The first two seasons of “The Mole” came at a great moment for the reality TV genre. The series premiered in 2001, and was produced during that short and delicate period when competitors in the main unrecorded broadcast series had yet to figure out how to slip into the roles we know. Tasked with deciding who among their number was sabotaging the group’s challenges, the show’s cast members allowed themselves to be, well, rough, disconnected, serious and awkwardly real. In the end, it was retooled into an all-celebrity format, and the show lost what made it special and disappeared, but fans remember both the intrigue of the show’s gameplay and the roughness of its players.
The reboot of “The Mole” retains much of what made the original work. There is an interesting international location (Australia, here, instead of the original continental Europe); host with a careless presence and ability to think on his feet (MSNBC host Alex Wagner replaces Anderson Cooper); And the game itself, meticulously designed to evoke mistrust and discord. Each exclusion comes after a test; The person who knows the least about the mole’s identity is discarded. It’s TV as a mousetrap, “Survivor” if Agatha Christie is the show’s owner.
But what is missing may not be the fault of the producers. It can be very difficult to find people who want to appear on reality TV and who do not speak the language fluently. The cast (to a young and traditionally eye-catching, departure from the old “Mole”, which casts characters of every age and appearance) are well aware of what is expected of them. And even as the drama they generate through gameplay captures our attention, it’s hard not to feel as though something is in the box here.
Competitors seem encouraged, in crude terms, to relate their life experiences to the game they are playing; This primarily felt like the effect of “Survivor” in the final season, which built installments around intergenerational clashes between blue-collar workers and white-collar workers. This means that the backstory, and her poor connections to everything that is going on on the screen, becomes the star. When one individual on “The Mole” said that her work as a computer analyst made her a powerful critical thinker, I nodded, when another said that her major in psychology made her “literally learn how people’s brains work,” my patience was tested. I was upset with a third person saying, “As a focus group supervisor, I know how to ask the right questions.”
And that kind of toxic self-awareness runs through their time on the show. During the first five episodes, the contestants seem afraid to spend a moment where they literally don’t comment on who they think the saboteur is, pumping every second into an extended, paranoid commentary that leaves the audience with little room to form our own conclusions.
Sub 2001 “Mole” is still “The Mole”, a show whose evolution and firm concept means it holds a very special place in the hearts of devotees. And if there are future seasons, there is a lot to expand on; The challenge design is strong, and Wagner has the ingredients for a strong host. (If her interactions with the runners seem rather tightly written, it rhymes with everything else runners do.) While something was afoot, I walked out of the first five episodes not really sure where to start casting my doubts. In the absence of players whose characters give us something to really obsess over, the fun of a well-organized game can be enough.
The first five episodes of “The Mole” will be released on Netflix on Friday, October 7, with 6-8 episodes to follow on Friday, October 14, and the last two episodes arriving on Friday, October 21.
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