Oct 10

Oct 10 010 - Mushroom Kingdom Here We Come!

THE MOLE

Hey, it's been a while since I got to talk about game shows. How novel.

Since 2019, audiences have become really big on “sabotage” games, from Among Us, to Jackbox’s “Push the Button” to game shows such as the cooking show “Rat in the Kitchen”, the realty show “Snake in the Grass” and the quiz show “The Hustler in the Craig Ferguson Library”.

But time and time again, these sabotage games gets compared to one thing – The Mole.

As is common with EVERY American with social media, the only version that matters is the American Version with Anderson Cooper (or Ahmad Rashad or Jon Kelly) unaware it's based off of a Belgium series called “de mol” currently on the air hosted by my best friend, Gilles de Coster. Or the Dutch version “Wie Is De Mol” hosted by Rik van de Westelaken.

Or various versions such as in Australia, The UK or that one awkward Polish version called “Agent”.

So, anyway, it's no surprise that The Mole has returned, this time on Netflix, this time with a different production company – Eureka, and this time with all the thrill of a Netflix reality series.

First I'll talk about the good – the music in this show very good, taking cues from Belgium, and remixing them. Next, is the show’s host Alex Wagner. Coming from “The Circus” and now becoming MSNBC’s Successor to the Rachael Maddow primetime throne, she's playing the journalist host. In some ways, this is great, because the audience could be in her position of inquisitive thinking and asking of questions, but in many other ways – the host of the mole is always very weird.

In many other versions, the host knows who the mole is, in one twist the host actually got to choose who the mole was during the game. But to keep the trend, she's playing journalist, and like figuring out “why trump took the classified documents to maralago” in the save gravitatas as “who decided to look in a dossier and forfeit $10,000 for the team pot”

The challenges are brand new and unlike previous “oopsie doodle switcheroo” they now are just Belgium challenges made easier to understand, because we Americans are dumb dumbs. Every mission so far in the first 5 episodes has already been played, but used as a “critical beat “ – from the two bunkers, to eating fake desserts with a bomb at the table, to eliminated contestant has a second chance to enter the game.

But where as Belgium has Jokers, adding a correct answer to a 10 question test, and exemptions are rarity, America loves handing it out as if they are hidden immunity idols – again the game theory is not really something celebrated in this version.

This tells me there will never be a version of The Genius Game, because somebody would have to explain 1-2-3 like audiences don’t know 3 is more than 2.

Anyway, In addition to the exemptions, most of the missions have been worth $10,000. Which is good in theory, but it's nearly impossible, and are either all or nothing, or with twists that are just “forfeit for the advantage”. There have been 3 challenges involving “getting the item and bring it back” – episode one with red case cargo, episode three with the “treasure hunt” in the great barrier reef, and episode 5 with the postal service – instead of two missions and a quiz, we're getting one mission and a quiz, and the quiz is very lengthy. 20 questions, and it's mostly dossier information. Instead of memory recall “what team was the mole in” “did the mole win the exemption this week” and 8 others about the show we just saw, it’s questions like “What color are the moles eyes” and “what is the moles star sign” and “does the mole have a dog” – which doesn't really value the game at hand, but understandably, I can figure out why. They want to build the Intel Gathering part of the spy show and getting info from your other contestants to create hedging.

But what I have found more exciting, has been 10 questions and jokers. Just giving one person a “freebie” on the quiz means more than exemption cards, so if you can win 3 of them and carry them in your game, it's as good as an exemption, unless you are on the wrong track in the quiz.

Netflix has also casted contestants that can best be described as “We Said No To Them On Too Hot To Handle and The Circle, but hope they'll do this” and based on the confidential, sound like they want to be in that Netflix “Reality All Star” so they can be a judge on Is It Cake Season Two.

The show is VERY SLOW, and because of the pacing, and it being Netflix, expect very awkward cliffhangers. Not just “who is getting eliminated” but “hey do you want to take the exemption or $15,000?” or “and did you get enough money to get the goal? You got…” it's just unnecessary and really made me want to quit watching. I’ll gladly have taken an Alex Wagner escorts the executed player from the game and then looks in the camera and says “The Next Sabotage Begins in 5...4…3…”

The show is set in Australia and has really good visuals, however I'm getting REALLY SICK AND TIRED of “Sliding Tile Transitions” in reality shows. I see it in Hell’s Kitchen. I see it in The Circle, they even tried it on The Amazing Race. It's just awkward and tacky. I get it – 24 is a successful show and it gives the appearance of “real time” however, when it becomes too common, you might as well have wood block and “Reality Show Siren” or “Bowed Cymbol”.

What I love about the foreign versions has been cinematography. Amazing Drone Shots, Crane Shots, Graphics that are overlayed and look like glitchy/hacky/sci-fi, instead of orange blocky cartoon that looks like something straight out of Nickelodeon.

I find the show to be boring, you can only escape room puzzle so many times and treasure hunt so many times before you get bored. And that's typically not the mole, they have “quizzes about the location” they have “ziplines and physically drop things into buckets. Nothing really skillful has been played so far other than “pick up a bag from a moving train “ and “go through a laser maze”

After these 5 episodes, next week is 3 episodes and then a final 2 in the week after. While I'll try and make sense of this in the paywalled version of this podcast, I can tell you, the audience I have now, I was disappointed by it.

The funniest part about this show is the elimination segments, where instead of a thumbprint on a TV screen, it's now looking at a “mobile device” at either a BLINDING GREEN LIGHT (like holy shit, arc of the covenant blinding) or a very dull, but still blinding “red light”.

I think if you are an American who hasn't seen The Mole since Anderson Cooper, you might like it. If you're international, you'll think this is a mole tribute concert of “great missions made bland” and if you've never seen this show in your life - you'll think it's boring.

The ‘Spy Thriller is back, but with shows like “The Traitors” coming around the corner, the debate rages on if the mole can keep up it's Sabotage mantle, or if the younger format can keep up.

I give it a 2 out of 5.