Starts January 2nd on Avrotros
10 socially distanced Dutch celebs travel to the Czech Republic to complete tasks for cash, unfortunately one of them cannot be trusted as they’ve been briefed with the task of sabotaging the challenges without detection. The person who wins all the money is the person who best works out Who is The Mole?
But who are this season’s contestants? From left to right:
- Charlotte Nils – Journalist and political reporter
- Renee Fokker – Actress
- Erik de Zwart – Radio DJ and media entrepreneur
- Joshua Nolet – Rapper
- Florentijn Hofman – Artist
- Remco Veldhuis – Comic and cabaret star
- Marije Knevel – Linda.nl editor and host
- Splinter Chabot – Writer, programme maker and political scientist
- Lakshmi Swami Persaud – Artist, songwriter and theatre.
- Rocky Hehakaija – Popular female national footballer
As ever, please don’t spoil until English subs are available, we are primarily a UK based site.
You can jump straight to the relevant episode discussion points from here:
And away we go.
Marije already works for de Mol in some capacity – she edits the website for Linda de Mol’s magazine.
Led to believe Splinter is the designated “Friend of Rik who’s been cast”.
From what I can figure from the Dutch comments from that contestant intro video, the rumours of this season featuring less well known celebs is true, though I don’t know if that was planned or just something that happened that they’ve now decided is a feature not a bug. Highlights of the comments include “Welcome to a new season of Who Is That?” and “Finally we get a season with unknown contestants.”
Queen Nikkie aside, most of the more famous people have been the duds who never do anything interesting in order to preserve their reputations though. And even Nikkie wasn’t really a mainstream name despite her Youtube followers. I’d much rather a season of slightly more obscure celebrities with diverse backgrounds than ten TV stars who don’t know how to entertain.
The ‘cold open’ they’ve previewed looks quite good, not that I can understand a word of what is being said…Merel seems to be a firm favourite of the producers though considering how often she seems to pop up in the seasons following hers!
If anyone wants to play our First Suspicions list alongside the podcast, link is https://forms.gle/6PveNDpW9Lss59nRA. Deadline is next Saturday evening.
EPISODE ONE
Very likable group and a decent set of opening tasks. Good.
But I can’t figure out which male is which.
Erik is the older one with glasses. Joshua is the blonde. Florentijn is the buff one. Splinter is the younger nerdy one who looks like he got lost on the way to the Project Runway auditions.
Apropos of nothing, I learned today that Florentijn’s art includes that terrifying giant rubber duck that went viral a few years back, so clearly he’s my favourite this season.
Wie is De Mol watchers – The Suspect List 2021 is now available!
Are you excellent at Mole hunting? Prove it here!
https://forms.gle/damFnVBunmhXJ1Kn9
Put the remaining suspects in order from most likely to least likely to be The Mole. Higher up the list = more points.
Success!
Very impressed that the Mole successfully kept 100% of the money out of the pot in the first assignment… I’m inclined to think that that assignment could offer some initial clues as to who the mole is not
I’m also very impressed that keeping the candidates isolated and safe in the pandemic era feels really seamless and natural… for all purposes, this feels like a normal season, which is great.
On a side note, has there been news as to whether the Belgian version was able to do the same? (Sorry if I missed word on that elsewhere)
Yes, we’re getting a new Belgian season, it was filmed early in the pandemic.
Germany is the location – Papa Bear was in Schliersee for the reveal picture.
On that subject, I wouldn’t be surprised if the premiere’s pushed back from the usual second week of March – not just because there’s a higher chance of being able to get everyone in the same room for the reveal and finale events, but because Dutch Big Brother has just returned and is a Vier co-production (with half the housemates being Belgian) and runs till April 9th.
EPISODE TWO
Well, I don’t know if there’s been a change of staff or just the stars aligning but this feels like a WIDM that’s got its mojo back – loved everything about the Metal Gear Ballerinas task, and it feels like they’ve taken a bit of Belgian inspiration for finding a more entertaining twist on pretty standard WIDM tasks – if they did the truck driving one last year, the correct symbols would probably have just been written down on a board somewhere, in 2021 they have to take photos from a fast bumpy truck! Also Florentijn’s extremely bored sounding description made me laugh.
Also not sure Swiss Toni added all that much so from an entertainment perspective it’s basically a non-elim.
I agree about the ballerina task- I guess they figured they already had the laser tag guns from episode 1, so why not get more use out of them…
The tour around the chateau was basically the old “Complicated day, simple question” task mixed with the Vietnamese dinner party from Belgian Mole, which in itself was based on a WIDM task.
WiDM watchers – Week 2 of The Suspect List is now available!
https://forms.gle/P8M6CfZRteeoT1DQ9
Success!
EPISODE THREE
Incredibly, a series where (Remco notwithstanding) the dead wood is going quickly, although I did enjoy Flo winding people up by basically being himself.
Enjoyed the first task, although was expecting it to be more Escape Room-y.
Think the second and third tasks would have been a bit rubbish if they DID give away four exemptions, but as they didn’t I thought the locations and direction were immense.
They’re really getting mileage out of the old Moles too. We had four of them this episode alone.
I think they’re getting over reliant on the old moles, and they never have anything interesting to say or do.. except in this challenge. This is how they could have been used in Renaissance.