Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Television Tuesday: "The Traitors," Season 2 is Over-The-Top, Absurd, and Quite Entertaining

"The Traitors," as a franchise has occurred in multiple countries. It is basically like those tabletop games of, "Mafia," or, "Werewolf," where a number of participants are innocent and working together but a small number are malicious and trying to kill everyone else. In, "The Traitors," there are faithful and the titular traitors. Every night the traitors, "Kill," a faithful who leaves the game, and then the next day all the faithful (with the traitors posing as being legit) debate someone who needs to be banished due to how they seem suspicious. The first season of the American-geared version of the show was a hoot with Alan Cumming hosting and a mix of public figures (reality stars, athletes, actors) with regular folks. Season 2 has made it just folks who are familiar with a degree of fame (unlike the UK version of the show which just had a season entirely made up of people living private lives) and Cumming is back, dripping with camp in his crazy outfits, and wild pronouncements of whose has been ,"Murrrrrdered." It's silly good fun.

It is incredibly hard to win, "The Traitors," if you're a faithful because a single traitor remaining at the end means they get and split the money with other traitors. Faithful can win, but traitors generally need to turn on each other--and intriguingly often do in an effort to avoid their own exposure (after all, throwing a, "Friendly," traitor to everyone without outright giving them away as the rules forbid can keep you safe). As the show apparently films over a relatively brief 2 or so weeks some big names in reality television showed up for the second season, which has been fantastic and apparently getting really good viewership. "Big Brother," legends such as Dan Gheesling and Janelle Pierzina are here along with MJ from, "Shahs of Sunset," and some, "Survivor," alums in addition to sports figures, Real Housevies such as Phaedra Parks, and more including a random former politician from Great Britan, John Bercow (everyone else has commented how idiosyncratic his inclusion is).

The show has everyone accomplish tasks as a group to win money and there is plenty of in-between downtime where people can scheme/be suspicious of each other. If you are familiar with a chunk of the reality stars that adds a fun extra element to the show, but even people I did not know well (I never really watched, "Survivor," for example) know their way around television and keep us on our toes. "The Traitors," has been having a fantastic second season and is a much-needed hit for Peacock, a streaming service I previously argued is underrated. Should you have Peacock or want to even try a trial subscription I'd highly recommend watching the first season of, "The Traitors," to get your metaphorical footing and then go ahead and dive into this latest season--it's a deadly fun time!

5 out of 5 Stars.


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