The circle entered the chat again! After almost a year and a half of inactivity, Netflix’s premier reality competition series is back for season 6 – and the series has undergone a slight makeover. After producing the first five seasons in the UK, The circle now represents the ATL. This means that the series offers brand new apartments for new players – and The circle also has a bunch of new twists to throw at them. But is this software update as frustrating as the latest iOS, or The circle stay at the forefront of reality TV?
Opening shot: We’re in Atlanta, y’all! After five seasons of trying to hide the fact that The circle was filmed across the pond, season 6 is finally able to embrace its truth and show the real town where it’s filmed. And if you don’t recognize the Atlanta skyline, narrator Michelle Buteau tells you exactly what’s going on.
The essential: Welcome back to The circle, the social media strategy game where players aren’t always who they seem. And despite the fact that a lot has changed for The circle on screen (new apartments) and behind the scenes (new showrunner), the show still feels like itself. That’s partly because the new team has taken a no-broke/don’t-fix approach to the show. Everything seems in line with what came before, even the use of deep ’80s synth-pop hits that reached much higher heights in the UK than they ever did in the US (opening this season: “Situation” by Yaz!).
As for the gameplay, The circle go Circle. We begin with seven players sequestered in seven quirky apartments, able to communicate only through a fictional “voice-activated” social media platform called The Circle. Some gamers are exactly who they say they are – like Lauren, a self-proclaimed nerd who loves anime and video games and is also very, very sexy – and some have told little white lies – like Kyle, a married professional basketball player who plays as himself but single and a basketball coach.
And then some players, like Brandon and Caress, have completely invented their profile and hope to win the game by associating their personalities with completely different people. Discussions take place, snap judgments are made, grudges form, and flirts begin to flirt – and then everyone has to rate themselves from favorite player to least favorite player.
There has, however, been a significant update made to the series, and it says more about The circle need to stay up to date with technology rather than anything else. This time around, one of the players is actually an AI chatbot, hilariously represented by what looks like an old PC tower sitting on a coffee table in an empty apartment. Can a bot run on everyone’s chats Circle Has the player already won money?
What shows will this remind you of? It’s end to end The circle, and there’s still no other show like it on TV right now. And the addition of an AI component, as existentially terrifying as AI is, makes the series feel fresh four years after its launch.
Sex and skin: Obviously, players all have photos of thirst traps that they deploy as their default photos or save for mid-game swiping. So yes, you have Kyle showing off his eight-pack in a photo, and you have Lauren playing the game while wearing a bustier and denim cutoffs. Hey, flirting is part of the game!
Starting shot: Unbeknownst to one of the top-rated players, they have just allowed an AI chatbot named Max to slip into the game unnoticed.
Sleeping Star: This season features an admirable lineup of great personalities, from the proud asshole Myles (aka Yung Papi Fuego) to Steffi, a psychic who cohabits with his “emotional support skeleton.” But the immediate favorite, the player who will absolutely win hearts, has to be Brandon.
He admits that he looks like an adult from Cabbage Patch, which is why he plays the role of his friend Olivia. And when Brandon bombs the first few chats, you’ll feel his frustration and want him to send him all the heart emojis.
Memorable dialogues: Michelle Buteau remains a master in the art of training all candidates with love. When Steffi starts dancing on Herb, her life-size plastic skeleton (at least I hope it’s plastic???), Buteau says, “Girl, how are you going to do a lap dance to something Who doesn’t have a turn?”
Our opinion : It’s been 15 months since we heard the horn and the resulting panic of an ALERT, and wow, how good does it feel to be back. It’s also good to know that The circle still has that undeniable, unidentifiable “it” that made it such an immediate phenomenon in early 2020. If anything, the move to Atlanta gave the show the freedom to change everything that wasn’t working and add new things. new features. Yes, I’m only rewatching the first episode, but I know from a scheduled visit last year that players now have more places to chat, including a wonderful rooftop getaway. It’s a small change, but it makes the show — now in its sixth season, remember! – feels a little more prestigious.
It’s a major change in atmosphere that separates season 6 from the previous five. Maybe absence has made hearts grow fonder, but this feels like the first season where players Really, Really know and love the game. Like, The circle it’s been around now long enough that it’s being treated with a little bit of seriousness, you know? It’s not like the players get along Survivor and I talk about it, but you can see the mix of shock and joy when the players say “Circle, take me to my notes” for the first time. It’s surreal for the players, and it makes them even more appreciated as an audience member.
And that’s what makes The circle so special. More likely than any other reality TV show, The circle is really able to explore people’s personalities and portray them as complex individuals. Kyle is super macho, super sweet, and super confident – but he’s also super married and feels awkward about having to flirt. Myles delivers every sentence with cold boldness, as if he’s greeting his followers on an Instagram live – but he’s also an AI engineer and went to Carnegie Mellon??? Cassie is a firecracker from Kentucky who looks like Barbie’s little (re: little) sister – but she was also sneaky enough to catfish her now ex-husband and catch him cheating on her! Yes, The circle has dozens of cameras on these people at any given time, but it remains the only reality show that shows how people act when no one is watching.
Our call: Spread it! Hashtag Binge it, live it, love it. Circle emoji, TV emoji, blue heart emoji, SEND.
New York Post
