The Circle - who’s watching?

[Standrewsschool]

The first three are wannabes.

Hunter - trying to revive his career.

Well I’m out. That’s me done. Thought it was really manipulative and unfair that billy, about the only decent player left in there, should miss out on the £100k because of producer interference.

Vithun was right, they blocked billy because he was a threat. It was nothing to do with believing he was a catfish as Andy himself admitted those doubts had been blown out of his mind when they had the football conversation.

Sadly now Vithun is going to fade into the background a little I feel. Gemma shouldn’t survive much longer I hope. On the upside good on “felix” for standing up and showing some integrity, I think she shows some promise and i hope she goes far.

The hashu/syed crushing on manrika thing is soooo forced and I can only assume all the people acting like it’s the cutest thing ever have never seen a reality tv show before? How can he have feelings for her. He doesn’t know her and has only seen her in pictures and swapped a few messages on a tv show where nothing is as it seems. Ploy for more airtime.

Second series of this show was unmissable tv but this is just going to turn into one big cringeworthy love in between Andy manrika tally and syed. No doubt one of them will win.

Also is it just me or was there way more newbies last time around. We have had barely any and i think this is contributing to the series feeling a bit stale and being the Andy and manrika show atm, no fresh blood to shake things up?

Hopefully producers buck up their ideas for next time around as I think the format still shows promise (and I really liked the US series and the celeb one). But for now I’m out - best of luck to Vithun and felix!!

I think it's actually really hypocritical for Felix/Nat to be talking about integrity. She's easily the player exhibiting the least integrity in there, she doesn't seem at all worried about the fall out with Manrika.

But hey at least I’ll be able to get to sleep at a reasonable hour now 🤣

@aSofaNearYou

I think it's actually really hypocritical for Felix/Nat to be talking about integrity. She's easily the player exhibiting the least integrity in there, she doesn't seem at all worried about the fall out with Manrika.

I guess the difference is that everybody knows some players are catfish and that the person you’re calling your sister/ uncle/ boyfriend etc might turn out to be somebody else. Everyone knows that flirting is largely banter and that some people will be catfish and it’s possible for people to be true to themselves even whilst playing catfish.

I think what people don’t expect is that players will outright lie about conversations they’ve had with other players and make things up to try and further their popularity and this isn’t something which has happened in previous series’. There were ways Gemma could have worked to try and get Billy blocked which didn’t have to involve literally making up lies about him and I think that’s where she lost her integrity.

I guess I can see that, but personally I would just see forming an actual relationship as far more morally dubious than simply being forced to do a task by the producers. I remember Alex/Kate from the first series, I can't remember the other guys name but he was actually really hurt when the truth came out, feelings will be a lot more hurt by romantic catfishing. I could understand just a bit of flirting here and there but she's being really pushing to make a proper "thing" with Manrika. I'd respect it more if she weren't showing such a double standard about integrity. Gemma's task genuinely wouldn't offend me as much as what she's doing.

I'm really disappointed in Billy's blocking.
Gemma/Hunter will be blocked as soon as she is eligible, obv she has immunity on the next.

Not enjoying this as much as the Woody series or the celeb version. Tally and Manrika are irritating. None of the rest of them are likeable.

I wish Scott had chosen a different character to play than Dot. He was itching to post some bitchy comebacks to all the sickeningly nice comments to Gemma.

It was good that Felix went against the grain, although I agree that romantic catfishing is dodgy ground and will backfire.

Andy or Manrika need to go, to mess up the current power structure.

The hashu/syed crushing on manrika thing is soooo forced and I can only assume all the people acting like it’s the cutest thing ever have never seen a reality tv show before? How can he have feelings for her. He doesn’t know her and has only seen her in pictures and swapped a few messages on a tv show where nothing is as it seems. Ploy for more airtime

Well he obviously doesn’t have deep and meaningful feelings for her. But he’s seen her pictures, he thinks she’s hot, he’s a young lad and he fancies her. But he can’t overtly flirt with her as he’s playing a man in his 60s. And, as I think it’s apparent, he’s not brimming with confidence in that department anyway. That’s what’s cute to watch.

@OysterMonkey

The hashu/syed crushing on manrika thing is soooo forced and I can only assume all the people acting like it’s the cutest thing ever have never seen a reality tv show before? How can he have feelings for her. He doesn’t know her and has only seen her in pictures and swapped a few messages on a tv show where nothing is as it seems. Ploy for more airtime

Well he obviously doesn’t have deep and meaningful feelings for her. But he’s seen her pictures, he thinks she’s hot, he’s a young lad and he fancies her. But he can’t overtly flirt with her as he’s playing a man in his 60s. And, as I think it’s apparent, he’s not brimming with confidence in that department anyway. That’s what’s cute to watch.

Give over. He's seen one picture and had minimal interaction with her. He is, in his words, a "content creator"..he knows that's what he has to do to get on tv. You can see a picture of someone and find them attractive..but I'm notsure you can "fancy" or start developing feelings for someone through a picture alone. As for the self confidence issues he could've fooled me shrieking his way through a mainstream TV show every night!!

Yy Oyster, my thoughts exactly. He just gets more endearing to me.

Lots of cynical minds on here!

You can be self-confident in one area of your life, and feel totally inadequate in others. You don’t need a degree in psychology to understand that.

Yes, Karen, 🙌🏻

Not as good as the previous two series. Loved them and trying to figure out why this one is different.
Fed up with the 'overacting' of Tally and Manrika - almost as if they've been told to play up to the cameras and jumping about and shrieking about everything.

I know everyone has been told to speak their thoughts out loud but it now seems so contrived and calculated. Everyone is very aware that it's a game and that £100k is at stake.

Every interaction is carefully thought out how it would benefit them rather than genuine.
I felt so sorry for Billy, who seemed the only genuine one there (apart from Andy). Producer manipulation is stooping low when asking people to be mean and there are consequences for others.
Kind of shows us what we're capable of for money. Wonder how it would play out if money wasn't involved?

For me it's starting to show our society not at its best.

Thinking of fast forwarding to the best bits - when the Blocked person visits someone and then leaves a message - and even writing that shows how there are only two good bits!!! FFS - need to get a life

And finally!!! Why does Hunter always need to cover his head?? - struck me even more when he had the hood up on his dressing gown.

The dressing gown hood really annoyed me, it was so rude.

It does seem very much more scripted this time.

Hashu in the gym sulking about Felix "So what? Man can be hench." (Or similar.) Picks up some weights, decides he needs to get there faster, picks up some heavier weights, "You know what, those are really heavy ..."

His timing was the sort that earns comedians hundreds of thousands per gig. If that scene wasn't rehearsed 97 times with the director/producers I'll eat all the emojis living in my phone.

I can’t believe Billy went, what was Andy thinking? Billy had just proven that Gemma was a liar, so I don’t know what his reasons were and Mandrika doesn’t like Gemma so not sure what her reasons were either. I also think that Felix going on about integrity is a bit rich, I don’t like how full on she is being with Manrika. But I think she’s playing a blinder getting Manrika on side, she’s very clever. But she cannot take the moral high ground over Gemma being a secret assassin, 100 percent any of the other players would have done the same thing in that situation. Even Billy said as much when he met face to face with James. If I were Billy though I’d be seriously annoyed that i was out of the game due to a si

....silly twist engineered by the producers in a game that’s supposed to be about how popular who are. I really wish they’d keep it simple. Still enjoying it though, just not as much as any of the other series. Really hope they get some new people in soon and some genuine people!

Mankrika has really been catfished hasn't she

I can’t believe Billy went, what was Andy thinking? Billy had just proven that Gemma was a liar, so I don’t know what his reasons were and Mandrika doesn’t like Gemma so not sure what her reasons were either.

I couldn't fathom why Andy didn't tell Manrika what he had just discovered. I've always found it odd in this show how little they seem to say though. In crucial moments like this - where he didn't seem to have much to lose by honestly saying what he'd found out - and in just normal conversations. It appears like they have very few conversations and those they do are very short and say hardly anything, just "how are you" "I'm always there for you". I feel like I'd be talking WAY more! I wonder how much of that is in the edit or if they really hardly ever talk to each other.

I'm sure it's the edit for a lot of it. We didn't see Vithan and Billy's chats but they both spoke about them.
We're seeing far too much speaking aloud alone and not enough interaction.

@jay55

I'm sure it's the edit for a lot of it. We didn't see Vithan and Billy's chats but they both spoke about them. We're seeing far too much speaking aloud alone and not enough interaction.

Yeah, I think that's the problem with this series, though I am still enjoying enough to watch. It doesn't really feel like any of them have much of a connection. Hopefully it improves with time.

I can’t believe Billy went either. Andy absolutely knew he wasn’t a catfish. Horrible that he went out on such a stupid twist. Agree it’s weird that Hunter wants to keep his head covered all the time. Is he embarrassed that he is balding? The Manrika and Tally shriek-fest is getting old.

I really like Natalya/Felix and it’s funny to see Manrika reacting to him without any thought that he might be a catfish. I wonder if she’ll realise before it is revealed.

I still like Vithun and hope he stays in.

In previous series the players would have loaded more pictures to their profile by now. They only have one so far and were able to show a party pic briefly.

Oh my goodness, Natalya is gorgeous. I think I have a little Syed on Manrika sized crush. Although how she can chat up Manrika and bitch about Gemma's integrity with seemingly no irony is beyond me.

Hashtag #HypocrisyMuch

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@bonfireheart you can definitely apply to be on gogglebox 😝