Eloise's Thoughts and Fancies

To start, some caveats. First, the amount I know about making a TV show could comfortably be written on a postcard, possibly a stamp. If I paraphrased that advice to writers and “made what I know” it might turn into a TV show shaped thing, but what works for me is not necessarily mainstream enough to be a success. Second, I’m a self-confessed rugby tragic. I’ll routinely watch five, and sometimes up to eight games of rugby over a weekend. There are people who watch more, absolutely, but this show could be terrible and I’m still going to keep watching rugby. Bearing those things in mind, I have to wonder who the target audience for this show is. It’s hard for me to judge the show as a casual fan or someone who doesn’t know anything about rugby but I struggle to see how what we see here translates into enough of an understanding of the game to let you watch the forthcoming Men’s Six Nations (that starts on Friday as I post this) and appreciate the game. As a tragic, while I appreciate so...

In case you’ve missed The Traitors (and I didn’t watch season 1, there are other versions around the world, this is about the UK version) the essential format is a game of Werewolf, Blink Murder, or Among Us - there’s a bunch of traitors who try to murder the others, the faithful, while the faithful try to work out who the traitors are. There is a big cash prize, all the players have to work together to win build the prize pot up. If any traitors are left standing, they take it all home, otherwise it’s shared among the faithful. Apparently in Season 1 of the UK show the faithful won, in all the previously aired shows across the UK, Australia and the US, this is the only time this has happened. What makes this a bit different, apart from the chance to win a chunk of up to £120,000 (they actually played for £95,150 in the end), is that the players go to a nice remote bit of Scotland and live and play together for a up to a fortnight. It’s not playing with your friends, several rounds in...