Wie Is De Mol? - General Discussion

[stellavision]

CANNOT WAIT!

Art's not hosting this year, right? *pout*

[SnideAsides]

No, it's Rik from the Sri Lanka season now.

[Meander]

interesting debut.  hard to tell when you have so many people.  I find Rik really subdued at this point

[stellavision]

I'm going to start by suspecting Niels. He was the first to put his hand up to vote for the money. It's a Mol-ish thing to do, since it's unlikely that the group wouldn't vote for the exemptions. (And he was also quick to say "I agree with the decision" once the vote was for the exemptions.) Then again, we haven't had a female Mol since Margriet in 2015, so maybe it's time?

Not a whole lot of other information to go on, really. They got all the euros in the dance challenge, and the bike challenge had so many variables that I'm shocked they made any money at all. The Mol didn't need to actively sabotage in that challenge, just allow the natural chaos to take over. Looks like a LOT of the messages on the tablets simply went unnoticed, whether deliberately or not.

My crush this season is definitely Jamie, although that makes me feel like a dirty old lady.

Also, Nikkie dancing with the short Colombian guy was definitely a pretty great sight gag.

Edited January 6, 2019 by stellavision

[CarolinaPam]

No idea about the mole's identity, and I don't care!  I'm just so happy to be watching it again!  

[SnideAsides]

So we don't have a media thread for this show (because none of us can speak Dutch, let's be real), but I guess this would go there if we did. I updated the detailed guide to every Mole challenge ever last week.

Also, probably a smart move to start with an episode that felt more like a midseason non-elimination than to try and equal last year's premiere.

[stellavision]

Not sure who I suspect right now, but a few things I noticed:

In the opening credits, there is a token of some kind (looks a bit like a joker) that says "BOO" on it. Then Niels is shown wearing a shirt that says "Boo" and another word I couldn't make out.

Could the title of the episode ("uitgerekend," or "calculated") refer to someone's profession rather than the first challenge? If so, it might fit Jamie best as he's the host of a science show.

In the numbers challenge, Robert pushed to ditch the height question, which seemed like a good idea (because more arithmetic was involved in that question than any of the others), but then they got to the hats question and half the team couldn't remember their own hat sizes, which I think was genuine. If he's the Mol, maybe he pushed to go in that direction knowing it would be a time-waster.

Did Merel pick up more euros in the laser challenge than she brought back? I saw that Evi did the same thing, but then she told the group about it, which is NOT a Mol-ish thing to do, so after that challenge I suspected Merel a little more than Evi (and of course Evi is now proven not to be de Mol), simply because it would be Mol-ish to take some but not all of the money and keep quiet about it. (But I'm not actually sure that she did this)

Also in the laser challenge, Sarah pulled the placard -- not the money. Could be a Mol-ish attempt to make it to the end of the challenge yet not win any money, then foiled by the fact that she lost her balance.

I don't think it's Nikkie at all. A lot of them seem to, or at least are saying they do, but she's being a little too obvious IMO. I think she was faking pretty hard at not noticing the numbers painted on the ground, for example.

Edited January 13, 2019 by stellavision

[SnideAsides]

Boooooooooo. I was happy this forum survived being condensed into a single thread. :(

[Trip]

I'm working on the "it's time for a female Mol again" theory.  Since I don't think there's any way it's Nikkie, that leaves Sarah, Merel, and Evelien.

[Meander]

when they showed the joker feature i wondered if anyone would try and use one that was open somehow (maybe try to trade it to someone for info), so when i saw it had been done i was "cool"...  seeing the impact, now i'm not sure anymore 

[Trip]

This has to be the most boring season of WITM in many years.

[SnideAsides]

On 2/11/2019 at 2:47 PM, Trip said:

This has to be the most boring season of WITM in many years.

Agreed. I think a couple of the early civilian seasons are worse, but this is definitely my least favourite celebrity season of WIDM. Like, at least the Dominican Republic season had Ellie and Cecile. This season... Sinan, maybe?

[Trip]

I think it's a combination of boring challenges and bad casting.  There have been a number of challenges where I was sure there would be some sort of twist, and then there just ... wasn't (the first box-pulling challenge, for example).  And seasons where almost everyone is deliberately moling are less fun to watch, in my opinion, though I understand that's optimal strategy.

[Trip]

So I'm about 75% on Merel, 25% on Sarah, and it better not be either Sinan or Niels.  Niels has put too much in the pot and did that shady thing with the joker that should be outside of what moles are allowed to do; Sinan has barely participated, which would make him the lamest mole of all time.

Sarah has moled a lot, sometimes fairly obviously (I don't buy the dyslexia thing for a second); if it is her, I'm going to be a bit disappointed that the mole wasn't more subtle.

Merel has been on my list since the beginning, and the last episode clinched it for me.  Production obviously needed two kandidaten to leave in either episode 7 or 8, and the easiest way of doing that is to have the mole pull the two-red card, since there was no guarantee that a candidate would pull it.

[SnideAsides]

Don't look at the official website if you don't want to be spoiled about this week's elimination, but the "Who is the Mole?" fan poll currently has the final three at 37, 32, and 31 percent.

[SnideAsides]

I'd say "it ended not with a bang, but with a whimper", but that usually implies that everything was good beforehand, and honestly this was one of the worst seasons ever.

Still, the Belgian version starts tonight Belgian time, and that's promising to be as excellent as always.

[Trip]

At least we had a Mol who actually DID things this year, unlike, say, Thomas.

[SnideAsides]

Belgian Mole: HOLY MOTHERFUCKING SHIT.

[Meander]

2 hours ago, SnideAsides said:

Belgian Mole: HOLY MOTHERFUCKING SHIT.

Spoiler

i was worried when i was spoiled about it, because i thought it was badly done last time, but this was a great introduction to it.   

[Meander]

On 3/10/2019 at 4:27 AM, SnideAsides said:

I'd say "it ended not with a bang, but with a whimper", but that usually implies that everything was good beforehand, and honestly this was one of the worst seasons ever.

Still, the Belgian version starts tonight Belgian time, and that's promising to be as excellent as always.

i didn't find any contestant redeeming in the finale.  i even started disliking the Mole who i liked most of the season.  but at least they Moled.   

[SnideAsides]

I'm loving this Belgian season already. The cooking relay? Perfection.

[Trip]

This Belgian season is really great.  The boat challenge in episode 4 may be my favorite challenge from any season of any Mole.

[CarolinaPam]

Loved the boat challenge!  This Belgian season is really good so far.  

[Lantern7]

Regarding the U.S. version: Two recent Survivor contestants hosted their own versions years ago. It's a crying shame that they will probably never has as much clout as the first few casts did, because they could have tried to relaunch The Mole somewhere. Anywhere.

[Trip]

I just finished watching the most recent Belgian "De Mol" for the second time, and my god what a great season.  Perhaps my favorite season of any Mole anywhere.

Looking on Wikipedia, I see that Poland ("Agent") and Finland ("Myyra") also have currently  airing Mole seasons.  Anybody have any idea whether someone might surreptitiously be making English subtitles for either of those? 

Also, the Belgian recapper is expressing strong doubts about subtitling next year, and the Dutch recapper seems to be getting more and more burned out.  Any chance someone knows someone who could do this if necessary?  I for one would be more than happy to help pay for the translation.

[Lantern7]

ABC is doing a stripped-down version of The Mole. It's probably not related, but there are a lot of similarities.

[SnideAsides]

It's baaaaack. Set in one of the inner provinces of China this season. Subtitles will be happening again but they haven't gone up yet.

[stellavision]

Shall we talk about Aflevering 1?

Not enough information to really get anywhere, although I'm watching Johan. He seemed to be very obviously bumbling around the first challenge, which made me think he's not De Mol. But then in the truck challenge, he was quick to park in the spot that would reduce the pot by quite a bit, yet wasn't the absolute worst spot he could have parked in. That to me could be trying to sabotage while maintaining plausible deniability.

Not that it mattered, since two teams weren't able to get out at all and the total amount couldn't have been higher than 20 euros given that.

I wonder what would have happened if the euro symbol truck hadn't been escaped from? Would that have negated any number trucks that got parked? (Perhaps it's not a coincidence that the euro symbol truck seems to have been the easiest to solve.)

[Lantern7]

Reality Blurred: Andy Dehnart will be going back to the first two seasons of the U.S. version.

[SnideAsides]

I keep forgetting this thread is here.

I've kind of fallen away from WIDM the last couple of years due to burnout from a Mole-related writing project, but I will say Belgian Mole was really really good this year, even if they were only over the border in exotic Germany.

[biakbiak]

On 6/21/2021 at 2:11 PM, Lantern7 said:

Reality Blurred: Andy Dehnart will be going back to the first two seasons of the U.S. version.

Those first to seasons of the US version are now streaming on Netflix. 

[Lantern7]

Reality Blurred: Andy starts his re-watch of the second season.

I reckon this was my favorite, and not just because I got a few good stories from it.

[SnideAsides]

WIDM did a livestream challenge over the weekend, basically just the Sri Lanka election challenge with a larger cash prize and with exemptions involved somehow.

Eleven players for the first time since 2002, but even more notable is the diversity. The usual Caribbean person (two this time! One from Curacao and one with Surinamese heritage!), a Latina woman, an old white dude born in the Belgian Congo (now the DRC), an Afghan refugee, and a son of Palestinian refugees. And then the white people are the niche celebrities (opera singer! Magazine editor! Voice of Smurfette!) instead of the big names. Amazing.

Edited August 29, 2021 by SnideAsides

[NotChristine]

https://tvline.com/2022/08/17/the-mole-reboot-reality-series-order-netflix-revival/

[SnideAsides]

WIDM 23's location seems to be

Spoiler

Namibia.

[SnideAsides]

WIDM23 starts January 7th for those who haven't seen it yet. Location is South Africa again, but a different part of the country than last time (Cape Town and the southwest coast compared to Soweto/Johannesburg and Kruger National Park).

Also we don't have a date for the next Belgian season yet (though it usually starts a week or so either side of the WIDM finale in March), but the location's been confirmed as Arizona.