On paper, it sounds a bit tepid. In reality, I am devouring each episode with multiple text chats on the go. This is White Lotus meets Big Brother 1 – the most addictive show in ages
How much do I love The Traitors? One hundred per cent. It’s my 100%, I 100% believe in it, 100% I am a faithful (to this show and its many innovative uses of “100%”). The BBC has waited until the end of the year to slide out what is turning into one of its most exciting series in ages, and I’m not sure how many people could have seen it coming. Claudia Winkleman in a castle in the Highlands, presiding over a group of people playing what is essentially the party game Mafia over several days, with some I’m a Celebrity-style outdoor activities (minus the reputation laundering) to break up all the talking? On paper, it sounds perfectly fine if relatively tepid.
Cut to three weeks later and I am watching each episode with multiple text chats on the go, as if in charge of an air traffic control tower at Heathrow. This is masterly reality TV. For the uninitiated, most players are faithfuls. Some are chosen, by a secret tap on the shoulder from Claudia, as traitors. If the faithfuls manage to weed out all the traitors, they win the money (which they are all – traitors included – jointly earning through successfully completing their team-bonding activities). If one or all of the traitors manage to lie their way to the end of the competition by persuading everyone that they are faithfuls then they get the money. People can be banished as suspected traitors at the nightly round tables; the traitors can murder faithfuls overnight. It’s The White Lotus meets Big Brother 1.
