Stream It Or Skip It?

It can be difficult to keep a popular competition show fresh; producers must feel serious pressure to create new challenges and twists every season, and right off the bat, it’s clear that the new season of The Traitors on Peacock is going to be full of surprises that mess with the existing formula in a good way. As always, the show brings together a group of celebrities at a Scottish castle who then need to suss out which of them are Traitors and which are Faithfuls, but thanks to at least one new rule, one Traitor has yet to be revealed to both the audience and their fellow Traitors, adding a whole new layer to the game (and ensuring we’ll need to re-watch it when it’s all over to find clues we missed).

THE TRAITORS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: Host Alan Cumming sets a lantern aglow, and purrs, “Be not afraid of the dark, be afraid of what lies within it.”

The Gist: As in past seasons of U.S. version of The Traitors, an assortment of reality stars and other celebrities have gathered at a castle in Scotland for fun and games and murder. Every season, the cast can be broken down into a few categories. These categories never change, it’s like when Janis is telling Cady about the types of people you’ll meet at their high school in Mean Girls: you’ve got your Bravo People, regular reality stars, competitive gamers, athletic hotties, performers, and randos (relatives of famous people, the occasional British royal).

Repping the Bravolebrities this year are Real Housewives Candiace Dillard Bassett, Porsha Williams, Dorinda Medley Caroline Stanbury, and Lisa Rinna. (I guess you could argue that Top Chef host Kristen Kish is also a Bravolebrity but she’s more “other reality star” to me.) The gamers are reality contestants who have appeared previously on competitive shows and know a thing or two about cunning and manipulation. These folks are Ian Terry and Tiffany Mitchell from Big Brother, and Rob Cesternino, Yamil “Yam Yam” Arocho and Natalie Anderson from Survivor. The “other reality star” category includes The Bachelor‘s Colton Underwood, Mark Ballas (Dancing with the Stars), Monét X Change (RuPaul’s Drag Race), Maura Higgins (Love Island USA Aftersun), and Rob Rausch (Love Island USA). Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski rep the athletes, for performers we’ve got singer Eric Nam, actors Stephen Colletti and Michael Rapaport, and comedian Ron Funches. This year’s “rando” is Taylor Swift’s future mother-in-law, Donna Kelce.

In the season’s first big shift, Cumming doesn’t even allow the contestants to get acquainted (although some, mainly the Bravolebrities, are already well-acquainted) before telling them he will be choosing one of them to be a Traitor in plain sight. He does this by showing each person the contents of a box, and the one person who sees a Traitor card inside theirs becomes the Secret Traitor, whose identity will not be revealed to the audience or their fellow Traitors until the time is right. Already, I’m hooked. Cumming later selects three more people to become Traitors in the usual fashion while blindfolded at a round table. He chooses Lisa Rinna, Candiace Dillard Bassett and Rob Rausch, who all relish their new roles (and immediately agree to be loyal to each other, unlike the diabolical antics of last season’s Traitors). Unlike in the past, where the Traitors would convene and vote nightly on a Faithful to murder, this time around, the Secret Traitor will create a shortlist of names that the rest of the Traitors have to choose from. Another twist that feels exciting and fresh… especially because the Secret Traitor doesn’t know the identities of the other Traitors, meaning they can be on the shortlist.

The remaining contestants, the Faithfuls, compete with the Traitors in a series of challenges by day, and my night, they try to decipher who are the Traitors in their midst, and they hold a vote around an often heated and emotional round table to banish someone from the show, hopefully a Traitor. By the end of the season, the goal is for every Traitor to be banished and for the remaining Faithfuls to split the spoils of their prize pot.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Traitors has become its own thing, a reality star-filled riff on Clue. But there is an element of strategy to the show that involves deciphering the truth from lies and manipulation, developing alliances and using one’s Spidey senses that’s akin to Survivor, Big Brother and The Mole, which is one reason so many stars from shows like those tend to do well here.

Our Take: I’ve often wondered what The Traitors would be like if the audience didn’t know who the real Traitors were. It would make for a very different show (heck, it might not even be possible to pull off) but with this season’s new changes, we’re at least offered a small taste of what that could be like. Not knowing the identity of the Secret Traitor is a clever addition that changes the way the game is played, ensuring that the show itself doesn’t get stale, and even prevents contestants who are familiar with the show from getting too self-assured and confident.

In general, this show is always very gamer and Real Housewives-heavy, and this season is no different. While the mix of personalities is still fun, you can’t help but wonder about the possibilities if the casting were a little more random and a little less formulaic. (Maybe I’m just a little wistful, having recently watched the Celebrity Traitors UK which was a delightful mix of British presenters and actors. Who’s our U.S. equivalent of Stephen Fry? Because this show needs that.) The show’s success ultimately lies with the cast and their personalities – it’s early yet, and we’ve heard from plenty of the louder personalities (Michael Rapaport) but hopefully soon, some of the more quiet competitors will speak up, because that’s when the show usually starts to get interesting.

Performance Worth Watching: Even if you’re not into the show for the competition, Alan Cumming is worth the price of admission.

Sex And Skin: None. 

Parting Shot: “I need to know who the Secret Traitor is. Reveal yourself, sir or ma’am. Where are you?!” Candiace says in her final confessional of the episode, after having received the Secret Traitor’s shortlist of competitors to kill. I think it’s safe to say she speaks for all of us.

Sleeper Star: There are always a couple contestants that end up stealing the show. It’s a little tough to predict who that will be this season, but I’d like to see Donna Kelce, Monet X Change and Ron Funches have a good run here.

Most Pilot-y Line: “Let’s tell these idiots to save us!” Natalie Anderson, one of the more competitive gamers, says when she suggests forming an alliance with an opposing team during the first mission.

Our Call: STREAM IT! This season of The Traitors offers several big changes, fortunately all for the better.

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How To Watch The Traitors

Peacock currently offers two subscription types: Premium with ads and Premium Plus ad-free. Peacock Premium costs $10.99/month, while Premium Plus costs $16.99/month.

You can save a bit by subscribing to one of Peacock’s annual plans, which give you 12 months for the price of 10. These cost either $109.99 with ads or $169.99 without ads.

Peacock Premium Plus is also available to subscribe to via Prime Video with a seven-day free trial that you can’t get by subscribing directly on Peacock.

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Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.