Reality TV The art of self interest

are tasked with eliminating the faithful through nightly killings and surviving till they outnumber the faithful; splitting the money among however many traitors remain. Thus, I will analyse both roles.

Whilst the faithful seldom made an intelligent move; even a broken clock tells the time right twice a day by utilizing the shield superbly. The shield was given to a winning team who would enter a room one by one to pick out a box. Only one box contained a shield and whoever drew it was protected from being murdered that night. The players elected not to disclose who drew the shield for two reasons. The first was that concealing who drew the shield limited the traitor’s options that night. As they were likely unaware of who drew the shield on any given night, they could not target any member of the winning group without risking wasting a night’s murder. Thus the traitors would often be forced into making suboptimal murders leaving their biggest threats in the game longer than they intended. The second reason was even if a traitor were to draw the shield they could not kill a member of the group without arousing suspicion. To be sure that an individual did not have a shield; you yourself would have to have drawn it. Thus if anyone from the shielded group was killed; it would likely be from among their own ranks. I do however think that the traitors should have utilized this assumption by purposefully killing a member of a shielded group when they were not a part of it. If they succeed the faithful will begin a witch hunt and if they fail they can simply claim that there might have been two shields that round resulting in the traitor who drew a shield mistakenly believing no one was safe.

The faithful’s worse move was admitting to prior acts of omission. Tom admitted he was dating Alex prior to starting the show and Maddie admitted she was an actress. Breaking your fellow faithful trust for no rhyme or reason is tantamount to painting a bullseye on your forehead as you pass through a shooting range. In both cases when Tom and Maddie were voted out many of the voters cited a lack of trust due to this omission as a key factor in deciding their vote.

Amongst the traitors Wilford arguably made the game’s best and worse move. Initially, Wilford decided to betray his fellow traitor as a distraction as the faithful began to suspect him. Like a lizard abandoning its tail, Wilford managed to distract the faithful by exposing Allyssa. Once Allyssa was voted out in a narrow elimination Wilford was perceived to be faithful. Whilst this is largely attributable to the faithful believing it would be illogical for a traitor to give up one of their own; Wilford’s emotive performance helped to quell most of the faithful’s doubts surrounding his role. Whilst this move was simply perfect; Wilford foolishly attempted to rat out his fellow traitors two more times. First, Wilford betrayed his long-time ally Amanda. Out of paranoia, Wilford believed Amanda was plotting against him resulting in her elimination. This move was idiotic as Amanda was not plotting against Wilford and due to the fact that Wilford would have to recruit another traitor directly after this move. Kieran the new traitor came into his role aware that the blood of his predecessors lay on Wilford’s hands. Thus trust between both parties was razor-thin which resulting in Wilford inevitably backstabbing Kieran. As Kieran left the game; he imparted wisdom into the faithful. By leaving hints that Wilford was the final traitor, Kieran ensured that Wilford lost the game.

Thus on a final note, even the greatest of moves should not be implemented without a thorough understanding of its context. Had Wilford simply read Kieran better and understood this burnt earth tactic was likely to come from him; he could have chosen a less bitter faithful to convert. Just a minor alteration to his strategy and Wilford would have won the game. Yet as it stands Wilford is responsible for the game's best and worse move by keeping himself in contention for and ultimately blundering the grand prize by backstabbing his fellow traitors.

In a bid to achieve the top spot, the streaming service industry has been grinding with a vigorous extremity that increases every year. While Netflix has sat comfortably on its throne for the larger part of the 2010’s, the likes of Disney+ and Apple TV+ are on the rise. However, as onerous and taxing the competition is for these corporations, we, the viewers, are so often awarded the fruits of their labour. This comes in the form of immeasurable amounts of high quality, (and not so high quality) film and television. I’ve limited my search to shows that had their first season premiere in 2022, so no cries for your beloved Better Call Saul or The White Lotus. There will also be no definitive ranking of the following shows, as it is similar to asking a mother to rank her children; it’ll be fairly obvious, but you know it’s poor form to have favourites. Caveats aside, here are my (in no particular order) top TV shows of 2022.