Warning: spoilers ahead…
Farewell then, to the unmissable second series of The Traitors UK. Presented by everyone’s favourite glam auntie type, Claudia Winkleman, it’s the BBC’s biggest cash cow in years, and with good reason. It’s great fun, and very smart. Essentially, a game like Mafia or Cluedo, but framed as a reality show with twenty two contestants, it’s an apt metaphor for society, masquerading as harmless entertainment.
Winkleman selects traitors in a big castle in the Scottish Highlands, simply by blindfolding them and tapping them on the shoulder. Add fiendish games in eerie locations, the rest of the contestants as faithful who must guess the traitors, and sit back and watch sparks fly. Oh, there’s also the small matter of “murdering” (sending home) contestants one by one, and banishing others from the game, based on stuff they did that pissed them off…
This series has been wonderfully compelling. British players aren’t shy with opinions, nor are they unwilling to lie, or betray those they befriend. There have been meltdowns, accusations, tears, vomit, a poisoned chalice, a mock funeral, slimy toads and altitude sickness…and all to earn a humongous prize of £95,150.
Above all though, it’s the social interaction that is the most engaging factor, and the diversity. All ages, backgrounds and sexual preferences have been selected, which is refreshing to see as an antidote to youth -obsessed television. Sonja, Ash, Tracey and Diane all proved formidable older characters, but were picked off one by one by the male traitors. Quelle surprise. Even Winkleman got a jab in at that, and rightly so.
The sharpest elbows, suffice to say, won. The winner, Harry, is an insufferable twenty two year old who won the game through lbackstabbing, being undeniably really good at the challenges, and ultimately, lying to his supposed friend and ally Mollie in the final. He played a blinder, even though he pronounced “faithful” as ” fateful”, but sadly his youthful hubris and swagger points to the truism that narcissistic behaviour is becoming increasingly enabled and incentivised in our wider culture.
It may only be a game show, but its Shakespearean twists and turns are a great metaphor for unlikeable people rising to the top. It’s been wonderfully exciting TV from the get -go, no matter how camp and ridiculous it gets.
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