There seems to be a rise of reality TV shows with a difference at the moment – gameshows with a mystery vibe. With the finale of The Traitors just last week and Netflix’s release of The Mole in October, I am in my element. But which comes out on top?

The Traitors (BBC)

“Twenty-two players, all chasing a prize of up to £120,000. In amongst them, three traitors who want to steal it all. Can the others find them before it’s too late? Get them before they get you! Expect trickery, betrayal and backstabbing!”

If you have not heard of The Traitors, where have you been? This is the most talked about reality TV show of the moment, so different from anything that has come before, and I hope it opens the door for more of this type of show in the future.

The premise is simple – twenty-two contestants stay in a large, Scottish castle. They work together each day to top up a lucrative prize pot through a number of daring challenges which test their wisdom, strength and agility. The show begins on an Orient Express-style train journey heading up to the castle in Scotland – an apt setting and a chance for the contestants to get to know one another before the game begins and build some initial alliances, but also a chance for the viewer to get to grips with who’s who. A lovely start – this will be a bit of fun, I thought!

Hosted by Claudia Winkleman, worlds away from her up-beat Strictly persona, she gets to know the contestents in the first couple of days too, and then chooses three to be the brilliantly deadly traitors – the ultimate challenge, with the biggest pay off! Traitors have the most exciting job, meeting in the dead of night in an atmospheric turret of the castle complete with death eater-style robes, choosing who to murder – those who have been chosen will not appear at breakfast the following morning. As the days go on, they keep murdering other contestants who are a threat, in the hopes of winning the money at the end. Sounds easy right?

However, the faithfuls (the non-traitors) will be on their guard the whole time, trying to work out who the traitors are, ready to banish them at the round table meeting at the end of each day. At the end of the game, the faithfuls need to banish all of the traitors and any faithfuls left at the end pocket the cash; if a traitor is left however, and the faithfuls have not been successful in banishing all of the traitors, the traitor/s remaining win all of the money (and it is a lot of money!)

Regardless of whether you are a traitor or a faithful, you work together to earn money for the prize pot – at the end of the day, it could be yours so you do not want to let the team down. A couple of the challenge highlights for me included when some of the contestants got buried alive whilst others had to find them in a treasure hunt, and when they conducted a robbery where they had to dodge lazers James Bond-style. To be honest though, the challenges, although fun and added a bit of light relief to the show, are the least interesting part.

Instead, I most enjoyed the snippets of daily chat during the contestants down-time, as well as the discussions around the round table just before the daily banishment. What was fasinating was how so easily people could be swayed to think a certain thing or vote a certain way (herd menatility at its best!), and how paranoid everyone became – with contestants constantly swearing their innocence – ‘I am 100% faithful!’ being uttered again and again.

During the show, there were twists and turns galore, all adding extra flavour to the show – traitors backstabbing one another, the option for the traitors to recruit more, the introduction of a shield to protect contestants from the highly-feared nightly murder, and for faithfuls to walk away with some of the prize fund during a simple evening game. I also enjoyed its version of the Big Brother diary room, where all the contestants could talk freely without fear that someone else would hear them – in here the traitors could offload, share their worries about who might have sussed them out and show just how paranoid and on edge they had become. As I watched, I actually began to feel sorry for the traitors as they had no choice but to lie and cheat to the end – what a delightful burden and I couldn’t tear my eyes away!

The beauty of this show lies in its realism – regular, genuinely diverse people have been chosen, not celeb wannabees seeking fake romances. From a call-centre worker, to a retired teacher, a lawyer to a magician – these people are just like you and me, hoping to win the money. As time went on relationships began to form, alliances made, and you could see how torn the traitors were, lying through their teeth so they wouldn’t be found out – some of the lies were so deep, I could not believe how low they would go to stay hidden. And because you (the viewer) always know who the traitors are, you can see how they are able to puppeteer the other contestants for their own gain – a brilliant element of the show. I couldn’t help rooting for the traitors throughout. I admired how well they were playing the game and getting people onside. As the game played out it became harder and harder for them to keep their secret as they got deeper and deeper into their lies – emotions run high constantly throughout the show and this pulls you in even more as a viewer.

At the end of the series someone goes home with the monumental prize fund – will it by the traitors or the faithfuls? You will need to watch it to find out! No spoilers here!

The Mole (Netflix)

“Welcome to a new generation of deception – twelve strangers will compete together with a common goal – to complete missions and get paid. But there is one player with a secret mission – sabotage.”

Another interesting premise with a group of contestants working together through missions to put money into a prize pot. The key difference here is that a mole (one of the contestants) is trying to manipulate people, sabotage the tasks and lose money for the group. In contrast to The Traitors, the viewer is also not aware of who the mole is throughout the show. This definitely makes the missions more interesting than those in The Traitors – I found I was constantly second guessing the contestants trying to work out who the saboteur was. If someone makes a simple mistake in a task, everyone, including me, began hurling mole-related accusations at the screen!

Mission are definitely more extreme in The Mole, and the locations are more lavish. As the show is set in Australia, many of the tasks are set in beautiful mountains and contestents need high agility to get through the climbing and hiking elements. Highlights for me though were when the missions had more of a puzzle element, including the episodes involving a bank heist, prison break and a lie detector test with high stakes.

There is no murder or banishment in this game – the group gets smaller through a quiz at the end of each day. All the contestants need to do is answer a series of questions about the mole. The mole, of course, will get all of the questions correct, so will stay in until the end; the contestant with the least correct answers at the end of each day is sent home. This is where it becomes harder for the contestants as they need to gather information about each other (where everyone are from, their job, age, whether they are married, etc) as well as sussing out who could be sabotaging the missions, by observing the behaviour of the other players. The finale of each episode again revolves around a large imposing table and involves a lot of recapping – the reveal of who is going to leave takes a long time as the contestants wait until either a green or a red light shines on them through a phone – high drama indeed, but I feel they do milk it too much – it got very samey and I ended up fast-forwarding these bits.

Similarly to The Traitors, there are twists and turns – opportunities for contestants to peek at files about the other contestants (at a price of course), chances to buy immunity from the quiz, and the opportunity to bring back former contestants, all adding extra excitement to the show. Discussions are also had between the players, with each questioning the other, which add an interesting touch. As well, they talk directly to the camera in a secret room, similarly to The Traitors, with the viewer knowing full-well one of them is outright lying! But who?

Whilst I enjoyed the show, I did miss the fact that I didn’t know who the mole was. I also got the feeling that clever editing meant that the mole would be a secret all the way until the end (which it was!); only on the reveal did certain clips get shown. Great to create atmosphere and tension, and I did end up binge-watching it so it did its job, but I would have liked to have known who the mole was so that I could see how they were sabotaging the missions and attempting to lose the the money.

My Verdict

Whilst I really enjoyed watching both of these shows, The Traitors is the clear winner in my eyes. The diverse set of contestents and the real (and often paranoia-filled) conversations elevate this from your typical reality gameshow. Also, and most crucial for me, having the knowledge of who the traitors are from the get-go adds an extra juicy, jaw-dropping layer to proceedings – the depths that the traitors end up going to knows no bounds. I was applauding its cleverness from my sofa as the cliff hangers rolled in – Bravo BBC, I can’t wait for series 2!

Check out both The Traitors on BBC iPlayer and The Mole on Netflix now.