We’re three episodes into The Traitors and it’s as entertaining as it ever is, we’re three missions in and they’ve done a bold thing of tying them into the game a bit more – one involving the Traitors having to sabotage in order to murder which is a great added frisson except the producers will contrive to have five people for the final anyway so actually completely pointless – you’ve tried to solve jank with jank! But more irritatingly, the other two have both involved self-sacrifice – who will knock themselves out – or be convinced to knock themselves out – so that everybody else will live and possibly earn money?
This comes off the back of current Amazon non-hit Beast Games where it feels like 80% of the challenges are self-sacrificing ones. Who will knock themselves out for money? Who will knock themselves out for no money but for other people to survive? Who will knock themselves out for money whilst also knocking out other people who will win nothing? Who will give their coin to someone else who might give you a helicopter ticket but if not enough people do nobody goes to an island? It feels like every possible combination of the self-sacrifice formula has been played out to death and there have only been four episodes so far.
I’m over it. There is absolutely a time and place for the drama of it, but even Squid Game: The Challenge understood its power is in using it moderately and with an element of risk/reward. As it is, as TV challenge design it’s just become very tired, very lazy, very quickly. Where’s the range gone? Ultimately we want winners who have strived for something, not just fell into a good place because they they don’t want it the least.