Liked ‘Love is Blind’? Binge ‘The Circle’

If the ‘Love is Blind’ withdrawal is hitting you hard, your next reality TV binge should definitely be ‘The Circle’.

Continuing in the vein of blindly building relationships with your fellow contestants, ‘The Circle’ brings together 13 participants who must get to know each other through the eponymous app in a bid to win US$100 000.

Based on a UK show of the same name, ‘The Circle’ cordons contestants off in a block of apartments sans phone, the internet or any gadgets but the app which allows them to upload a profile photo, a bio and a status.

To its credit the show gives us a relatively age, race and LGBTQIA+ diverse cast of sweet and utterly scheming players. Fan and contestant favourites include Sammie – the dark-haired sweetheart, gorgeous shy girl Rebecca aka Seaburn, an adorably earnest techie named Shubham, comedy queen Chris and muscly mama’s boy Joey. Though the viewer gets to know them in all their cooking, flossing, bouncing off the walls with boredom glory, the contestants only get to learn about each other through the app via a series of challenges and games.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that what most people post on social media is a decidedly edited and curated version of who we actually are. The schemers in ‘The Circle’s’ equation use this inherent curation to their benefit with some players actually playing the game as someone else.

To hear them tell it, when trying to win friends and influence people, aesthetics are practically everything so catfish such as Seaburn, Alex, Karyn and Sean ask viewers to hate the game not the player and surge ahead using images of other people.

Karyn, a large, black lesbian woman who goes in thinking she could win on personality but her looks and sexual orientation may hinder her chance at earning the prize, plays Mercedeze as conventionally attractive, slim and straight.

Goofy Seaburn thinks single, traditionally feminine, shy and hot is the winning formula so plays using images of his girlfriend while milking the butter wouldn’t melt in my mouth angle dry. Alex opts to try his luck as Adam, a handsome but offputtingly lusty Don Juan and Sean, a plus-sized cutie, plays herself using images of a thin and traditionally attractive friend.

For the contestants, the game is simple: Get to know each other through group and private chats, games and challenges, sniff out the catfish and rank your favourites. At the end of each episode the most popular two players are made influencers and can then have a virtual meeting to block someone from the circle. Blocking is brutal, instant and topped with a face-to-face meeting with a contestant of the blockee’s choice. The next day a video message from the ex-contestant reveals whether they were a catfish, spills a little tea and provides some much needed entertainment to the participants getting cabin fever in their personally reflective and tastefully decorated apartments.

Not as engrossing as ‘Love is Blind’ but a solid entry into the ‘sight unseen’ reality genre, ‘The Circle’ holds a mirror (‘Black Mirror’. Episode: Nosedive) to everyone making use of social media in shady and manipulative ways. As contestants strategise, compose and edit their messages for maximum likeability, the viewer gets to hear what they are really thinking and often the two things are at odds.

On social media, we want the likes and to be liked many of us take the path of least resistance, only hunting those we dislike or disagree with in packs when we’re sure we’ve amassed the healthy following that will give us clout in various digital frays.

Shubham, who enters the contest adverse to social media which he calls ‘Social Medusa’ and compares to the bubonic plague, ends up somewhat of a convert because, like it or not, social media isn’t all bad.

As it’s currently doing for various contestants, social media can help your career and garner you great new friends. Social media can also be a teacher, a space to unlearn toxic ideas and behaviours and a place to share traumatic or emotional experiences while finding comfort or the kindred.

The show’s tagline is “anyone can be anyone in the circle” but, as with all things, whether you use that ability for good, evil or somewhere in-between is all you.

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