‘The Circle’s New Twist Is Scarily Perfect

So many reality series attempt to make their setting a reflection of society as a whole. Their premise acts as a metaphor for the ways people interact and engage with each other daily. Few have accomplished this, as well as The Circle, created by Tim Harcourt. This hit Netflix series has wowed audiences with how its often laughable premise is a surprisingly accurate mirror of how real communities communicate with each other using only the internet and social media. The Circle is a strategic game where almost all communication occurs through a screen. It may at first appear ridiculous to viewers used to your typical series where contestants face off in person. But in a world filled with people whose careers hinge on social following and where so many valuable relationships are only possible because of technology, it’s startlingly accurate to how modern communities connect. It is exceptionally innovative in this, and its soon-premiering 6th season has already shown that the series is ready to embrace even the darkest parts of modern communication to ensure its metaphor’s accuracy. Because in a world filled with ‘bots’ and fake accounts, The Circle is intent on showing its watchers just how ‘fake’ people online can really be.

In a world where more and more social development happens online, The Circle has quickly become one of the best representations of American communication. There are various series that attempt to reflect the ways people act with one another in the ‘real world’; programs like Survivor and Big Brother host their experiments to showcase authentic social dynamics and conflicts on a small scale. While these do succeed in spotlighting how people would act in different situations, as the world has grown, they’ve ignored just how many of those situations no longer happen in the physical realm. These series and the many others like them do still contain impactful messages on the nature of human interaction, but their concepts will always be stunted by failing to consider how much of said interaction no longer actually occurs in person between actual people – cue The Circle.

The Circle

Reality

Competition

Participants enter a unique competition where they communicate only through a social media platform, isolated from each other. They must choose to either present their true selves or create a persona, as they vie to be voted the most popular by their peers and win a substantial cash prize.

Release Date

January 1, 2020

Cast

Michelle Buteau

‘The Circle’ Shows The Truth of Social Media

The Circle stands out from other competition shows by having its contestants compete in challenges, spread lies, and implement intense strategies to eliminate others while preserving their spot in the game – all while never meeting face to face. Mirroring a world where so much of a person’s public perception is shaped by their online persona, these individuals are rarely ever allowed to see each other and instead craft profiles and message each other through text to build alliances and make it further in the game. So much of this show’s success is determined by how well a person is able to market themselves, making it eerily realistic; a person presents only what they want others to see, using pictures, bios, and carefully written updates to try and deliver a manicured personality that will gain them the trust of those playing with them. This is how The Circle functions, with each person crafting a persona in the hopes that it’ll be one others find attractive, with the series emphasizing the importance of marketing oneself by allowing players to catfish (present themselves as someone else). This is another sadly real thing that often occurs online and is just one way the series shows that social media can easily be used to manipulate others – and its new season is ready to take that one step further.

The Circle has always tried to reflect current technology, and it has a new aspect of this online world to dissect through its premise: bots. Namely, AI bots that create fake accounts on every social platform imaginable, ranging from shoddy ones that repeat the same phrases and are clearly fake to eerily realistic ones that are passable as genuine human personalities. As AI technology has grown more common to the general public, digital users have seen an uptick in these fake profiles scamming those unfortunate enough to believe their uncanny attempts to connect. To account for the new rise of these fake accounts, similar to how it allows people to catfish others in the game, The Circleis having a full-fledged AI robot compete –its name is ‘Max’. Not much information on how this AI operates has been released, but if it’s meant to mirror the real ones people encounter every day, it will most likely be programmed to gather information from its ‘interactions’ with other players and shape every aspect of its persona – from pictures to posts to instant messages – to be exactly what they enjoy.

ChatGPT Has Nothing On ‘The Circle’

This is an ingenious, terrifying new evolution for the show that signals a revolutionary change for reality television as a whole. The accuracy of ‘casting’ an AI for this game of social dynamics is hauntingly relevant; it would be wrong for such a digitally-minded series to discount this very real truth about modern social media, and featuring this computer program as a contestant emphasizes what a growing problem this has become for online users today. Along with this, the series became one of the first reality shows to have a non-human player compete, making it a pioneer for the genre and continuing to be one of the few shows that understands how to merge real-world mechanics and its gameplay. No trailers or promotional materials have been released showing the AI robot in action, but within a series that already features numerous laughably tense moments of players interacting through screens. Audiences can be sure to expect even wilder moments of false interaction with this in the upcoming installment.

While The Circle may work hard to always feature the most up-to-date version of modern communication, this new development to its cast indicates something entirely new for reality television – and that’s not necessarily a good thing. By featuring a robot as a full-fledged player, the series poses serious questions revolving around things such as other series using AI contestants and how that could impact the rights of human competitors. However, despite this potential issue, the show would be doing itself a disservice by not doing this ingenious innovation. It has long been applauded for never showing social media as something purely good or bad. Instead, it highlights the positives and negatives of these platforms and emphasizes how people should use them in a way that feels most authentic to them. This authentic understanding of the social function makes this AI robot joining the cast necessary, as it is a sign that the show is still committed to showing the realities of what actual people face today. It’s unfortunate that it needs to be addressed at all, but with The Circle casting an AI robot for its 6th season, it’s showing once again to be the reality show with the best understanding of the modern world we live in.

The first four episodes of The Circle Season 6 premiered on April 17 on Netflix, with new episodes becoming available every Wednesday.

WATCH ON NETFLIX