The Traitors review: season three is still tremendous fun - but are the cracks showing?

The Traitors has been a blockbuster hit for the BBC and mostly lived up to the high expectations of this viewer. Now on its third season, it is still going strong and remains appointment TV.

However, there are some cracks starting to show that need to be fixed in future to hit the true highs again. But despite that The Traitors remains the perfect viewing for the dark January nights.

Recap what happened in the final - and who won. See what the winner gets and who is rumoured for the Celebrity Traitors.

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There have been some real stars

Minah and Linda were a truly incredible duo and I for one am gutted that they didn’t make it all the way. Alexander has managed to play the game in a chill way that has been a balm to some of the more overdramatic antics seen during the season.

In fact, Minah’s genius way of quietly playing a Traitor and trying to protect the sisterhood was a lovely twist on the usual constant backstabbing that occurs as soon as people pull on the cloak. It is just a shame that she fell at pretty much the final hurdle.

The missions have been genius

Honestly, I think we can firmly call the missions in this season of The Traitors as probably the best so far. Each one has been memorable and utterly compelling - and they’ve really mixed them up.

From the b-movie horror camp of the doll house, to the tension of the ceremony of truth and of course the series high of the death match/ search for lost players after the death match. It might not have completely one-upped the funeral march from last year, but it is close.

Collectively they have been brilliant bits of game design and bodes promise for maintaining the quality in future seasons. And the final mission of the year was an absolute delight.

Twists have lived up to the hype

Before the season there was a lot of talk about things being switched up and dramatic twists - which had me a tad worried. But thankfully, all of the twists have been well thought through.

From the three players having to leave the train, to the death match and of course the ‘seer’. Hopefully they don’t try to turn the dial up again next year, because it could run the risk of becoming too over the top.

The emotions have been cranked up - and not in a good way

The Traitors is a game - but it feels like too often this season people have forgotten that. The faithfuls in particular have - as a group - far too regularly taken things personally and it has led to many emotional outbursts and people flying off the handle, getting in shouting matches.

It is why perhaps this season feels - on the whole - like a step down on prior years. Not a dramatic fall off in quality, but it would probably be the lowest on my rating - but it is still better than Traitors US s1 and Australia s2 (fun hate watch).

Are cracks in the shiny veneers of the player edits starting to show?

If you have been on social media during the airing of episodes of The Traitors this season, you will have noticed that the public reaction to Joe was extremely negative. The way he came across in the show certainly did not cast him in a particularly positive light.

And yet, the reaction of his fellow players when he was ‘murdered’ was completely the opposite of what you would expect given the Joe we the audience have been presented with. Even Claudia had a quip about missing him - and on Traitors: Uncloaked he came across completely different.

So what weren’t we shown, for the players at The Traitors Castle to be so enamored with Joe, while the collective audiences at home found him almost loathsome. It does start to make the shiny veneer of the show crack just a little - and shows how these kinds of programmes can chew people up and spit them out.

What did you think of season three of The Traitors? Let me know by email: [email protected].