The Circle Series 2!

[ItIsWhatItIsInnit]

The Circle is back on tonight (Channel 4, 9:15) and I am soooooo excited

We seem to get a long rubbish show on Friday and nothing on Saturday.

Ive always thought that Channel 4 really regret letting Big Brother go all those years ago. They've never really managed to find a replacement for it, and I wonder if this long extended Friday night show is an attmept to fill that gap?

The Circle really reminds me of those wondeful early series of Big Brother actually.

Has anyone noticed how close Jack and Beth are getting? Sitting on the sofa with legs/arms on each other?
Jack also looked very jealous when Beth said how attractive Italian man was.
Used to love Georgina, since she had the chat with Brooke I like her less.

Yes, I find Georgina quite entitled. Her massive over reaction over Brooke's blocking was ridiculous.

I feel the same @ManonBlackbeak

I know that Brooke only has her own experiences and interpretations of situations to go on, but she got it so wrong as far as Tim and Woody were concerned. She has done Georgina a huge disservice by firing her up like that.

Not sure who I want to be the secret influencer; maybe Sammie would be fun.

Agree with a PM about Jack and Beth, it's easy to forget they've only known each other a week

The chats are limited but that doesn’t mean they show them all - we can see from the editing that some stuff is left out (Eg: in a game where they say everyone will have a go only seeing half the players have their turn, seeing messages that weren’t read aloud shown further up the screen, obviously not seeing the beginning/ end of a chat but just a part of it). If they’re showing literally every chat then it looks like, outside of the games, some players literally aren’t starting a single private or group chat which seems strange when there’s literally nothing else to do and they all claim to be so close. For example Georgina voted Ella #1 but I don’t think we’ve ever seen them have a private chat, but I would guess there have been chats we just haven’t seen between them.

I think it’s more likely that there are lots of chats going on but we only see the most interesting ones. I think this is why often we see a lot more of the catfishes too, because some of the small talk chat that would be very boring if someone is genuine is good television when the person talking about their baby/ career/ bucket list is so obviously lying. A real person talking to another real person about their job wouldn't make great television so we probably see less chats between some of the genuine players than we do the catfishes unless they are talking about something interesting, for example trying to hunt catfish. I think this is why most of the players look sex mad as well, because the editors decide to show all the sex chat rather than the boring ‘what did you make for breakfast’ type chats which probably also go on.

I’d guess for every chat we see there are several we don’t see because they’re simply not interesting enough to be good television. Otherwise some of the contestants are literally going days without chatting to anyone outside of the games which seems unlikely.

for me secret influencer is a good way to see people's try colours,

I think it would be boring if it's woody he will go for Joyce or josh. Tim would be logical and probably end up between the same 2. Georgina is on her ridiculous and unjustified revenge for Brooke so she will go for Tim it's all just a pit boring. Joyce would go for josh I think but with those 2 🤷🏻‍♀️

Sammie is an interesting one as I think he is the only one that will be openly strategic he will go for one of the top 3 and as Ella and Tim have saved him before I think it could be woody and I don't want that.

I think it would be interesting to see josh, Ella or paddy get it as we don't know so much about them and how they will react particularly as its anonymous

But I think it will be woody or Sammie if Twitter is any indication

Maybe we are missing some chats we will never know for sure, but Brooke had been on the bottom half of the ratings more than the top and arguing she needed more time when she has been there from the beginning was silly you have either made bonds of you haven't if she knew tim so well I would of thought she would have seen that but I might be being overly harsh as Georgina and Brooke's behaviour since the blocking has really put me off them!

Hopefully Brooke will have watched back the decision between Ella and Tim and will understand it better. Obviously on coming out to the live show she had still been in isolation so her opinions were based on only the perspective she saw. I can understand why she felt really hurt at being blocked by Tim because I think she thought he was one of the people she was closest with and trusted him. It probably didn’t make sense to her that they would have kept Joyce over her and that wasn’t really explained prior to the blocking, they just said they were wrong with ‘fairness and kindness’ - I imagine to Brooke it didn’t feel kind that the person she felt she was closest to was blocking her. It would be interesting though to see if she still feels that Tim is the bad guy having watched it back. I think she has done Georgina a massive disservice though in advising her to be angry and to suck up to Tim whilst being wary of him, I think all she’s done is make Georgina look bad and therefore less likely to make it to the final 4.

I actually wish that they didn’t keep the players in isolation between being blocked and being on the live show - it would have been much more interesting to see interviews with Blocked contestants after they’d had time to watch back and reflect on who everyone was rather than just going for the shock factor of ‘Sammie’s a man!’ but not being able to go any deeper than that. It seems unnecessary to do the reveal on live TV, you could still film the shock revelation but then let the blocked player have a day in the real world and watching a bit more before having them on the show.

Only started watching this last Tues but have caught up completely.

Love Tim. Love Woody. Loved Georgina but I agree that she's too bitter now. Brooke was very one dimensional.

I'm warming to Sammie, but I just find it a bit dodgy to be posing as a single mother for sympathy votes. Morally wrong. Sammie keeps saying she's doing this for her son, implying that if she doesn't win it has been weeks away from her baby for nothing. Unfair really.

Paddy is annoying and is coming off as a bit too vulgar/sex pesty. Jack can't believe his luck being shacked up with hotter Beth (she's not just beautiful though, she has a degree). They are funny together, and despite the vacuosity increasing they managed to do some sleuthing.

I think the less we say about Josh the better (wtf was she thinking??)!

Ella I just can't like. Partly because her popularity is based on her messages, not her reality. She's bitchy as fuck and super annoying.

Tbf to James/sammie he is the only one not bitching about the others.
Tim is so calculating/ruthless/tactical.
Georgina is quick to cry when anyone is critical of her but happy to draw that pic of Sammie.
Love Woody n can see him going places after this. However I think he's in there for the fame rather than the £100k which I think would be life changing for the others.

Am really interested to know why C4 are not showing whatever is going on with Beth and Jack. They seem to be sleeping in the same bed, very touchy feely. Mayne C4 know they're doing it for the cameras and have learned their lessons from Big Brother with it's fake romances. They'll both be shocked when they come out and find its been edited out!! I can imagine the "Hello" interview already.

I don’t think James is morally wrong to go in as a single mother doing it for her baby, unlike real life every single contestant knows that the others could be catfish and knows it’s a popularity contest so I think it’s fair game to use whatever story you like in this context.

wizzler

"I started off thinking catfish = bad, but now I think James should win. He has put a lot of work and research into it and from what he tells us (!) has a genuine reason for wanting the cash. He makes me laugh too."

Totally agree.

(shouts) CIRCLE SEND....

As a single mum James lie doesn't bother me at all. He's playing the game well ie win £100k. He's also ironically less fake than a lot of them.
Tim is 58. My DP is 50, yet Tim seems closer in age to his dad lol. He's always trying his best to trip people up. Him choosing Woody to save was tactical, him choosing Brooke was also tactical.
Really want James to be influencer because I think he will take out one of the bigger players, but worry that would turn the others against him. Also the £100k would help him buy some shirts lol.

Cant look at James without thinking of him as Tom Hardy's boxers lol.

Yes he defo needs the shirts!

I think there is a line that shouldn’t be crossed with cat fishing, it’s for a game but I think that when you’re using a lie to emotionally manipulate people (rather than just trick them into thinking you’re someone different) then that is crossing a line. Paddy and Georgina have been very open about their illness/ disability and if they were cat fishing and pretending to have Crohns/ CP to get sympathy I think there would be outcry. Maybe pretending to be a single mother isn’t quite on the same level as if someone went on the show pretending to be disabled, a victim of abuse, a cancer patient etc but it’s undoubtedly a character chosen to pull on the heartstrings and get sympathy.

I think there are times where James has come on too strong, for example after the painting he acted really upset trying to whip up sympathy when really he was laughing about it whilst Georgina was genuinely upset and anxious about it and was really worried about having hurt someone that badly. I’m not against cat fishing but I think choosing a personality with the intention of emotionally manipulating the other players and ensuring a way to play the sympathy card is unfair on the genuine players who are investing real feelings into the conversations. I think that some of the real players, particularly Tim and Georgina, will be shocked and hurt when they find out who ‘Sammie’ really is.

He "acted" hurt because that's how Sammie would have reacted. Georgina shouldn't have drawn it if she couldn't defend it and then she was all like "awww babe" to Sammie.

Also little point to cat fishing if you're not going to use it to your advantage in some way - that's why Josh isn't working.
Also think Joyce would work better if she played the part of cute grandma like Tim is being "grandpa".

Cynical me, but I think Georgina has been very tactical in when she used her Crohn's photos too. Her first photo of her looking "hot" looks nothing like her so she obvs used that for effect too.

I like Ella and find her more down to earth and genuine than some of the others. I'm with her in disliking all the nicey nicey "I'm always here for you" type of chat which is so false and superficial. She seems much more up for a laugh (but could do with shouting less).

Ella is amazing.

I think Brooke and Georgina showed their true colours during the painting task and the hashtag game. They were so nasty about everyone and then piled in with the "I can't believe someone would do that hun." :/ find that worse than James lie about a baby lol. At least he admits to it. Georgina and Brooke think they're "being themselves" and are nice, but they're not.

Ella, Woody or James to win. I'd happily even have Joyce win over fake Georgina lol.

I think if you feel hurt you are overinvesting in relationships with people playing a game. This isn't a game about making genuine friends, you may make some but it's persuading other people to like you. I think Sammi is a good player because he isn't really after new best mates. He has a partner and probably a circle of friends.
Dan in the last series was overinvested in Kate and Kate being just like her picture.
I still like Tim because Tim accepts Sammi may be catfishing but still thinks Sammi can be funny so should stay although is overprotective of Sammi. Being seen as vulnerable due to your situation eg single mum or a disability definitely helps in the circle when it shouldn't because you may be inventing it.

Exactly 2Rebecca. They all need a story or a "hook". Georgina is a young, pretty girl with Crohn's. Tim is the eccentric gay uncle. James is straight white male - he's funny and handsome and sweet but doesn't have a "story" to get the others to like him. Pretending to have an illness (no) pretending to be gay (no) pretending to be black (no) pretending to be a girl (ok) pretending to be a parent (ok), pretending to be single (ok) I think he went with the safest options he could.

There were several paintings in the painting task that were calling out people as potential catfish or other negatives (Georgina’s of Sammie, Brooke’s of Woody, Ella’s of Brooke, Sammie’s of Jay) but where everyone else laughed theirs off Janes pretended to be very offended to get sympathy. The picture of Sammie wasn’t that bad, just a picture of Charlie and a few other things with lots of ??????, it wasn’t particularly cruel but James made it into a big deal because of course he really is a catfish. The picture of Woody was very similar and he just laughed it off and picked out the positives, despite him actually being a genuine player.

Prior to that I hadn’t minded James/ Sammie but I feel like that task showed him as really manipulative and willing to pretend to be vulnerable in order to gain sympathy regardless of how it might effect the feelings of genuine players. He is definitely playing the best game but I think he is being quite manipulative and dismissive of the fact some players are genuine.

I get that it's not as morally wrong as pretending to have an illness or disability, but it still makes me a bit uncomfortable. I like James but I'd still rather someone else win for that reason.

If he was an internet catfish, telling people that he was a single mum and as a result benefitted financially or with gifts, he would be criticised, so I don't really see a difference. I also honestly believe he would be more popular in the house as himself - the current most popular housemates don't have a sob story. He's funny, smart etc. No reason why James as James wouldn't have won.