The Traitors Australia reaches its final week tonight, with just two episodes remaining as 10 prepares to wrap up one of its biggest reality surprises of the year.
The penultimate episode airs this evening, with the season finale to follow tomorrow night, and after five weeks of addictive gameplay, I think I speak for many others when I say I’m not quite ready for it to be over.
When I reviewed the first episode back in August, I was pleasantly surprised. After being fairly sceptical about 10’s decision to return to the format with a cast made up largely of familiar reality TV faces, I thought the early signs were good.
Five weeks later, I’m no longer wondering whether The Traitors can work in Australia.
It absolutely does.
In fact, it has become one of the most enjoyable shows on Australian television right now, and more importantly, it has become proper watercooler television, with many of us here at TV Blackbox thoroughly enjoying the season.
It’s the kind of show where you find yourself talking about who is lying, who has completely lost the plot, who might be murdered next and whether one particular contestant has any idea what is actually happening.
Every week leaves you wanting more, which is increasingly difficult to achieve in a television landscape where reality formats are constantly trying to outdo each other with bigger twists, bigger personalities and bigger spectacles.
There is something about The Traitors that makes the gameplay itself the entertainment, rather than simply providing a vehicle for whatever drama the producers want to manufacture.
And this season has had another major advantage: everyone came to play.
There haven’t really been any duds, with the cast willing to throw accusations around, make big moves, form alliances, change their minds and, occasionally, spectacularly misread the room.
That’s exactly what you want from The Traitors, and it has made the group remarkably entertaining to watch.
I’ll admit I was dubious when the cast was announced.
Looking at a list of reality TV veterans from The Real Housewives of Sydney, Australian Survivor, Love Island and elsewhere, it was fair to wonder whether we were getting a genuine game of The Traitors or simply a collection of familiar television personalities.
It turns out we got the former.
The cast has also proved unusually varied, with different generations, reality TV backgrounds and personalities all thrown into the same game.
Rather than any one group dominating, they’ve all brought something different to the experience, while Gretel Killeen has proved to be the perfect person to preside over the chaos.
For Evan, a huge fan of the international versions, the biggest surprise has been just how well the casting has come together after his initial doubts.
“Kudos to whoever was responsible for casting this season of Traitors Australia.
As someone who loves the international franchises, I was beyond sceptical of how this semi-reboot season with reality TV veterans would play out.
But boy have they proved me wrong.”
He’s also particularly taken with Keira Maguire, describing her as “blissfully un-self-aware”.
And then there’s Lawson.
“And can someone tell me, is Lawson actually a chess master?!”
Patrick is newer to the Traitors-verse and admits he was initially sceptical when the cast was announced, but the season has managed to win him over too.
“Initially skeptical when the lineup was announced, The Traitors Australia has turned out to be pleasantly surprising and has made for genuinely entertaining TV.”
How are we supposed to make sense of some of the things that come out of Keira Maguire’s mouth? At times, I’m genuinely not sure whether we’re watching the same show, but that’s also exactly what makes her so much fun to watch.
The success of this season also comes down to timing.
When The Traitors Australia last aired, the format wasn’t nearly as familiar to Australian audiences as it is now. Now, after several seasons of the UK, US and other international versions becoming genuine talking points, viewers understand the rules, the language and the mechanics of the game.
That familiarity seems to have helped this Australian season find its audience, with 10 enjoying a much stronger run than it did with the first two attempts at the format several years ago.
For all the twists, murders and deception, there is something wonderfully uncomplicated about The Traitors.
There are no elaborate dating experiments, no couples renovating houses against the clock, no dinner parties descending into chaos and no amateur cooks being told their food isn’t good enough.
Those shows all have their place, but The Traitors is refreshingly simple: get a group of people together, give some of them a secret, and let everyone else try to work out who is lying.
Throw in a castle, a few murders, a Round Table and a growing prize pot and, apparently, that’s all the television we need.
It’s just good, clean fun.
A few white lies, a lot of paranoia and a group of people desperately trying not to get murdered have proved to be more than enough.
Now, with just six players remaining and two Traitors still hiding in plain sight, we’re finally at the point where every decision matters. Kirby Bentley and Rhys Nicholson have just two more nights to convince Josh Packham, Keira Maguire, Krissy Marsh and Tully Smyth that they’re Faithfuls, while the remaining players have almost no room left for error.
The prize pot is within reach, the numbers are dwindling and one wrong decision could change everything. 10 has promised an “epic conclusion”, while Gretel has teased that viewers will be “gobsmacked” by what unfolds.
After this season, I’m quite happy to believe her.
So, will The Traitors Australia return? At this point, I’d be willing to bet everything I had on it. The question isn’t whether 10 brings it back for another round, it’s whether they can possibly top this year’s cast.
I really hope the answer is yes.
