Parents' Guide to

Identity

By Sierra Filucci, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 12+

Iffy concept relies on making snap judgments.

TV NBC Game Shows 2006
Identity Poster Image

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While the concept of judging people by the way they look seems ripe for discussion (and controversy), Identity does nothing to engage the subject -- showing only that yes, sometimes a person's clothes help you figure out what kind of work they do (duh!) and sometimes your assumptions are wrong (a young woman in a dress might be a termite inspector -- double duh!). Once players take a guess and "seal the identity" by pressing their hand on a futuristic-looking cylinder, an annoyingly long period of time elapses in an attempt to build suspense before the stranger-on-a-pedestal reveals his or her identity with a silly quip (retired English professor? "You passed the test!").

Jillette is a pleasant enough host, and he doesn't have the tinge of creepiness of 1 vs 100's Bob Saget or the self-mocking exaggeration of Show Me the Money's William Shatner. But overall, the show doesn't have much to latch on to -- no clever strategies to employ, no trivia to guess at -- and once the easy choices are eliminated, players would be fools not to take the stack of accumulated cash and go home a little bit richer.

TV Details

  • Premiere date: December 18, 2006
  • Cast: Penn Jillette
  • Network: NBC
  • Genre: Game Shows
  • TV rating: TV-PG
  • Last updated: February 28, 2022

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