Million Dollar Secret

I'm not much of a reality tv fan, nor did I ever drink the kool-aid regarding "The Traitors". When it boils down to it, I'm sure there is overlap with many shows of these kinds. Simply put: abandon your preconceived notions and comparatives, and just enjoy the ride for now.

The show is quite grasping and I love the diversity of its cast (though I probably would've included a few more brown people just to hit the nail). The contestants are your typical, every day American folk, which makes them more relatable. As viewers, we essentially become hidden spectators, gaining access into the Machiavellian insights of our cast as they all vie for these funds. It's quite interesting observing how quickly these members switch allegiances as well. As everyone competes for the one-million dollar prize, hoarded in a box by some unfortunate contestant, the show really encapsulates the greed, covetousness and incipient corruption that gradually consumes the guests one by one. They can trust no one. And we, as viewers, can't seem to trust them, either.

This is the most engaging show I've ever watched so far. I finished the whole show just by a night binge watching it. There were so many plot twists in the show and you can't really guess who the millionaire was. The missions in the games were quite interesting. Accomplishing those missions allow the millionaire to have a power in the game and that made the show even more interesting. The host also did a very good job in moderating the show. I just love his voice tone and poker face. His contribution in the show is overwhelming. The production was superb and managed to keep you feel excited for the entire show.

This gameshow starts off with 12 contestants who visit a massive mansion, Peter Serafinowicz calls The Stag. All of these contestants get given a box and one of the boxes contains 1 million dollars in cash. Whoever has the money has to keep it a secret from everybody else and try to survive each elimination dinner where each contestant votes for who they think is the millionaire. To help the millionaire out they are given certain advantages like gaining an extra vote at the elimination dinner or getting the chance to randomly move the money to another player's box (which is good because then they don't have a secret to keep and they can try to find the money later,) but they only get these advantages if they complete a secret agenda like hugging every other contestant or getting at least 3 people to say "Justin Timberlake" without referring to one of his songs.

But at the elimination dinner there's not much incentive for the guests to find the millionaire because if they do the millionaire leaves and their money just moves to another random box. It would be better if everyone who voted for the millionaire got a little prize like 10,000 dollars. At one point this resulted in some of the contestants wanting to vote out another strong contestant who they knew wasn't the millionaire instead of doing what they were supposed to do and voting out the millionaire.

Inbetween the elimination dinners the contestants also have to play games and the winners get to go to the Trophy Room where they get a clue about the millionaire. These games start off good, for example the first game is very intense because the contestants are split into 6 pairs and in each pair one person has to unlock 3 padlocked gates each with a set of four keys next to them before the other person releases a dog from behind a coded gate. But as time goes on the games get a bit boring to watch and it makes you think the producers started to run out of ideas. For example in one of the later games the contestants are split into 2 teams and each player has to choose between a dish with a yummy desert on it or a yuck dessert on it which looks nice but is actually made from disgusting ingredients. And the other team has to guess who choose the yummy or yuck desserts.

For me this made the middle episodes of the gameshow seem a little boring but as time went on the millionaire had to play more strategically in order to keep their secret. As more people got voted out the millionaire also found it harder to keep their secret because the other players had a higher chance of guessing who they were.

I also thought it was a bit ridiculous at times how emotional the guests got when they got voted out and in between games when they would argue about who they thought had the money. So I would have preferred them to show more game time and less emotions on screen. So overall the gameshow started off good, went a bit bad in the middle and then got more intense and exciting at the end.

The biggest flaw of this reality show is that (at least so far through 3 episodes) there is absolutely no incentive to lie or manipulate if you're not the millionaire. This essentially just turns it into X number of contestants against 1 person.

Lying can only be used against you here, as the person who gets the most votes against them is voted out. If the millionaire gets voted out, the money just cycles back to someone else.

Want to stick your neck out and lie about something someone said or did? Well now you've just put suspicion on yourself and, more importantly, accomplished nothing.

If there were reasons for people to lie like extra money, votes, immunity, etc this would be a lot more entertaining. However, with the way it stands the people "making waves" are just putting targets on their own backs and getting themselves voted out.

The best strategy in this game would be to tell people you're the millionaire, and be honest about every piece of information you get. Have to make a smiley face out of your food at dinner to get 3 extra votes? Tell everyone you're going to do it. Why would anyone vote you out right away when you're relaying all the information? Vote people out who question the method, and then mix it up when there's 3-4 people left. I realize the producers would never let this happen, but the fact that it would be the best chance to win is bad design.

I doubt I will revisit this when new episodes drop, but it's not the worst.

Bored and nothing worthy to watch. So decided to watch this show, and so pleased that I did.

Firstly Peter Serafinowicz as the shows host was a class act and delivered an amazing performance.

The show content was really good with twists and turns, keeping you guessing or shouting at the tv in happy frustration.

I binge watched this because I was hooked and back to being bored at the poor tv Netflix is releasing I hope they will make a second season and quickly.

Give it a whirl, I hope you won't be disappointed I wasn't. Just give it the chance it deserves.

Role on a second season 9/10 perfection.