Good afternoon, squiders! First things first, SkillShare finally got back to me about my class (a MONTH and two tickets after I emailed them that I had fixed it, so not wild about their support) and it is fixed and live. It’s here, if you’re interested. It’s about Genre.
So, a few weeks ago, the smaller, mobile one and I started watching The Traitors, which is a game show on NBC which is essentially Among Us in Real Life. (It, like many other shows, is the American version of the British show, which is in itself based off another show. Dutch, maybe?)
(And, of course, Among Us is based off other, older games like Werewolf and Mafia.)
It plays very much like Among Us. There’s three “traitors” hidden among the “faithful” (like the imposters and crew), everyone works together to complete missions (like the tasks), there’s a round table each night where everyone votes someone off (like the meetings in Among Us), and if a traitor is still in the running at the end of the game, they win no matter what (same as in Among Us).
We blew through Season 1, which I really enjoyed. There were 20 people, half of whom had been on other reality shows, and half of whom were just normal people. I got into the strategy and the game play and was invested in who was going to win.
It made me nostalgic for the depths of lockdown, when I could play Among Us for an hour or so every day with my friends. Now we never play at all because everyone’s busy, and they’ve changed the game anyway so it’s not quite as psychological as it used to be.
Season 2 is currently airing, so we gave ourselves a few days to revel in Season 1 and then started Season 2.
Oh, squiders. Oh no.
For Season 2 they decided they’d do only reality show people. And it is awful. I’m not a reality show person. I don’t see the appeal in watching loud people be mean to each other. The normal people in Season 1 tamped down the stupid drama from the reality people. There was still a bit, but it wasn’t bad and it wasn’t that annoying.
But with Season 2 it’s everywhere. I want to watch the game, not the drama. Did we need the drama? Arguably no. It’s stupid and it’s petty and it is annoying, and the game is getting lost. If I wanted to watch drama I’d watch the other shows, you know?
And the parts I liked–the strategizing and trying to guess what people were going to do, especially in response to the twists the show throws in–are also getting lost. And there’s been some neat twists in Season 2, like the traitors having to murder someone in plain sight! But I can’t even appreciate them around everything else.
Maybe it’ll get better. Maybe as we have less and less players the drama will die down a bit and we’ll focus more on the game. Or not.
I have to wonder–is this season doing better than the last? Did other people want more drama? Who decided this was a good thing?
Alas, squiders, alas.
Are you a reality TV person? Are you watching The Traitors, and if so, what is your opinion on this season versus the last? Feelings about drama in game shows in general?
