The Circle Season 6 had a great cast but catfish pacing
The Circle Season 6 had a great cast but catfish pacing
It took four episodes to eliminate the first player
Welcome to Gen Z Translator. Today, it’s time for a review. If you’re new, you can subscribe here and follow me on X/Twitter or Threads. Views are my own. Happy reading!
If you’re unfamiliar with The Circle, it’s a social media themed reality show where players compete to win $100,000 by forging the best relationships, outsmarting the simulation, and uncovering sneaky catfishers. I won’t spoil anything, so you can experience it for yourself.
This season, the show debuted its new Atlanta, Georgia, location. (Can you imagine walking past a building with a giant circle on it? Like, what?) They kept their usual 13 episodes.
Before this, the Netflix show was filmed in a British town where the gameshow originated, but was edited to suggest it took place in America. The introduction of a permanent U.S. location points to belief in the show’s success. I suspect it will gain more popularity over time.
The cast this season? Incredible. We had pick-mes, we had villains, we had undetectable catfish, we had strategists, and we had PUPPIES. Players formed genuine relationships with one another, real profiles or not. The dynamic stayed fresh with every blocking, and I felt the winner truly deserved it.
I love how The Circle introduces new twists every season, like when eliminated players returned as catfish profiles or when two people played as one profile. This season tried to do something extra unique – it let an artificial chatbot play as a profile.
Read my last story on artificial intelligence: I thought I would hate Spotify's AI DJ. Turns out, I don't
As it was most likely intended, this frustrated me. Really? I wanted to scream. We’re wasting precious screentime hunting down an AI none of the players are onto? The show made their societal statement, and I wanted to move on. Luckily they didn’t let the gambit run too long, otherwise this piece would be titled “Why AI ruined The Circle Season 6.”
This gets into my main complaint. It took four episodes to get to a blocking. Four. The best part of the show is when they walk into each other’s rooms to discover whether or not a fellow player is a catfish. To deny the audience that for four episodes just to perpetuate a Netflix binge is annoying.
With almost every episode ending on a cliffhanger, I felt forced to click “Play next,” even though I wanted to revolt against the folly of a streaming service. I became increasingly frustrated. Simple decisions were drawn out, and my time was wasted on cutscenes.
This season also had less games and more messaging, which gave way for the cast’s personalities to show, but took away from broader relationships forming based on new information. The circles (no pun intended) were tight, and it was hard for new players to break in.
The finale was strange, too. We didn’t get a debrief with host Michelle Buteau. (One X user theorized it was because the episode was filmed at the time of a strike). They forfeited fan service with no aftershow, leaving no space for players to address their conflicts. The story fell flat just as the plot thickened – again teasing us and disappointing us.
Season 6 spent all its energy on two new plot twists – the AI one of them, and “Ride or Die” the other – and forgot to add time for relational nuance. The season’s structure took away from core elements of the show, shortchanging us. At the end, I was left feeling like I knew the players well, but didn’t get much of a game.
(This is a PSA to the creators of The Circle – it’s a requirement to have a puppy cast member every season moving forward. Max was onto something. Send message.)
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