The Circle - who’s watching?

[Standrewsschool]

The first three are wannabes.

Hunter - trying to revive his career.

I feel like it was a different time when BB was on and we have moved on from nasty TV shows. That's why everyone loved IACGMOH this year cos they were all so lovely. Why shows like GBBO are so popular. I found the episode with James & Manrika so uncomfortable that it wasn't good for my anxiety. Encouraging a 6 foot tall body builder to go argue with a petite girl, awful.
As PP said, after three series the Circle really isn't that popular even the celeb version didn't change that, seems like a stupid move to take it in this direction. Even all the games are designed to cause issues rather than build relationships like Tim says.

Thanks @GreenHairThingy

I won’t head over to Reddit as don’t want any spoilers.

From what you copied, these sum my feelings up perfectly.

I wish the show had taken the time to nurture friendship and to showcase that as it did in series 1 and 2. Instead, it seems obsessed with twists. Believe me, there will be enough twists from determined participants.

many thanks. Lol: I am watching from the sidelines. Frankly, I would love to give this whole show a serious re-think. It was sold to me as a show about friendship and that is sometimes hard to find/ see in series 3.

And I agree with you and @RedToothBrush’s and point about not wanting to see someone win whatever it takes; it’s not a good look, there has to be a bit of balance, and we don’t seem to be getting that from Manrika.

I think the nastiness might work and be popular in normal times. But right now it doesn't fit, and we want to see people making friends, and forming positive relationships because we can't at the moment.

For me the best parts of the celeb version were between the pairs, or when Denise would bring up a real life memory of herself with one of the contestants, a lot of the fun came from the non circle bits.

As below I wish we were hearing about Natalya's life, not her just being reduced to a catfish love rat. Even if that is her life via Felix's fake experience.
It would have been great to hear how Scott has coped with theatres being shut, how Andy and his family have dealt with homeschooling etc etc

I love Syed, Dot and Andy being all positive, even if it's fake. I want something nice to end the day, not a pretty girl's hubris spilling over.

Vithun's reactions twitter.com/c4thecircle/status/1378271325995827200?s=21

not a pretty girl's hubris spilling over

Wow.

I think that says it all.

Oh jay that’s interesting - how Covid is affecting things and responses both in circle and amongst viewers. It feels like a completely different programme to me this time. More like a game show than before. Definitely more edited/produced. This whole catfish hunting priority has completely changed the feel and point of the show for me too.

Most people on here seem to love Andy and hate Manrika, and I think that is blinding a lot of PP to what actually happened. I do like Andy, and I would like to see him in the final, but I think he is forgetting certain things.

• Andy has consistently been an influencer, and knows how hard it is to make these decisions. Historically, the next day no matter how close people were to the blocked payer the public messages were kind “no worries, we know it must be so difficult...”. He intentionally posted a message in the group calling Manrika out, that could irreparably damage her reputation with some players given how well liked he is. He would have been well aware of this.

• Does he not realise he has blocked players other have genuinely cared about? Andy seems to have forgotten that he was the sole influencer with the Dot/Tally situation and he chose to send Manrikas best friend home above a new player. Tally trusted Andy, Andy suspected Dot to be a catfish, but Tally still went home. I’m not saying he shouldn’t have done that, but Manrika didn’t hold it against him when she could have done, same with Vithun and Billy....

• In the previous influencer chat Manrika and Andy did discuss potentially blocking Vithun due to his very low rating, think they said something along the lines of “we can’t not consider him”. He doesn’t seem to remember this and is now saying he would never have considered him.

• Vithun was rated lowest, another drop, Andy needs to see that he really wasn’t making an effort with many players, I think had Vithun made more of an effort all around then he would have been more difficult for Felix and Manrika to block, but people really didn’t care about his presence. They did also have their own reasons, but Manrika and Felix got rid of the player that the group choose as their least favourite.

• Andy took issue with Vithun coming clean, Manrika comforting him, and then blocking him. Isn’t that EXACTLY what he did with Gemma?

• If they really wanted to be sly they would have gotten rid of Dot or Andy. Tactically getting rid of a consistently low rated player (lowest on this occasion) is abysmal.

Ultimately, this is a game and Andy seems to have decided his decisions are the moral ones and ones outside of that are “sly” and has created some line that no one else is aware of. They are all there to win, and he has been tactical himself. I do think if part of his anger with this decision is because he want involved it in, he is not used to not having the control.

The catfish hunting thing is interesting. Andy has blocked at least 2 real characters over catfishes. Most players seem to think Syed is a catfish but want to keep him in anyway.

Excellent post @SummaLuvin

Completely agree with you @SummaLuvin. I also think Andy is annoyed because he knew Vithun was one of his allies and one of the players keeping him at the top of the rankings and now he’s gone he knows he would have to work hard to regain the popularity he once had. As you say, he had no issues with getting rid of Tally which weakened Manrika or Billy which weakened Vithun and in fact I imagine that was part of his game plan. At least Manrika is honest about her strategy whereas Andy is trying to hide his behind a ‘nice guy’ act but he is definitely playing the game as much as anyone else; he’s an entrepreneur so I think he will have his eyes on the money as much as anybody else l.

@BillyIsMyBunny I also think (but haven't gone back to check so might be wrong) that Manrika rated Andy 1st in the last ratings. With her now putting him bottom and Vithun gone if he doesn't recover other ratings he will slip further. He damaged a really important relationship there, all because he couldn't stop himself having a dig in the group chat, had he kept it private I don't think Manrika would feel as strongly as she does now.

I'm really enjoying a lot of the insights here, it certainly makes me think.

As this is the first series I've ever watched, I have a genuine question re catfishes....

Is the whole premise of the show to identify and eliminate catfish? Should the winner be a genuine person who has shown their real self at all times? I see, mainly Andy but all of them to some extent, saying "... have to get rid of the catfish..." but if he thought that surely Dorothy and Syed were the prime targets? An 85yr old grandma going into the Circle and dealing with, what sounds like, quite a gruelling schedule just doesn't make sense.
I would prefer if they were honest and just said "I'm keeping in the people I like most".

Also an observation from earlier this week, can't remember which episode - Andy said he was rating one of the players low (can't remember who!) because it was the person he has spoken/ knows least - really reminded me of Big Brother, such a lame excuse! When really they want to say - I just don't like this person.

The aim isn’t to get rid of the catfish - a catfish won the first series. This is the first time I’ve seen it as such a priority - normally they ruminate over whether so and so is a catfish, they may rate accordingly, but it’s not really a catfish hunt. It’s a popularity contest.

One thing I couldn’t understand was Manrika raging that Andy had made her look like a dick / called her out on the circle chat - all he said was that Vithun was upset, which was understandable to all the others - but only she would know the subtext to that as the chat where Vithun admitted to writing the agony aunt question was between the three of them. The others would have just read it as ‘oh of course he’s upset, he’s blocked’ - not ‘he’s upset that Manrika went against her word’.

The comments from Tim have nailed it perfectly, I am missing that friendship bond from last year, there was still the catfish hunt etc but there was still a good vibe. Syed is the only one bringing the sunshine.

It's now just manrika bitching and getting an extra five minutes of sob story time.

I would rarely abandon a programme this far through but to be honest now if Syed goes I absolutely would.

Femi and Pippa are getting so sucked in by manrika, she is playing it well, sneaky as f, but well.

Ugh... Just got to her little monologue at the end... Ugh...

Thanks @InglouriousBasterd

I agree, I think Manrika's reaction to Andy's comment was way OTT last night. As was Femi's - really didn't get why he got so het up.

As this is all pre recorded this series, there won't be a viewer vote, so how do they pick a winner? If it's just based on the usual way of rating, then won't everyone just vote the popular ones lower, to give themselves more of a chance of winning? For example, if everyone believes Manrika is really popular, won't they vote her near the bottom? Someone not as popular would therefore win almost by default.

Ugh this series is so annoying. They're ALL lying and being two-faced to different extents, which is TOTALLY OK, as it's a game. BUT then they're all voting based on someone's integrity and honesty and trust. Mind-blowing how they can't seem to see that they're behaving in the exact same way as the person they've blocked

Poor Vithun, he should never have admitted he sent that anonymous message, and continued to play the game

Had a busy few days here but caught up the show and the thread enough to post.

Gemma/James deserved to go when s/he did- I liked the fantasy Gemma but not James, who came across as a fame hungry idiot! By contrast, Vithun seemed to have tapped out and I think he was ready to go. I didn't always get his circle vibe but I think overall he was a nice but underconfident guy. He shouldn't have fessed up. I think my circle motto would have to be never complain, never explain!

I think @Iamnotthe1 nailed Manrika. Everyone has seen sugarcoated little vipers like that up close and we've all reacted to her accordingly- to recoil in disgust, mostly it seems. I hope she doesn't win- I hope everyone down rates her in the last ratings. I admire her resolve and her plan, her strength and her reasons for playing but it's vile to watch- the degree to which she is quite so calculated and two faced- and I really don't think she's had to dig too far into her past self to channel that behaviour, it's obviously just her character. Similarly with the editing- there may be a narrative being pushed but they're also working with what she gave them. That said, I do NOT agree with people trolling her and sending her hate mail. For me, her comeuppance should just be that she doesn't win and has been catfished on national television. There have been game players before but I don't think anyone has played the game and played so ruthlessly quite so easily/made the manipulation look so effortless- it's making her look truly unpleasant. She's reminding me of nasty queen bee bitch types that like to keep their toadies in line at school.

Syed to win for me.

@InglouriousBasterd

The aim isn’t to get rid of the catfish - a catfish won the first series. This is the first time I’ve seen it as such a priority - normally they ruminate over whether so and so is a catfish, they may rate accordingly, but it’s not really a catfish hunt. It’s a popularity contest.

One thing I couldn’t understand was Manrika raging that Andy had made her look like a dick / called her out on the circle chat - all he said was that Vithun was upset, which was understandable to all the others - but only she would know the subtext to that as the chat where Vithun admitted to writing the agony aunt question was between the three of them. The others would have just read it as ‘oh of course he’s upset, he’s blocked’ - not ‘he’s upset that Manrika went against her word’.

The conversations are heavily edited in terms of what we see so it’s perfectly possible that Andy said more than was shown; Hunter/ James said the conversation in which he confessed to Andy he was a catfish was 90 minutes long and what we saw equated to around 5 minutes. It could be that more was said but the producers didn’t show it to us because they are choosing to paint Manrika as a great game player and the villain of the series but things won’t necessarily be as they seem. I think it’s hard to make too many judgements based on the conversations we see or the things we see the players say out loud when we know that the conversations are edited and that the producers ask the players questions on loud speaker for them to answer out loud so even the things the players say could be in response to leading questions and again can be edited to take them out of context.

@Iamnotthe1 spot on in that Manrika is essentially catfishing. She genuinely seems to believe the bitchy side of her personality has gone, but it hasnt been buried nearly as deep as she thinks. The person she is portraying through chats is not the same girl we are seeing at all. Where is this down to Earth, east going girl she talks about? I also can’t get over how arrogant she is! Excellent gameplay, yes, but likeable unfortunately not.

“Syed” for the win 100% he is just adorable, and genuinely kind hearted. Almost single handedly bringing Warmth to the circle.

Quite like “felix” but want to see Something other than his fake romance. Agreed that it would have been fabulous to hear more about Natalya’s career. And where is her Russian?! I was so looking forward to it! The chat with Femi teaching them his dialect would have been the perfect opportunity!

That’s true Billy. I was thinking it was odd that nobody else picked it up - ‘wow Andy just completely called out Manrika!’ style - but it’s possible that they edited out anyone who did comment. It’s so difficult to know!

Just a question, don't shoot me, but if Manrika was an attractive man who was proud of overcoming a damaging past and 'playing the game' cleverly...would he be receiving as much hate as she does?

Would he be called 'bitchy' or a 'bully' ?