43. The Mole 5
Wikipedia
Reality Blurred Archive
Wikipedia
Reality Blurred Archive
Honestly, I don't know if this should be called The Mole 3 for being the third regular season or The Mole 5 for being the fifth overall season, but whatever. The Mole was one of those shows that I've heard great things about, but never got around to watching. Sure, I've seen a few episodes of the first season, but not nearly enough for that to make the list. The Mole made a comeback after a few years of not being on the air with a new host and all that, and considering how much more TV I started watching around that time, I decided to watch it for the first time. The format is basically a bunch of people competing for cash by doing tasks, but there's The Mole who tries to sabotage everyone. Each week they take tests about The Mole's identity, and eliminations are based on who gets the least correct answers. The person who figures out which person is The Mole wins the pot. Very intriguing gameplay and even encourages audience participation. Now let's get to the actual write-up.The fifth season of the US version of The Mole began airing on ABC on June 2, 2008, after being pushed back a week by ABC.[1][2] Casting information was announced online.[3]
After the fourth season in 2004, ABC had declined to pick up The Mole, and Stone Stanley Entertainment lost the rights to the show from Belgian company TTTI. However, in August 2007, Scott Stone of Stone & Co. Entertainment (the new name for Stone Stanley Entertainment after David Stanley left in 2004) re-secured the rights to the program, and with ABC in January 2008, announced the show's return to U.S. television.[4]
- Jon Kelley. The host of this season. I remember people complaining that he was no Anderson Cooper, but no way Cooper was gonna come back, and I felt this guy did a decent job anyway. Sure, he was a bit wooden at times, but he did actually talked and joked around with the contestants, so it wasn't like he was a robot like most of the other hosts on various shows. I dunno, I felt he did a decent job, and it definitely could have been a lot worse.
- Tasks. I really enjoyed a lot of the tasks on this show, from jumping off a waterfall for bags of cash to catapulting clay pigs to searching for clothes on the street to having to do tasks using only what's shown on camera as a viewpoint. They were varied, relied on all sorts of various skills, and had plenty of opportunities to be sabotaged. The tasks were probably one of the strongest qualities about this show, I felt.
- Exemptions. Several tasks had exemptions, where the person who received the exemption wouldn't get voted
out. The way exemptions were handled were usually pretty smart, usually tempting people to give up money for the pot for it like in All for One, or hidden
right under one's nose like inside the one free pig in When Pigs Fly that Paul found. Each task usually had a unique way to get an exemption, which just
shows how smart the production crew for this show really is.
- Ali. She was a model or something, and the show made sure to tell us she wasn't the Mole by hiding "NOT
ALI" somewhere in episode 2, though it didn't matter since she took a bribe for $30,000 in episode 3 and left anyway. Turns out she would've
been safe, but oh well.
- Bobby. I'm still not sure whether it was a strategy or if he really was that pathetic, but Bobby seemed like the weakest person there. He struggled to even walk around in the Robinson Crusoe task, and then had to be carried around in a wheelbarrow in the When Pigs Fly task. He then got eliminated third, which proved he wasn't the most obvious Mole ever. I think they mentioned whether he was faking or if he was simply weak and useless, but I don't remember, so feel free to clarify.
- Journals. There was a mild bit of controversy when Jon asked in episode 4 if anyone would agree to sacrifice their journal. Alex, Paul, and Nicole wanted to, with Alex ending up being the one to do so. Hilariously, Alex ended up keeping his while all the other journals were burned, except for Craig's who was currently getting medical attention. This led to a great meltdown by Mark, who pretty much wrote every minute detail possible in his journal, who was pissed and almost quit because of it. Of course, losing his journal didn't affect him in the long run, so it's just hilarious now.
- Paul. He figured out the identity of The Mole pretty quickly, and thus he was able to make the F4 (or is it F3?) with this information. Along the way, he pissed off a lot of people and had an awesome rivalry with Nicole, with the two of them having to duke it out since Mark was immune and the other guy was The Mole. Paul, despite knowing who The Mole was since the beginning, was slower by four seconds since they both tied number of correct answers, and left. Definitely an entertaining and competitive player, and someone I was rooting for the entire game.
- Nicole. Nicole was absolutely amazing to watch, even in the first episode when she was chosen to sleep outside and decided to stay awake just to stay in the cabin and circumvent the rules. Then everyone voted her to be isolated, which gave her an exemption. In a later episode, she and Paul fought during an execution ceremony, where she threatened to kill Paul in his sleep, which may very well be the best death threat in reality TV history. She circled through a few targets until the end when she finally figured out it was Craig. She was incredibly fast answering questions, which gave her the edge against Paul and got her to the end, where she lost to Mark by a few questions.
- Craig. AKA The Mole. The fat, affable guy with a great sense of humor and some great enthusiasm was actually this season's saboteur, and he had his weight as a crutch to make it look like he was trying. He did manage to sabotage a few tasks, some in rather sneaky ways, but he actually tried in Midas Rush, where he struggled to make it up the long uphill hike and after barely making it in time, had to get medical attention for a bit. Overall, he was a decent Mole, though I think most people ended up predicting he was The Mole anyway. Oh well.
- Mark. Hilariously, the eventual winner of The Mole was almost executed three times, lucking out by taking quizzes faster every time. Not to mention almost quitting over his journal being torched and sitting out the Dress Code task because of Clay's pride or whatever. Despite not knowing The Mole until the end, Mark still managed to raise the most money (IIRC) and showed he had the will to win in challenges such as in The Grapes of Cash where he ran on a treadmill for nearly an hour at increasing speeds while helping answer questions. A decent winner overall.
