Before you settle on Insiders on Netflix, we’ve let you in on what to expect from the show. Worry not, we won’t spoil the show for you. Insiders will offer you drama, betrayal, love, and alliances – everything you expect from a reality show. Not much of a spoiler, is it?
So, are the seven episodes of Insiders worth your time? Yes, they just might be. Money heist fans will be excited that the show’s host is Najwa Nimri, who occasionally appears to explain a new twist in the series. You’ll need her explanations, as Insiders breaks a reality show trend: The participants don’t know that they are being filmed.
Insiders is real and features contestants thinking they are auditioning for a reality show
The 12 contestants on Insiders arrive on set believing they are in the final round of an audition to participate in a reality show. They aren’t aware that filming began the minute they set foot on set.
The producers inform the contestants that filming will occur in various areas except for the living quarters. In truth, the living quarters have 70 hidden cameras and 250 hidden microphones. To keep the ruse alive and the game interesting, the producers meddle by introducing various games.
Insiders is a reality show in which the participants don’t know they are being filmed. The idea is to bring out as much realism as possible, a facet missing in most ‘reality shows.’
It’s common knowledge that reality show participants turn it up a couple of notches for the camera. The producers also guide the narratives, essentially destroying the authenticity of such shows.
You watch a reality show knowing that whatever’s happening on screen isn’t real. Insiders represents an attempt by producers to bring back realism by hiding the camera. The hope is the contestants will portray their true selves.
Tempting, isn’t it? Insiders is different, and therefore, interesting, but it’s woefully short of entertainment. We’ve probably gotten used to the exaggerated ‘fake’ drama of ‘reality shows’ that reality now seems boring.
Nevertheless, Insiders is intriguing enough to warrant a watch. The constant interjections by Najwa irritate, but the series is a surprisingly easy binge, as is anything featuring elimination at the end of every episode.
Insiders is perhaps the most real reality show of modern times. We acknowledge that the producers may have steered the series in a particular direction via editing, but the filming was real.
Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that a reality show like Insider will last: Once participants find out that you’ve got cameras on them, all realism goes out the window.