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By Grace Fields
Everyone has their favorite TV show. It could be serious or funny. You could watch it alone or with friends. Regardless of the genre, it is your comfort show. My roommates and I have recently found our new favorite show to watch together. Every Thursday night, like clockwork, we bundle up on the couch and turn on Traitors. This series is one of the most entertaining and innovative reality TV shows of all time. Like many things in life, it has unexpected life lessons to take away.
The premise of the American version of the show surrounds a large-scale game played in a Scottish castle. Reality TV stars compete as “Faithfuls,” completing missions to build a cash
prize pool, all while they try to identify the “Traitors” among them. Traitors “murder” Faithful nightly to steal the final prize. In this season, Rob Raush (Love Island), Lisa Rinna (Real Housewives), and Candice Basset (Real Housewives) were the Traitors. Throughout the first half of the season, they have managed
to stay inconspicuous. The Faithfuls started the season voting out other Faithfuls instead of the real Traitors. Traitors are generally “Gamers” who have been on shows like Survivor or Big Brother. The Faithfuls mistakenly thought that Housewives or Love Islanders were not cunning enough to be Traitors.
One of the Traitors, Lisa, eventually comes under fire. However, instead of protecting his
fellow Traitor, Rob turns on Lisa. This got me thinking about the moral implications of an action
such as this, even when it is just a game. In Rob’s mind Lisa was weak and needed to be
eliminated before suspicion fell on him. Still, Candance chose to stick by Lisa’s side and defend
her. Juxtaposing Rob and Candaces' decisions demonstrates two different mentalities. The first
focuses on the individual and the second focuses on the group. In the real world, there is a
similar tension between helping one another to reach the goal and blazing one's own path
individually. Ultimately, there is a danger in relying too much on one's own abilities. We are
limited when we distance ourselves from one another.
As of right now, we have yet to find out whether Rob’s decision has paid off for him.
However, if I were to bet, Rob will have a harder time now that he is down one teammate and on
shaky terms with the other. Traitors is a show where human nature is exposed and placed under a
microscope. From Traitors we can learn the faults of rugged individualism and the importance of
teamwork.
Grace is a McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville in the class of 2028. She is studying Political Science and Economics.