re at my residence on a Friday or Saturday night time, and we’re questioning, what ought to we do, how ought to we spend the night?, I can just about assure you one factor: I’ll counsel, with feigned casualness, making an attempt to look like I actually don’t care that a lot, that we play One Night time Final Werewolf. I gained’t bore you with the small print, as a result of who on god’s inexperienced earth desires to learn board sport directions. All you should know is somebody is secretly deemed The Werewolf, and so they don’t wish to be found by the remainder of the group as such. The group has 5 minutes to debate, with the objective of figuring out who actually is The Werewolf. If the group efficiently identifies The Werewolf, the group wins; if The Werewolf goes undetected, The Werewolf wins.
Actuality competitors sequence The Traitors is principally One Night time Final Werewolf, besides all of the individuals taking part in are from numerous different actuality TV reveals, and the villains are The Traitors, not The Werewolf. And as a substitute of getting 5 minutes to debate, you will have hours, or days, or weeks, damaged up by episodic challenges. And the American model all inexplicably takes place in an enormous, historic mansion in Scotland, owned by Alan Cumming, who’s dressed to the nines, narrating every flip of occasions within the thickest Scottish accent you’ve ever heard. So yeah, it’s wonderful.
The Traitors Season Two opens with a bunch of actuality TV stars from completely disparate worlds — from Rupaul’s Drag Race’s Peppermint, to Survivor’s Parvati Shallow and Sandra Diaz-Twine, to Bling Empire’s Kevin Kreider, to knowledgeable boxer, to a random retired British politician — arriving at Alan Cumming’s mansion in rural Scotland. That might’ve been sufficient of a gap, however no, The Traitors goes exhausting the place it merely may’ve not gone in any respect. The celebs are greeted by Alan Cumming’s bearded, silent footman, then his canine Lala, and at last, a bunch of individuals dressed all in black vigorously taking part in these enormous drums, for some purpose. Everybody’s screaming, and so am I! That is theater, individuals!!! And I really like theater!!
As with most competitors actuality TV reveals, the tempo feels slower within the first few episodes — however actually, the utterly pointless drama of actually each selection made by the producers of The Traitors makes it really feel fast-paced and scrumptious from the very begin. For anybody who watches quantity of actuality TV, it’s actually dang enjoyable to see people from very completely different reveals all socializing right here. The bizarreness of somebody from Massive Brother instructing Kevin from Bling Empire about Johnny Bananas from The Problem (now could be after I confess… I additionally love The Problem) is simply — nicely, it’s simply one thing I by no means thought I’d see borne out.
In fact, I’d be remiss if I didn’t admit that arguably the largest actuality TV pairing of this season (at the very least for me) is 2 individuals from the identical world — Parvati and Sandra from Survivor. Survivor followers on the market know concerning the long-standing rivalry between these two absolute icons, and let me simply say, The Traitors Season Two, at the very least within the first three episodes, doesn’t disappoint in terms of exploring their dynamic.
And that is the place I’ll stage with you — as quickly as I noticed Parvati and Sandra have been gonna be within the second season of The Traitors, I used to be deeply hoping that one or each of them could be a traitor. Parvati specifically, as a result of the function of Traitor is one Parvati Shallow was meant to play. The Traitor will need to have excessive emotional intelligence and be capable of kind connections with, if not all people, then at the very least the best socially influential individuals. The Traitor have to be calm underneath stress, or else their id shall be found by the group. The Traitor have to be agile and alter their plans as social dynamics shift and evolve. Parvati Shallow — #1 flirter; grasp meditator; evolving, rising human being — would make an awesome Traitor, wouldn’t she?
But when there’s something I’ve discovered from Parvati, it’s that one of the simplest ways to maintain somebody invested isn’t to provide them what they need — it’s to withhold. So I’m not going to let you know if she received chosen as a traitor or not. I’m not going to let you know if it occurs in a traditional approach or not, or if it occurs in any respect. You’ll simply have to observe to seek out out. If you would like.
What I’ll let you know is that each single factor about The Traitors — from the setting, to the emotionality of the contestants, to the language Alan Cumming makes use of, to the very timbre of my recaps! — is excessive. Solely Johnny Bananas (an interesting human being to me; how on earth are you able to win a present with the bodily and psychological absurdity of The Problem not as soon as, not twice, however seven instances?!) appears to understand how foolish and indulgent this present’s complete deal is. Everybody else — together with me, as a viewer — will get sucked into the luxurious, high-octane world of The Traitors and swallowed complete. Yum.
You would possibly suppose, then, that The Traitors is escapism at its best. Certain, on a floor stage, it’s. I may (and can) watch it for hours, utterly dissociated from the world round me. However I don’t suppose it’s that easy. The rules at play are something however irrelevant to on a regular basis life, as a person inside a bigger society. It is a present, very similar to One Night time Final Werewolf, about social manipulation. How teams of individuals outline otherhood, rightly or wrongly, based mostly in actuality, assumption, fantasy, or some mixture of all three. How somebody slides into or resists a task thrust upon them by a bunch. How somebody seizes, maintains, and loses energy. How the collective subsumes the person each time, aside from when the person subsumes the collective. How groupthink pulls focus from these deserving scrutiny to these utterly harmless.
I’ll be watching The Traitors Season Two and recapping it each Friday. Be part of me?