‘The Traitors’ evaluation: No quantity of drama compares to Alan Cumming’s resplendent would possibly

TV in 2022 was run by liars. Traitors. Deceivers. Moles. However none of it was hosted by the inimitable Alan Cumming. That modifications now.

Peacock is following the practice of recognition that was BBC’s The Traitors, a “homicide thriller” actuality competitors TV sequence that may immediately make you say “oh, so it’s like Mafia.” The set-up is straightforward: 20 contestants collect in a fort, finishing elaborate missions so as to add to the prize pot that a number of winners will cut up on the finish of the sport. However among the many gamers are three perfidious “Traitors” whose job it’s to deceive their opponents, often called “The Trustworthy.” Every night time, the Traitors resolve which participant to “homicide” — identical to occasion video games Mafia or Werewolf — they usually’re out of the sport. Then, the Traitors have to trick their fellow gamers into voting out or “banishing” these they believe of foul play, whether or not they’re responsible or not.

Like Peacock’s, BBC’s The Traitors is about at a spectacularly Knives Out-y fort within the Scottish Highlands, crammed with colossal chandeliers, unsettling taxidermy, deep Chesterfields, and sure, hidden dungeon rooms. The sequence’ set is an identical all the way down to the large spherical culty “banishing” desk. The place the UK model featured members of the general public, the U.S. is a mixture of actuality TV celebrities and civilians. And instead of the BBC’s Claudia Winkleman operating the present, Peacock’s host is none apart from the resplendent and theatrical Alan Cumming.

From his very first apparition because the host of The Traitors, Cumming is all in. “I’m like a much less butch Agatha Christie in a superb outfit,” he says in episode 2, and wow, sure, wow. Purring guarantees of “homicide” (not actual homicide, it’s a TV recreation) and deception as cunningly as his one-man Macbeth Broadway present, Cumming actually quotes the Scottish play as he explains the principles of the sport. The sequence always has Cumming slowly, dramatically descending numerous grand staircases of wooden and stone whereas offering commentary, adorned in boldly hued berets, crisply tailor-made tartan fits, and glittering cape pins. Gazing at a foreboding, darkened sky, Cumming ruminates on the proceedings with all of the blended savvy of a Shakespearean anti-hero serving that piping scorching tea. “As Robert the Bruce famously stated, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, strive, attempt to discover out who’s been trash-talking you within the billiards room.'” Randomly choosing opponents to experience a rickety previous carnival wheel experience for a mission, Cumming gleefully calls to the property’s groundskeeper in an ebullient melody, “Fergus! Seize the tombola!” If I used ringtones after 2001, this phrase could be each obtained message.

The Traitors wants a constantly atmospheric, effervescent host like Cumming, because the viewer is aware about the identities of the deceivers from the phrase go, which means there is not any huge reveal for the viewers like we loved in The Mole. Past the missions, the sequence spends numerous time merely watching the opponents sitting round consuming pastries and buying and selling suspicions, which is likely to be your factor but it surely feels barely insipid at instances. The stale survivor reveals, during which those that weren’t “murdered” by the Traitors within the night time file in one-by-one to breakfast to see who snuffed it, are constantly rescued when Cumming strides in to grab the fallen competitor’s portrait off the wall, mercilessly tossing it apart. “It’s me once more! Your mattress and breakfast host from hell,” he sings in episode 1.

Critical “Wicker Man” vibes.
Credit score: NBC Common

Throughout the missions, Cumming’s disdain for ineptitude is superb to behold, barking orders from behind his golden pocket watch at gamers, making an attempt their greatest to set alight a wood beast beside a sprawling Scottish loch. And in the course of the nightly banishings, Cumming instructions the room, delivering the deadly blow with all of the finesse of a Sport of Thrones villain. If Cumming ever stated the phrases “Shannon, you could have been BANISHED,” to me, I might perish on the spot. Lifeless. 

The Traitors is a enjoyable sufficient actuality present to observe, however with out the large reveal on the finish, it steers into repetitive finger pointing territory that’s extra attention-grabbing for the gamers than the viewers. Fortunately, they picked a killer host in Cumming, our “mattress and breakfast host from hell,” who leans into the overtly foolish Poirot occasion vibe with each final lauded appearing ability he has. It’s uncommon the host upstages the gamers, however on this case, it’s the proper crime.