The Trust: A Game of Greed

I have to hand it to the producers of this show: they have managed to assemble one of the most vile, hateful, and generally unlikable group of people I could imagine. While the idea of the show is actually very interesting, the choice of contestants is stunning for its level of overt racism, dishonesty, manipulativeness, and just general rottenness. While some of these folks might be ok people outside of this pressure cooker environment, others should never be allowed anywhere near people or animals without a watchful guard present. Tolu in particular is a prime example of the absolute worst of humanity. If that's your kind of thing, you'll love this show.

I thought the idea was intriguing, but something went very very wrong in the casting, specifically with the women. The one woman I thought was a nutter with the non-binary plant, ended up being the most sane of the lot. The rest of the women are truly some of the most vile, entitled, victims I have ever seen. The african-american woman with the short hair is actually from Nigeria as a child. She gets angry that people refer to her as being African, but she literally wears ear rings and necklaces in the shape of African, not Nigeria. The other young woman who looks a little hispanic, is a perfect example of the entitled 20 somethings running around. On top of being perpetually in need of validation. None of these women have any sense of honor to them, it's disgusting to watch them.

I only made it through 2 episodes, I don't know if I can watch more. These people suck.

God there is so much victim card playing in this game and Tolu is the absolute worst. We're only 2 episodes in and I'm ready to turn it off. This show could've been a really cool concept but honestly the women (as a fellow woman) totally ruined this show and it's cringey to watch. They're all overly emotional and taking everything wayyyyy too personal. People literally just had to chill and enjoy the beach and it would've been a way more enjoyable experience. The best part of the show is the decisions. If they make a second season you need to have the same genders or at least more trust building exercises in the beginning.

This show is as well as being an interesting reality format an insight into the self belief that some people have that the world owes them something. And often that is through victimhood.

As a format, the show is intriguing. Clearly riding on the Traitors, but in some ways I find this more interesting as power is very asymmetrical and can be wielded at any time. When it should be wielded, how it should be wielded, who you trust with your decision-making all play a part. The producers are really good at introducing games too which then upset the dynamics, or force things to be revealed and upset the applecart.

As a format to look into power dynamics, it's very intersting and quite addictive.

The contestants, well where to start. This is what will drag down the score for many. I am very curious as to why the producers clearly went for a gender dynamic that has really toxic women, and really quite nice men. They seem to have gone out of their way to get dynamic, to the point where the men come across as unrealistically reasonable, and modern and caring and every woman has an issue. That has to be deliberate.

What worries me is that it will fuel misogyny as it shows a really skewed dynamic between genders.

But we have people like Tolú who weaponises racial matters. She says being African is her identity, wears African colours, wears earings in the shape of Africa, wears a neckale in the shape of Africa that says "Africa" then bullies someone she reduces to "a straight white man" into submission because he referred to her by calling her African.

Lindsay who is what I suspect Americans would call a Karen. Her hostility, her tone, is toxic. She shouts even at the camera. Shouting is her one level and you can imagine you'd park too close to her car and she'd rant at you for 20 minutes. You know the energy from her straight away.

Julie who basically says because she had a tough time in life can basically do whatever she wants because she deserves it and others don't. It's scary seeing the self-justification that goes on to be cruel to others.

And it goes on.

But there are interesting nuances. I find myself at times like Tolú despite her very toxic way at keeping everyone in line through fear. Julie as time goes on you get to understand a bit more, and the dynamics that she's torn between. Nothing is truly black and white and seeing the other contestants grapple with these dynamics is what makes it interesting.

I wish they had a slightly balanced the cast a bit more and not had all the guys as ultra-nice and most of the women as toxic, as that to me will just encourage anti-feminist and misogynistic views.

But I'd say give it a proper go. Episode 3 I think is the low point as the toxcity is at full strength and it's hard to find a way to like these people or the show. But once over that hump, the dynamics get way more nuanced and interesting.

And you may even find yourself kind of liking someone you didn't like just an episode a go.

If you like other reality shows such as The Traitors, Survivor, The Mole...etc then you may like this show a bit, but be warned the cast isn't that great. The whole premise of this show is that everyone is a winner, and whomever gets to the end gets to split a $250,000 prize. The catch though is that if you chose to vote someone out that means that everyone's cut of the prize goes up due to there now being less people. Also There are things that happen along the way in which the cast can raise the total amount of money or keep more for themselves.

So you're thinking to yourself that sounds like it could make for a great show, but sadly you would be wrong and it all has to do with the cast. Most of the men in the cast act like they have a moral high ground and want to just go to the end with everyone. While most of the women want to get people out so they get a bigger cut of the money. Also none of them are all that interesting character wise. At no point did I ever find myself rooting for anyone. So if you like reality TV shows and you are really really bored you could check this one out, but don't expect anything great out of it whatsoever.