Great mission in the new season Who is the mole?The candidates were to serve in a restaurant in the Gulf state of Oman, but they did not speak a word of Arabic so they did not understand what the guests were ordering. As a helpline, they could call other candidates in a school class elsewhere. The children there helped decipher the verbal commands. Chaos!
In the middle of the sports summer, a new season is almost unannounced. Who is the mole? On the streaming service NPO Start. Not on TV, just online. Moreover, this time no famous Dutchman is involved in the adventure game, only strangers, just like in the early days of the show. At first glance it looks like a great work. Who is the mole? (Since 1999) It is the most watched show on Dutch television. Why deprive it of its cute and attractive celebrities and hide it away in the low-viewing holiday season in the corner of NPO Start?
Firstly, because NPO Start is no longer a corner. The Dutch now watch streaming services (Netflix and NPO Start) more than traditional television (NPO1 and RTL4). This certainly applies to people under fifty. Many Molkijkers have already watched the show via NPO Start. The transition to the internet seems to be working: the first two episodes immediately became the most watched program ever on NPO Start this week. The non-profit organization did not want to specify how many views there were.
Furthermore, this temporary edition is clearly intended as an experiment, and it is best to experiment in a protected environment. When you get such reviews for years, sometimes you want to change something, but the space for that is limited. Then the intermediate season is useful to try things out.
By dropping famous contestants, the show overcomes the ongoing celebrity shortage. Mol fans have been lobbying for unknown candidates for years, just like in the original Flemish version. They are said to be more spontaneous and fanatical than the celebrities. They will try their best to go home with a full set of prizes.
suspenseful ending
In practice I didn’t see much difference. Many of the famous Dutch people were unknown to me either. I think the unknowns in these first two episodes actually made more money than celebrities usually do, but I also had the feeling that the games were a little easier. It’s also nice that the candidates have real professions: banker, dentist, teacher.
Another change is the abandonment of the established pattern: the first episode ended not with the elimination of one of the candidates, as usual, but with a cliffhanger – in the middle of the task. To give the program the speed of a road movie, the candidates themselves drive from one location to another in white Toyota Fortuner cars.
I was amazed by the sight of a line of expensive 4x4s driving around Amman on one side. Who is the mole? This has never really bothered me before. The show feels like the ultimate group vacation. The candidates act like tourists and use the remote place they are running in as a theme park. Interest in local culture is minimal and usually presented in a cheesy way. I know this is entertainment, not a VPRO travel series, but this neo-colonial thing is starting to bother me this time.
The Sultanate’s imagery is stunningly beautiful and the enthusiastic presenter, Hela Noorzai, is a great asset. She tries to be as tough and stern as regular presenter Rik van de Westelaken, and puts the same long pauses in her sentences for dramatic effect, but from everything you can see she thinks this is the coolest job in the world, and of course it is.