'I watched the American rip-off of The Traitors and it made me mad'
It feels like the on-sale version of The Traitors. The stakes aren't that high, the tasks not as intense, and the contestants don't seem to want to be there.
If you live in the UK or are even the remotest fan of British television, chances are you've heard of The Traitors.
It's the show where contestants arrive at a castle, a few of them are branded as traitors, and then they all spend several weeks competing in tasks and adding money to the prize pot, but most importantly, the traitors spend their time lying, deceiving, recruiting, and (figuratively) killing the other contestants, known as the Faithfuls - all while trying to keep their identities a secret.
Hosted by Queen of the Macabre, Claudia Winkleman, The Traitors is a dramatic slice of top-tier reality TV and few other reality game shows come close.
I know this because I recently binge-watched what could loosely be dubbed the American version of The Traitors. I say loosely, because there's actually an official US version of The Traitors.
No. This is a story about Million Dollar Secret. Netflix's feeble attempt at a Traitors-esque reality game show - which on all accounts - falls flat.
The concept is the same. Contestants arrive at a château called The Stag, one of them is secretly chosen to be the millionaire and given a box with cold, hard cash, and then said contestant has to spend the entirety of the show keeping their identity a secret from the other players while they all compete in tasks and receive various advantages.
As with The Traitors, the millionaire can change and also be caught and voted out. This is aided by the show's ever-helpful producers who give out clues so pointed and obvious, they may as well label the secret millionaire and draw a neon arrow on their clothes.
Hosted in a rather sombre fashion by English actor and comedian Peter Serafinowicz, Million Dollar Secret feels like the on-sale version of The Traitors.
The stakes just don't seem that high. The tasks don't feel that intense. And the contestants - well, they just don't seem like they're all that interested in participating in a reality game show.
Half-hearted attempts at tasks that aren't too exciting to begin with (Remembering a few symbols and inputting them in a padlock? Slingshotting colour-filled balloons at a wall? Dropping song titles in conversation? Hugging everyone?)
If this isn't enough to turn you off, it appears that none of the players actually want to be the secret millionaire in the first place. Every time a new millionaire is chosen, contestants confess to the camera just how badly they don't want to be burdened with the role. Everyone wants the cash handed to them towards the end, when the numbers have dwindled and the task of keeping one's identity a secret is much easier. Where's the fun in that?
My biggest pet-peeve with Million Dollar Secret is how personally the contestants take the lying. It seems that no one read the rules of the game before appearing on the show, because how can you be mad at the millionaire for lying and keeping their identity a secret? It is literally the purpose of the game.
This transparently shameless rip-off of The Traitors may have copied the format of the show, but it wasn't able to emulate the intense, gripping excitement, and quite frankly, the brains, of its British counterpart.
And critics and audiences couldn't agree more. While one critic review said, "Million Dollar Secret is transparently, baldly, shamelessly The Traitors", another called it "a lazy, one-note ripoff of The Traitors".
An X user (formerly Twitter) commented: "Million Dollar Secret on Netflix wants to be Traitors soooooo bad" and another wrote, "Million Dollar Secret is a very poor man's Traitors. Also, it's so badly one-sided against the person who has it with badly done games and clues."
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