Insiders
By Marty Brown,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Experimental reality show looks like normal reality show.
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Insiders
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What's the Story?
Insiders is the story of 12 people who think they're auditioning for a reality show, when secretly they're already on it. The contestants think they're auditioning for a psychological game, but hidden cameras film them in their down time to find out if they act the same off camera as they do when they think they're being filmed.
Is It Any Good?
Twenty years ago, Chuck Klosterman published a great essay about how after The Real World first aired in 1992, everyone in his peer group began to behave like a reality TV personality type in their day-to-day lives. Similarly, Insiders' social experiment is meant to capture its contestants' lives off-camera, but what it discovers is that people who want to be on a reality show tend to act like a camera is on them at all times. So, despite the twist, Insiders looks and feels exactly like a typical reality show, with many of the exact beats and tropes viewers have come to expect since those early seasons of The Real World.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the secret cameras. What is the experiment the show is running? What do the producers hope to learn from it? How does it differ from typical reality TV?
How "real" do you think the show is? Do you think contestants are still competing, even if they think the cameras are off? How much of characters' behavior can be attributed to competition? How can you tell?
Who do you expect to do well on the show? Why? What hints does the series give about how the competition works? Do you have a favorite character or someone you think will win?
TV Details
- Premiere date: October 21, 2021
- Cast: Najwa Nimri
- Network: Netflix
- Genre: Reality TV
- TV rating: TV-MA
- Last updated: February 18, 2023
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