Enhance Productions

• Host: Alan Cumming
• Release Date: January-March 2024
• Genre: Reality Competition
• Network: Peacock
• No. of Episodes: 11
• MPAA Rating: TV-14

DISCLAIMER: There will be MINOR SPOILERS in this review. I will not spoil most of the eliminations, but I want to talk about the first few rounds in this game as well as a couple of episodes that stood out to me. So I won’t spoil anything past episode 7.

The Traitors is a reality show based on the Dutch series De Verraders. It takes place in the Andross Castle in the Scottish Highlands. The premise of the game is that twenty or more people move into a castle where three of them are “traitors”. Each night, the “traitors” must murder one of the “faithful” players. After each murder, it is up to the “faithfuls” to find out who the traitors are among them and vote to banish them. The banished player must reveal whether they were a faithful or traitor before leaving the castle forever. Every day, all players will compete in challenges to add money to the prize pot that goes up to $250,000. If even one traitor makes it to the end, they take all the money. 

For this season, the cast is all celebrities instead of half celebrities and half civilians last season. Most of the public figures are from reality shows such Survivor, Big Brother, The Real Housewives, The Challenge, Love Island and several more. However, the cast also includes a politician from the UK, Michael Jordan’s son, a boxer and a player from last season who joins midway. This is a stacked cast filled with a lot of reality legends and entertaining personalities. 

Faithful or Traitor? The game has begun 🗡👀🇺🇸 be sure to catch all episodes of #TheTraitorsUS on @peacock pic.twitter.com/cUSTuUGnEO

— The Traitors US 🗡 (@TheTraitorsUS) January 12, 2023

I have a confession: I love these kinds of reality shows. I have watched shows like Survivor, Big Brother, Amazing Race and Hell’s Kitchen for years. Something about watching a bunch of strangers compete for a big cash prize in harsh conditions and crazy challenges. Seeing the remaining competitors become more ruthless as they get closer to the end is also fun to watch. I first became interested in The Traitors when I heard some Survivor and Big Brother players would be on it- particularly Survivor winners Parvati Shallow and Sandra Diaz-Twine and Big Brother winner Dan Gheesling. I have been watching these guys since high school. So I decided to give the second season a look, asking: How does The Traitors compare to my other favorite reality shows?

The setting for The Traitors makes for an enjoyable and campy reality game show. From the beginning of the show, Alan picks two or three people to become “traitors” by silently tapping their shoulder and the room is filled with tension. There is one person who claimed to feel a brush of wind and used that to put suspicion on another player. That is only the first bit of messiness this game has to offer because as the days continue, it gets much messier.

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A post shared by Dan Gheesling (@dangheesling)

I find the gameplay on this show to be very interesting. Watching the “traitors” blend in with the “faithfuls” and deflect suspicion to other “faithfuls” or themselves is a joy to watch. As someone who roots for the “traitors”, it is fun to watch them pick targets who seem like ones no one would expect and convince the other faithfuls that they are innocent. That is not to say that the “faithfuls” do not scheme themselves. A large element in this game involves shields that protect “faithful” players from being murdered that night. The players who get shields are hidden from the “traitors”, and play in hopes of getting the “traitors” to target shield-having “faithfuls”, which would earn the “traitor” a failed murder attempt. Every player has a hand in the strategy this season because the gameplay encourages everyone to be vocal.

My favorite part of The Traitors is the roundtable discussions. They are about five minutes long and consist of players accusing others of being “traitors” while maintaining their own innocence. These are the most dramatic parts of the show, with arguments filling the room. A lot of the show has everyone acting nice, so roundtable discussions are when players get a chance to really say what they have had on their chest.  

My second favorite part of the show is watching the surviving players walk into breakfast each morning. The player who is murdered goes to the confessional and is instantly eliminated, while the rest of the players go to breakfast in pairs or one-by-one as the numbers dwindle. Each breakfast is nail-biting, because I always want to see my favorite “faithfuls” survive. The first murder is one of the most shocking eliminations I have seen in a long time. Not every murder has the same level of surprise, but that does not take away from the suspense of seeing every “faithful” and “traitor” walk in the room.

The players who were picked to be the “traitors” initially could not have been better choices. Dan Gheesling, Parvati Shallow and Phaedra Parks play interesting games with their own strengths and weaknesses. As winners of Big Brother and Survivor respectively, Dan and Parvati bring a lot of strategic fun in this game. Dan directs a big move early on to take out a competitor that I expected to stick around for a while. Parvati gets the most stylish and stressful murder by offering her victim a drink out of a poison chalice, and the scene is glorious to watch. Watching Parvati pull off this task felt like watching her best gameplay in the season of Survivor she won.

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A post shared by Parvati Shallow (@pshallow)

My favorite player this season however? Phaedra Parks from The Real Housewives of Atlanta. I never watch, and have never watched, any Real Housewives show, so I had no clue what to expect from Phaedra as a “traitor”. Phaedra has so much charisma in her personality and so many of her lines are quotable. More than that, it is very interesting to watch someone who is not from a competition reality show navigate the game as a cutthroat “traitor”. While Phaedra lacks the strategic edge of Parvati and Dan, she has by far the best social game of the three. For a while, she avoids any suspicion with her ability to connect to the cast. Even when she gets called out at a roundtable, she fires back like a boxer delivering a knockout punch. Her arguments hit hard and they bring up strong points on why she is not a “traitor”. Phaedra was the star on a season full of stars.

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A post shared by PHAEDRA (@phaedraparks)

Of the “faithfuls”, I really liked Peter Weber from The Bachelor and Sandra Diaz-Twine from Survivor. I knew I would like Sandra because I am already a fan of hers from Survivor. She lays low for a while, but she is probably the most savvy of the “faithfuls” because she understands that she needs to get the other “faithfuls” out so she can make it to the end. Peter, on the other hand, surprised me. I thought he would be annoying, but he has the most daring game of the “faithfuls”. Aside from being the most vocal “faithful”, he devises plans that lead to one “traitor” getting caught. However, his risky nature showcases his flaws too, which makes others suspicious of his actions. Peter is a solid player, but his flaws kept him from being the invincible person who controlled everything, making him very fun to watch.

https://twitter.com/SandraDTwine/status/1765832084180939117?s=20

Not only is the show interesting with how the game plays out, but the production is surprisingly solid. The cinematography looks great and the scenery is stunning. Taking place in a castle in Scotland, the show has plenty of beautiful shots making it feel cinematic. Even the music is memorable. The music that plays when the players enter for roundtable discussions has been stuck in my head for a while. 

Now, I do have some issues with this show. I am not a fan of the twist in “episode 7”. Instead of having a roundtable discussion to banish someone, the episode ends with a ceremony that leaves everyone, except five players, safe. I get why the producers put this ceremony in: to protect the traitors- but it disrupted the flow of the game for me. There had been some strategizing going on between two alliances, and having no banishment only made it more difficult for the remaining traitors to survive the next banishment. I think the roundtables are the best parts of each episode, and cutting it away takes away the drama and stress of each episode. 

Another problem I have is the imbalance of screen-time among the players. I know that this is a tough thing to get right on a show with over twenty players, but some players get biffed in the edit while others get the spotlight. For example, Shereé and Kevin get little screen time compared to Peter and Trishelle. I know that some players are more active than others, but I do think that there can still be better balance among the amount of screen time each player gets.

Last complaint is a minor one, but there is one episode that ends with a cliffhanger, and I do not like it when reality shows do this. I think it is better to find out who gets eliminated so we can focus on the next murder and banishment entirely. There is only one cliffhanger this season, but they just irritate me. In spite of my complaints, the second season of The Traitors (US) is a lot of fun. This is the first new reality competition show I thoroughly enjoyed watching in years. Watching this season makes me want to watch the first season of Traitors and the other versions of the show.

If you are a fan of anyone on the cast, this show is definitely worth giving a shot. The Traitors is dramatic, crazy and most of all, fun. It also has a brutal finale and reunion to cap off an incredibly dramatic competition show.