I love this show! Any iteration that has made it’s way to UK TV, I have watched and watched hard. And at some point soon, I’m going to start watching them all over again. Yes, even the American version. I’ll get onto the rest down below, but the American version has civilians and ‘celebrities’ participating. The calibre of celebrities is lacking. They’re mainly reality tv stalwarts, so not really good for anything other than being mildly entertaining and possibly toxic. But the American version has one thing none of the other versions has – Alan Cumming. He’s a devious Scottish wood nymph who sprinkles magic dust whenever he’s on screen. He makes the show watchable when you have to put up with the puffed up egos of the Americans.
I’m going to try and avoid spoilers, because apparently there are still some people out there who haven’t seen it. Odd. It’s essentially a massive televisual game of wink murder. Annnnnddd it’s brilliant. Because you get to see super confident people be proved so wrong to their face and you get to witness the horror on those faces as they know they’re next to get banished because they fucked up. And it’s a good study of human beings and the pressures we’re put under when the Faithfuls are told to hunt out someone who is trying to ‘harm’ them and the juxtaposition of paranoia and politeness (especially in the UK version). The plots they think are being weaved by the Traitors and the fact that most of the time, the Traitors don’t have to actually do a lot to convince others that Faithfuls are Traitors. And the moral ambiguity that the Traitors must tackle as they lie and connive and put on a good show to stay hidden.
As an off-hand comment, I mentioned The Traitors with my therapist. I asked if she watched and she said no. For her, the show is too close to her job, so not interesting for her and also, she was unhappy that the show promotes poor behaviour by a small cadre of people ‘against’ the rest of the group. Now it’s a game, and everyone understands what they’re signing up for, but I understand what she means. You can see real hurt on people’s faces as they realise that their friend is not their friend and has been plotting behind their back to do them out of a considerable slice of cash.
The UK version is headed up by Claudia Winklefringe in fingerless gloves. Bit strange, but that’s the look apparently. The contestants are polite and egotistical and think they’re super sleuths, but most of the time are barking up the wrong tree. The Traitors are chosen and they quickly sink into ‘murdering’ people at night and enjoying having more knowledge than everyone else. I think one of things that makes the show so watchable is that we the audience have all of the information, or think we do. The whole group gets to banish someone each day. It’s often hilarious to me that the worse players of the game get through to the end because The Traitors keep them around. If a traitor is found, then they can recruit, which means that you can never run out of traitors until the very end. I therefore believe the best way to play the game is to actually vote out useless Faithfuls early on, because as the game goes on, the numbers are less and their vote at banishment has more power. And if you can’t trust them not to be swayed by a manipulative bastard then they’re no use to you. This happened in the Australian version a lot.
I love chatting with my Mum about the show, she’s a bit more obsessed than me. (Hi Mum!) She finished the last Australian series a week before me and was bursting to talk to me about it, but she had to wait as I caught up. The Aussie version is less polite. They’re more inclined to openly accuse people and question each other directly when they get a chance. And I think by happenstance, the endings of the two Aussie series have been the best, particularly the second series. I have never sworn as much at my TV as I did during that series and I was so happy when the ending happened and there was a delightful twist. It was so good, I could taste the deliciousness of it.
Overall, it’s a fun watch, get on it.
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