Machiavelli's move, the strategy competition that TV3 premiered on Monday, is one of those cases where the promotional announcement is much better than the program itself. The title helped to raise expectations. However, the final result is disconcerting.The game of the century Mr. Davies's, which we didn't find so convoluted. You don't absorb the instructions or understand the decisions. The mechanics drive the viewer away. whodunnit (whoever did it) fails because you don't care. The approach is a collaborative game that combines physical and logical tests. A kind ofescape room large-sized in which the contestants fight for a common goal knowing that some of them have been designated as secret saboteurs of the mission. Last week, Antena 3 premiered, with a bit more vigor, Traitors, with the spirit of Cluedo and smell of squid Korean.
At the end of each episode, a contestant is eliminated with the tricky suspense of not revealing their name. The game's voice slams the contestant "who got the fewest right," an inaccurate assessment. All of this, which seems so exciting, matters very little to you when seen on television. You lose the thread and interest. The narrative intensity relies more on visual effect than on the excitement of the challenges. The split screens, surveillance cameras, and the countdown exude action-movie overtones. Add to this the mysterious leader who exercises absolute surveillance over everything that happens. A masked, hooded figure who is a cross between The Professor of The Money Heist and the Man Front ofThe Squid GameA somewhat forced combination that serves as a panoptic metaphor for power. From a control room, the mysterious individual observes multiple screens on which the contestants appear to be mice trapped in an evil experiment. This supposed Machiavelli communicates with the participants through a PA system, with carefully crafted sound that ends up becoming tiresome. His voice sounds hardly sinister in this supposedly disturbing context. Game shows that start with a casting call for roles seem somewhat contrived. Especially if among the participants you discover one of the fishwives from the Banco de Sabadell mortgage advertisement, the one with the hake cheeks at sixty euros per kilo. The credibility of the format creaks in the details and the overacted theatricality. You end up with the feeling that the action is not spontaneous. The game show, from the creators of The crossingIt's heavily contrived and scripted, with contestants' statements seemingly staged. As it progresses, the show seems, by sheer intensity, like a farce, a staged performance, a super-edited recreation to pretend they're competing. Perhaps that's why they include a psychologist's intervention in the closing credits. As Machiavelli said: "The end justifies the means."
