Qui est la taupe ? (États-Unis)

I love nearly all competition reality shows including previous versions of The Mole and I'm usually an easy audience. I also worked for years as a reality tv and game show producer. With that said, this show is disappointing to me for two main reason.

First, it's an unusually unlikable cast. I'm struggling to find anyone to root for. The only person I like is the host.

Second, nearly all commentary throughout the show are just contestants accusing each other of being the mole for any reason. This would be fine if it felt sincere, but it doesn't. It's like the producers decided that constant, empty, accusations without substance would be an easy way to produce the show. It's exceptionally hollow...even by reality show standards.

I REALLY wanted to like this.

I am a huge fan of the original series: The mole Belgium (De Mol), that is running since 1998 and has 10 seasons and more to come.

Also I like the Dutch version (with celebrities), Wie is de mol? Which has done 20+ seasons.

Now I am enjoying this Netflix version set in beautiful Australia. The landscapes and locations are great, the group not so much. They are a bit to sporty, goodlooking and "in to it" for my taste. I would have loved a more diverse group, different body types etc.

The games and missions look very familiar is you're a The Mole Belgium fan, a lot is copied from season 9, which was set in Germany.

The part that's missing for me is the interaction between the contestants on location, that is we're the original series is so strong, you really live with the kandidates and can do your own mole search.

I don't think it's bad. I do think they fall into some of the same pitfalls that plague so many other reality shows.

The weird thing is that this version is very clearly based on the latest Belgian run (some games are almost literal copies) but they don't quite get why that version is superior.

* You barely see people interacting when not playing a game.

* The constant skipping to the interviews/contestant voice overs make it seem very scripted. They need to limit those. Let the action and interactions speak for itself.

* Notebooks! Bring back the notebooks!

* Diversity. What you have is a group of people from a fairly narrow age range (25-40) who all look like they could start a modelling career and whose hobby is cross fit. Diversity is more than a bunch of attractive millennials with a different skin color. The Belgian runs have people between 18 and 50+. It's their personalities and different experiences that bring so much more to the game.

* I do like the use of cell phones instead of the large screen they use in the Belgian version.

* I didn't like the "ending on a cliffhanger" of the episodes. Why does everything have to end on a cliffhanger? Just finish after the selection. It destroys the pacing of the episodes because the elimination should be the emotional high point of the episode. Not the lead in.

* More of a personal note but the Belgian presenter, Gilles de Coster, has a very dry, factual way of interacting with the contestants during the games. I think that works better than Alex Wagner's.

If you want to see how good it can be, try and find the current Belgian version (especially series 9 (Germany) ).

It's hard to know whether some of these people are just ridiculously thick, or if they are the mole. You spend a lot of the time thinking "if there's only one mole, why did 2 people simultaneously make the dumbest possible choice?".

It's not scripted, but it's not entirely real either. Netflix keeps pumping out this sort of show, 70% reality, 30% people being told what to say or do, or at the very least being guided in a specific direction.

There's a specific challenge right near the beginning where it's clear the dude knew where to look for an object that really changed the game up. Without him finding it there would have been very little drama, and it just seemed implausible to me he would have found it unless told "go check over there" by a producer.

It's great fun, but infuriating at times. At one point there is entirely self destructive behaviour for absolutely no reason, and you do keep asking yourself "does anyone here actually deserve this money?". I started to really enjoy it once I started rooting for everyone to fail, which I'm not sure was the shows intention.

The revival doesn't hold a candle to ABC's Season 1 & 2. I feel a lot of the cast members are caricatures and the production team's edits are very suspect (such as the countdown clocks, contestant confessionals, and how the missions are structured). In contrast to earlier seasons, we really don't get a full sense of the competitors' motivations. I really can't say that I'm rooting for any particular player to bring home the prize money. The show is a way to eat up my time; I'm not as fully engaged in it as I thought I would be. This is because very few of the missions are exciting. Many of the games have ambiguous rules or just seem downright impossible. I felt lost when I tried to make sense of some of them, especially the Detonator mission and the bank heist mission.

Alex Wagner is a fair host. She has a good mixture of motherly warmth and seriousness. I can't rate her as highly as host Anderson Cooper, who incidentally also is a journalist.

The aforementioned ABC seasons were set in France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and Monaco. This season in Australia simply doesn't have that same spark.

It's just another scripted reality show. Watch at your own leisure but be prepared to be let down.