Opinion Piece - Why The Circle is My Kind of Trash

This time last week, I sat down with my housemates to watch Bake Off together for the first time (wholesome time, highly recommend it) and while about half the house went to bed afterwards, the rest of us stayed out of interest to see what this new reality TV show called The Circle was. A week later and I'm ashamed to say I'm hooked. Before carrying on, I just want to say that I haven't seen Sunday and Monday's episodes yet because (unbelievably) I have a busy social calendar at the moment but I still feel confident recommending the show on the four episodes I have seen. For those who are unaware, the premise is that eight strangers live together in an apartment building but they never get to see or hear each other face to face. Instead, all communication is done through a social media site called The Circle. They set up profile pictures, write on their wall and engage in chats both private and group based. Occasionally, they also get to vote on how much they like the other residents, with the two highest voted being declared influencers and getting to choose who leaves The Circle. I don't watch a lot of reality TV shows and so I know I just think they work because I haven't had them overplayed but that social media aspect helps too.

Speaking of, The Circle works so well because players can pretend they are completely different people. Reality TV shows are often packed full of fakers, people pretending to be exaggerated versions of themselves but as worrisome parents often warn you, anyone can be anyone online. The characters range the spectrum then from being themselves to muted versions of themselves to honest to god catfishers. Someone like Dan is just being himself. He's an estate agent from London but fairly nice and he has a turtle so he's a decent character but not massively interesting. People like Sian and Freddie take it a bit further, hiding the extent of their attractiveness and their homosexuality respectively. Most of what they say is them being themselves but they hide little aspects to try and become more popular. King of the catfishers though are Kate and Christopher. Christopher is actually a twenty year old woman using photos of her Grandad and while she hasn't been around for a particualrly long time, she's a very interesting addition. My favourite though is Kate who is actually Alex. He's using pictures and information of his girlfriend to fool everyone and they have fallen for him hard. Twice in a row, she was voted the most popular on the show and she even went on a virtual date with one of the male contestants. It's hysterical to watch and Alex is clearly having a great time too.

What baffles me is how much emotion the show is able to squeeze out of me. It's obviously all cleverly edited and shuffled about to tell the stories the producers want but every episode, I'm on the edge of my seat, laughing and often both at once. By having this gimmick of social media, something most of us use everyday (and which most of you probably used to find this blog), it allows for us to identify with every little trial and tribulation. Seeing someone being a prick in a group chat? We've all experienced that. Having to make that awkward decision to block someone? Yup. Flirting with a girl but on the other side it's a dude in his dressing gown who isn't interested?... Okay, maybe that's more niche but the point still stands. In Friday's episode, there was even a really sweet moment where after Mitchell got blocked, he used his one visit to go see Aiden, the girl he'd spent the last few days flirting with online. Seeing them connect in person and realise that they genuinely did like each other outside of social media was far sweeter than it had any right to be. I had legitimate goosebumps and it felt kind of earned. So I guess I'm a complete loser now

I've tried to capture it but there is something special and intangible about The Circle that keeps me invested. Most of our house plans for nights out now start with "but what if we miss The Circle?" and that's only a joke half the time. It's all on All 4 currently and is only going on for another two weeks or so, so even if you are usually disgusted by reality TV, this is my kind of trash and it could well be yours too.