E01.S05: Trick Or Treat

[Quilt Fairy]

Quote

A tempting treat motivates the group to chip in with a chore. But a pleasant picnic in the dorm takes a devastating turn when the next game is revealed.

Premier date: November 22, 2023

[methodwriter85]

Aww, damn, I loved Stephen and "Gramps." 

[Gweilo]

Seriously, when the notoriously twisty game asks you to pair up for a TOTALLY INNOCENT, laughably-easy-to-earn picnic of strawberries dipped in cuddles and rainbows, maybe don't choose as your buddy your one best friend for life (who you've known for about 5 days)?

[methodwriter85]

6 hours ago, Gweilo said:

Seriously, when the notoriously twisty game asks you to pair up for a TOTALLY INNOCENT, laughably-easy-to-earn picnic of strawberries dipped in cuddles and rainbows, maybe don't choose as your buddy your one best friend for life (who you've known for about 5 days)?

I'm kind of surprised Trey and Leann fell for it. They've been smarter than this. 

[Helena Dax]

I was suspicious too. They knew the show would do something like this but I guess that the change in the last game, different from the original show, made them forget about the marbles. 

Any favourites? I really like the Mum and Son, but I also love the woman who knows so much about games. The one with blonde streaks. There's a black guy I like too but I don't remember his name or his number. Tall, handsome and very positive. 

 

[Guest]

229 is another one to root for.  Good play getting rid of the player that just won an advantage.  Though she should have broken up mother and son.

I'll miss 232.

 

[MsMalin]

I binged the whole thing today(Happy Thanksgiving!)

I wasn't so sure it would be very good at the start of the first episode but this turned out to be far better than I expected. 

As for this episode I was shocked when the old man got eliminated. I thought she should eliminate the Mensa woman.

Mother and son should have known better than to team up on the picnic!

[Cramps]

1. I was sure the older doctor was going to play the role of the old man in the original series and be some kind of insider. I’m surprised that more people didn’t purposefully bond with him because of that. I would have! Surprised he’s gone already.  (Although we never saw the contents of that chocolate bar. Maybe it was a Wonka type bar with a secret message allowing him to come back into the game?)
 

2. They all knew that eventually duos would probably be set to play the marble game. Why on earth did they choose to picnic with their closest alleys!? They all took the tug of war pairing into consideration for that contest (wrongly, but still…) why chance it with someone you don’t want to lose? 
 

Rooting for the NYT’s writer-mom and the games maker. (The cast has a really interesting mix of people/professions).

I’m enjoying this a lot! 

Edited November 24, 2023 by Cramps

[Lamima]

Ok, so surprised to see no one has mentioned this...

This seems 100% fake/scripted with all actors. Cute show and I will finish watching but it isn't like Survivor, Amazing Race< Big Brother oror The Challenge. It's all fiction and acted.

Edited November 25, 2023 by Lamima

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Lamima said:

It's all fiction and acted.

I don't believe that's true.  If it turns out you're right, I'll be disappointed.

[methodwriter85]

I think the talking heads and the big "speeches" are scripted, but I don't think the actual outcomes are rigged. If they were, this show would have had 432 last much longer than he did because he was pretty much set up as the main antagonist.

I'm still holding my breath waiting for some Big Brother chicanery to come out and see eliminated "favorites" return to the Game. Really hoping they don't do that, though.

Since Blond Shaggy Dog didn't get marbles, I wonder if that means he was automatically advanced to the next round? That would be pretty funny and probably piss off a lot of the remaining players. LOL

[Guest]

2 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

Since Blond Shaggy Dog didn't get marbles, I wonder if that means he was automatically advanced to the next round? That would be pretty funny and probably piss off a lot of the remaining players. LOL

That's 70s Thor to you!  :)  I thought he'd get an auto advancement.

[stormy weather]

On 11/23/2023 at 6:52 PM, methodwriter85 said:

I'm kind of surprised Trey and Leann fell for it. They've been smarter than this. 

But honestly, I'm happy they did, because since she voted to eliminate Lorenzo she has become my number one least favorite person in there. Plus, she was an editor at the New York Times! She doesn't need the money! And she sounds like a bit of a Karen.

[violet and green]

On 11/25/2023 at 2:22 PM, Lamima said:

Ok, so surprised to see no one has mentioned this...

This seems 100% fake/scripted with all actors. Cute show and I will finish watching but it isn't like Survivor, Amazing Race< Big Brother oror The Challenge. It's all fiction and acted.

No, it isn't. The only acting is when their dye bags go off and some of them go to more trouble to play dead or act as if they have been shot.

Edited November 26, 2023 by violet and green
typo

[Blissfool]

On 11/24/2023 at 9:22 PM, Lamima said:

Ok, so surprised to see no one has mentioned this...

This seems 100% fake/scripted with all actors. Cute show and I will finish watching but it isn't like Survivor, Amazing Race< Big Brother oror The Challenge. It's all fiction and acted.

I think its fake too, but I'm enjoying it anyway 

[Lamima]

Also, was Figgy the Figgy from Survivor?

[anniebird]

1 hour ago, Lamima said:

Also, was Figgy the Figgy from Survivor?

Yes, she is - https://ew.com/survivor-alum-figgy-talks-squid-game-the-challenge-8406201

[Blissfool]

4 hours ago, Lamima said:

Also, was Figgy the Figgy from Survivor?

Yes it was. 

Not sure if this is allowed so I'll use a spoiler tag...

Spoiler

A few of these players are huge social media influencers. So far, I know of Steven and Husnain (the guy who answered the phone).

Steven and his wife are family vloggers. He recently went viral when he took his newborn to Target and held her one-handed. Husnain is a tiktoker that does crazy things for attention.

 

[PrincessPurrsALot]

On 11/24/2023 at 7:22 PM, Lamima said:

Ok, so surprised to see no one has mentioned this...

This seems 100% fake/scripted with all actors. Cute show and I will finish watching but it isn't like Survivor, Amazing Race< Big Brother oror The Challenge. It's all fiction and acted.

I think the old man was a wringer of some sort.  Otherwise, if they are actually giving away money, there are rules that ensure the competition needs to be legitimate. 

The problem for me becomes when we have so many of the types of people that reality TV likes to book; that is, the folks that do the OTT reactions to every damn thing.  Mouth open as wide as humanly possible. Loud squeals when they think something is good.  Extreme exasperation when something bad happens.  Tears, tears, and more tears.  I look forward to having more games and less time in the dorm and talking heads. 

[Guest]

6 hours ago, PrincessPurrsALot said:

Otherwise, if they are actually giving away money, there are rules that ensure the competition needs to be legitimate. 

I just recently discovered that's not always true.  Here's a quote from @Gummo in the Big Brother forum.

Quote

IIRC, Big  Brother is classified as "entertainment" by CBS, NOT a "game show," which means that they don't have to follow the more stringent FCC game show rules, i.e., yes, they can do whatever the hell they want.

So, if Squid Game: The Challenge is classified as entertainment then that changes things.   

[Lamima]

6 hours ago, PrincessPurrsALot said:

I think the old man was a wringer of some sort.  Otherwise, if they are actually giving away money, there are rules that ensure the competition needs to be legitimate. 

The problem for me becomes when we have so many of the types of people that reality TV likes to book; that is, the folks that do the OTT reactions to every damn thing.  Mouth open as wide as humanly possible. Loud squeals when they think something is good.  Extreme exasperation when something bad happens.  Tears, tears, and more tears.  I look forward to having more games and less time in the dorm and talking heads. 

The shaking hands like they are truly about to die....so eye rolling.

[violet and green]

6 hours ago, Lamima said:

The shaking hands like they are truly about to die....so eye rolling.

They are looking at losing out on 4.5 million dollars, or a large slice of that. People are there competing hoping to change their and their families' lives.

[30 Helens]

Against my better judgment, I decided to give this a try, and I ended up bingeing all 5 episodes. It was much better than I expected. I don’t think it’s scripted, but I assume it’s heavily manipulated, just like most shows of this type. Of course, the greatest manipulation is in the editing, as they show us just enough of someone’s hard luck story to make us root for them, just before they get eliminated. 

I’m glad they stopped with the squibs/ fake deaths, because that’s the one part I did not enjoy. I found it equal parts disturbing and cheesy. Although since they were told (I assume) to slump to the floor in dramatic fashion, I don’t know why no one went all in with some spasms and flopping around. 

The challenges have been fun to watch, though, and very suspenseful. I roll my eyes at anyone who volunteers for anything, though. Did you learn nothing from the phone call? And I can’t believe no one considered that pairing up with your best ally could have consequences. 

Right now, my favorite may be the game designer. I didn’t catch who she paired up with, but I’ll bet it’s someone she won’t mind losing. And I was very amused to see all the teams pick C3 in Battleship, just as she predicted.

I was wondering if that was Survivor Figgy!

[Racj82]

On 11/24/2023 at 10:22 PM, Lamima said:

Ok, so surprised to see no one has mentioned this...

This seems 100% fake/scripted with all actors. Cute show and I will finish watching but it isn't like Survivor, Amazing Race< Big Brother oror The Challenge. It's all fiction and acted.

Someone says this for damn near every reality. In actually reality, I think just the usual case of producers at least trying for certain results (keeping their favorites) but it being more about people knowing they are on TV show and playing to that. People are constantly missing the reality that being on camera often informs how people act. They don't need to be scripted anything. People know what they need to do to make good TV, be seen, get a following.

[methodwriter85]

16 hours ago, Racj82 said:

Someone says this for damn near every reality. In actually reality, I think just the usual case of producers at least trying for certain results (keeping their favorites) but it being more about people knowing they are on TV show and playing to that. People are constantly missing the reality that being on camera often informs how people act. They don't need to be scripted anything. People know what they need to do to make good TV, be seen, get a following.

It's pretty true. One time an MTV reality show called Made showed up at our high school, and we definitely figured out how to mug in an attempt to get camera time.

Edited November 30, 2023 by methodwriter85

[Cramps]

Considering how badly most of them faked their “deaths” I find it hard to believe they are acting the rest of the time. 

[iMonrey]

On 11/24/2023 at 9:22 PM, Lamima said:

This seems 100% fake/scripted with all actors.

I'm not yet ready to pronounce it "100%" fake, but I find it hard to believe nobody considered the possibility they might be pairing up for the marbles game. Surely they've all seen the show. Some of the comments they make in reaction to announcements, etc., also seem prompted at the very least. 

[Black Knight]

I thought this was a good way of tricking people into pairing up with whoever they liked best, when they knew the marbles were coming at some point.

In Survivor, especially older, longer seasons, we'd see contestants not behaving that smartly once faced with having decent food. I haven't gotten a good look at what their usual rations are here, but they're clearly just in the "meh, edible" category. And then there was the little business with not having even numbers.

I wonder if Phallicia would have chosen her second and third eliminations differently if she had known the marbles game was next. Eliminating the contestant who had an advantage still makes sense; his advantage was probably going to be that he would be the one not paired up and thus (perhaps?) have a free trip to the next stage. But if I knew all the bestie pairs were going to be destroyed by marbles anyway, were I Phallicia I would've just eliminated the strongest players.