- Network: Peacock
- Series Premiere Date: Dec 1, 2022
Critic Reviews
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It’s a difficult thing to pull off, making something that is both profoundly unserious and completely riveting. The Traitors manages to do this. It is so well-made. You will finish the first episode desperate to know what happens in the second.
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The Traitors is not resting on its laurels. As a study of human behaviour – of deception, manipulation, self-preservation – it remains captivating. As perhaps the best example of social experiment-style reality TV, it has cemented its place in the cultural firmament.
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Of course, it wouldn’t be an episode of The Traitors without a frustrating cliffhanger, and we will have to wait until tonight’s episode to find out if the group have sniffed out their first Traitor already. Cruel? Maybe, but that’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from the best reality series on TV.
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Are you bored with it yet? I find that I’m not. Even though, despite a few tweaks, the main beats remain the same.
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If we must have reality TV shows, this is probably the best of the bunch. No one thus far seems to be in the calibre of last year’s winner, Harry Clark, who played a (ruthless) blinder, and I can’t imagine any will be. We’ll soon see.
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This third season of The Traitors is, naturally, more self-aware. Contestants know the various gameplans employed, know that the producers keep several cards up their sleeves. There is a sense that competitors want to guarantee more screentime by playing games within the games, presumably at the encouragement of the production team.