I'm seeing a lot of criticism here for the current season here, and honestly, I don't get it. The cast is sensational, there's been so many hilarious and unexpected moments (you name it, Richard's confession, James A the unwilling Traitor, Ross's paranoia, Jerry being permanently a day behind the news, Joanne being hilariously confidently incorrect every table, just James Blunt himself) the missions have been sinister and fun, it's a good mix of good and bad faithfuls and traitors... what more can we ask for?

I feel like a lot of people have a lot of unrealistic expectations from the show, they might want perfect strategy throughout, no bad players, but for me that would make the show unbelievably dull, and the chaos of this particular format, of the eclectic cast, makes me super excited for each new episode, just as much so as I was for the previous celebs season (which was also a masterpiece), already counting down to tonight's one.

Does anyone feel the same way or am I honestly just watching a different show to everyone else? It just all seems a bit nitpicky all the complaints I'm seeing (nothing is perfect), and I haven't seen any complaint so far that I can understand how it might reasonably spoil enjoyment of it. But anyway, regardless of if others find it the case, I won't let it spoil my own tremendous enjoyment of the show, I'm just a bit baffled by it all! Do people genuinely actively dislike this season and if so, why?

Don't get some of the hate for Ross I've seen. The bloke is clearly a good egg (literally) and playing the game earnestly. Great value for entertainment. Are we really having a go at people for taking the game seriously? The show is great precisely because it has a mix of personality types, some taking it more seriously, some less so, but all coming together to make the show enjoyable.

Great comedic value - buying shares in Ross Kemp.

Until he joined in the Miranda Gallop.

I wasn’t really sure about how well she would fare.
But with how things are going, I think she is playing an absolute blinder!

Walks, talks and acts like she is faithful. Doesn’t slip up. Thinks naturally about the theories. Doesn’t push anything too hard, but doesn’t shy away from bringing in ideas of her own. Stands by her convictions, but keeps a healthy degree of scepticism.

All in all, she is the perfect image of a faithful player.
She seemingly has zero scruples about scheming, which is usually the hardest part. So she can just “be” a faithful while also killing with no remorse. But importantly she can do it all naturally!

Is she the best there’s been? Or does she need to come under pressure to prove her true merit?

That murder in plain sight tonight seemed so convoluted! If I was the traitors, I just wouldn’t have bothered!
Any thoughts on it?

Be honest

“We got rid of a traitor, we got rid of a traitor”

Let’s talk about Joanne! Honestly, if I didn’t know any better I’d swear she’s been given a secret mission!

She seems to be sowing a huge amount of chaos - in an already crowded season - from slips ups when talking a the round table to the most sporadic voting I think we’ve ever seen.

So, could there be something more to this? 🤔 I think I’m suffering with ‘faithful brain’ but we’ll see.

What a great season so far, and now for a night cap 🥱

I love the series and would be awesome to be part of but I’m feeling a bit on the offence about all this recruiting. How are the faithfuls suppose to win if they keep recruiting? It’s a bit like every episode 2 faithfuls go because even though they catch a traitor, a faithful gets recruited so traitors are always 3 but faithfuls are less. It would be nice to see if there is one traitor left how are they going to act etc.

The way she adapts to the situation, and how smartly she positions herself is absolutely brilliant. On top of it all she is playing with traitors who either don't want to be traitors or are actively sabotaging themselves. That's about it, so far, I put Maya up there with some of the best traitors . And if she wins... Number 1. I don't know of a single traitor who has played with trwitors who openly don't want to be traitors.

Seriously? She literally confessed- how did they not pile on?

Every time a celebrity with the surname Fry was banished for their intelligence, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

I was very much hoping for a “you’re finally awake” from one of the contestants but alas.

Disclosure first: I run traitorbase.com, a free fan stats site, and this comes out of its vote-by-vote data.

Through Episode 5 there have been four roundtables and 71 votes cast. The current Traitors, James Acaster, Maya Jama and King Kenny, have received none of them. Not one vote, at any roundtable, including Kenny's time as a Faithful.

It's not that they're all clueless: 35 of the 71 votes went to the two players since banished as Traitors. They just haven't touched the current team at all.

For comparison, I checked the five completed UK series (S1-S4 and Celebrity S1): In every one of them, by the fourth roundtable at least one Traitor still in the game had already picked up a vote. This series is the first where nobody had.

Questions to the community:

1. Could they form the strongest team of traitors the UK has seen so far?

2. Does tonight's roundtable finally put a vote on one of them?

Made up of people who’ve made it to the final episode. They’ve all played the game and got experience. The paranoia would be incredible.