Summary
The Circle season 6 lacks depth and authenticity with mainly influencer-like participants.
Bringing in the AI contestant too early has dialed down the series’ suspense and excitement.
Quori-Tyler’s knowledge of the game may give her an advantage when it comes to rigging the competition.
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The Circle is back for another brand-new season and, after waiting for almost a year and a half, viewers might have noticed how uninteresting the current season is compared to its predecessors. Premiered in 2020, The Circle is an adaptation of a British social media game with the same name. During the competition, the 11 contestants strategize on how to win a cash prize of $100,000 by becoming a top influencer. The Circle season 6 introduced the first nine contestants. The participants are Kyle Fuller, 31, and his furry friend Deuce, Cassie Saylor, 29, and Brandon Baker, 34 (joining as his friend, Olivia).
The season also features Quori-Tyler, 26, Max, 26, AI chatbot, Lauren LaChant 26, Caress Russell, 37 (entering as her brother Paul Russell), Myles Reed, 29, and Steffi Hill, 35. Later in the season, The Circle will introduce Jordan Staff, 24, and Autumn Nielson, 21. Most people were intrigued by The Circle’s twist about an AI competitor, but after the first four episodes, it started to look like a lot was missing from the show. Although Michelle Buteau is still a master at dragging all the participants, there are still a few things that The Circle season 6 lacks.
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Caress Went Undercover As Her Famous Brother
Lil Boo Thang Singer
Caress is a motivational speaker from Dallas who chose to get into The Circle as her little brother, Paul. In the premiere, Caress said she chose that persona since her younger brother understands social media. “My little brother is 11 years younger than me, and honestly he knows a lot more about social media.” However, the only problem with this is that Caress’s sibling is a famous singer, with his hit single Lil Boo Thang hitting over 20 million views on YouTube.
Caress was also quick to note that her brother has over 300k followers while she hardly had any, which seemed like a marketing gimmick for her superstar sibling. Her relative will definitely get more followers after the show, which might even skyrocket his career to new heights. Notably, Caress hasn’t been catfishing well on the show, and there is a slight chance she could have been the first one to get blocked.
Caress isn’t the only problem on the series. The cast members mainly seem focused on their heightened personalities. For example, there is Myles, who describes himself as a “big flirt” and the “social life of the party.” The majority of The Circle’s season 6 players feel inauthentic and unrelatable. Their defenses and pretenses drop by episode four.
The Show Introduced The AI Too Early
They Could Have Waited A Little Longer
One of the biggest twists in The Circle season 6 is the introduction of AI as a contestant. Although the whole AI thing does bring an interesting aspect to the social experiment, the show introduced this player way too early. Perhaps they could have waited a few more episodes to build up the suspense and make the show more interesting. It could have been fun if The Circle’s producers didn’t announce it until the last episode, unless Max hadn’t meant to be there for long.
During the promo after episode four, viewers saw Myles go back and forth between Kyle and Paul, for whom he would be blocking first. Maybe he ended up blocking Max, who had gone undetected from his human counterparts for four episodes. The narrator stated that Myles would inform the contestant who was being blocked physically. Probably, he went to Max’s apartment only to discover he was the AI, which could explain why this twist was brought up early on the show.
Quori-Tyler Studied The Show
She Has An Idea On How To Rig The Competition
The Circle introduced Quori-Tyler at the end of episode one, after the two influencers, Lauren and Brandon AKA Olivia, chose one contestant each to bring on board. During her introduction in episode two, Quori Tyler said she’d been a super fan of the show before getting on it. The Circle’s new participant admitted to having watched each episode of the previous season at least four times, noting that The Circle is in her blood (via Netflix).
“I am going into The Circle as myself because I’m a Circle superfan. I’ve watched every single episode about four times each. The Circle, it’s in my blood.”
Lacks Regular People
Has Influencer-Like Participants
The past seasons have had people of all ages from different backgrounds. One of the most memorable players was Tim Wilson, who joined the cast of The Circle UK, season 2. Tim was once a monk who gave up the monastery after being offered a place at Oxford University. The reality star, who was 58 years old at the time, said that his goal in joining The Circle was to understand youth culture.
The Circle’s Shubham Goel was also an interesting player in The Circle season 1, as himself and as a catfish. However, Shubham was too authentic to be a catfish and was completely thrown out of his element with a surprise profile as Sasha. In the current season of The Circle, most of the participants are giving influencer vibes. They may be there for the wrong reasons. Maybe they’re looking for fame or want to grow their careers.
Dragged Elimination Process
Focused On Finding The AI
Custom Image by César García
The first four episodes of The Circle season 6 dropped and lacked one thing; blocking. In fact, the producers added more players into the game before blocking any of the participants. Among the last two additional cast members was Max, the AI.
After announcing one of the participants wasn’t human, the rest of the episodes focused on finding who sounded the least human based on their conversations with fellow team players, thus delaying the elimination process. The past seasons of The Circle were quick with the elimination process, making the game more interesting and creating more anxiety and suspense. Therefore, going through the first four episodes with no participant getting knocked out is pretty weird.
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Is The Circle Season 6 Worth Watching?
Did It Pass The Vibe Check?
The Circle season 6 introduced some pretty interesting players into the game. Before the introduction of Quori Tyler and Max, the AI, the viewers were first introduced to seven contestants, including Lauren, who described herself as a nerd who loves gaming and anime. It also presented Caress and Brandon with fake profiles, looking forward to winning the competition.
Chats have happened, alliances have formed, grudges have been held, and there is tension in the show due to trying to figure out who isn’t human. The Circle reality show presents a different perspective than many reality shows, which makes it worth watching. In addition to AI and the players having their thirst trap photos as their profiles, like when Kyle showed his eight-pack in a photo, there is an admirable lineup of participants that are still worth a viewer’s time.
Viewers are looking forward to seeing if the dark horse Myles, a self-declared flirt, stands a chance of winning the game. They are also curious to know if Steffi, a psychic moving around with her emotional support skeleton, could stand a chance. The Circle has a lot of different personalities and decent twists, and even though it missed blockings on the first batch of episodes, it’s a good TV show.
The Circle
season 6 episodes 1-4 are available for streaming on Netflix. New episodes are available every Wednesday.
Source: Netflix/YouTube
The Circle
The Circle is a reality competition show initially conceived as a British series until this American adaptation launched on Netflix in 2020. In The Circle, players live in temporary apartments separate from one another. They must communicate through a custom-made social media platform for the game show to win $100,000. Players can lie and present themselves however they wish, allowing them to cheat the rankings to be rated higher by other contestants. If a contestant is “blocked,” they are removed from the game. Once eliminated, the true identity of a player will be revealed to the remaining contestants.
Release Date January 1, 2020
Seasons 7
Franchise(s) The Circle
Directors Tom Lowry