My sister had me start watching The Circle, because she said it was “brain rot” and wanted to see my reaction
For those not in the know, the show is a “social media competition” where a bunch of random people try to be the most popular without ever meeting in person. There’s a pretty interesting idea at the core.
What kills it is that the people they got to play the game are the most repulsive and reprehensible humans. There is exactly 1 person of the cast who sees the stupidity for what it is and is actually trying to be genuine to show you don’t have to “fake it to make it”. Like within the first episode people are back door scheming for alliances (this is a show where literally one person can win by the way), emotionally manipulating each other, secretly undermining other players, etc. I think the best example of the type of people they put on this show is Alana, who is a “model”. She “doesn’t want to be a sex symbol” (she models lingerie and swimsuits by the way), doesn’t want to be stereotyped like she “always is” (literally is only concerned with looks and how she looks), and wants to show how “genuine and humble” she is (makes a secret group chat called Skinny Girl Club). I looked over at my sister and, without a hint of humor, said, “It is incredibly frightening that people like that are successful in this world.”
What killed me was that she gets the boot at the end of the first episode after everyone privately said she absolutely sucked and they hated how fake she was. Then the next episode, it’s all boo hoo hoo, we got rid of Alana. The worst was the co-leader, Sammie, who was VERY vocal about hating Alana privately. Come next episode, it’s all crocodile tears about getting rid of some hoe she was cussing out behind the comfort of a screen just a day earlier. Joey was another funny one. He “knew” Alana for less than a day, and when she got the boot, practically fell into depression because the girl he was trying to sleep with (that he knew for A DAY) and “had a genuine connection with” was “unfairly cut short”. It’s so absurd and also so hilarious cringe/creepy, and clearly he’s too stupid to know any better. Everyone is SO fake and an absolute clown show, except the Indian-American Shubahm. He is just himself and doesn’t play any stupid games with people.
Thank god for people like Shubahm. At least he has a brain inside of his skull. The rest of the cast are all about booty pics or trying to throw each other under the bus for some stupid accolade of winning The Circle.
Might try Love is Blind, since that seems genuinely interesting. This thing is just a display of human depravity and how our culture has absolutely brain rotted itself towards oblivion thanks to the Internet.