Rooney

Isn’t the cast level fine at this point? We’ll likely see a double banishment rather than a double murder, but the numbers are fine at the moment even if they murder Jessie and she has a shield. There will be a maximum of 6 in the final. Get the point about producer interference which I do agree with to a point but they have to do something otherwise the game is too predictable for the players. You can already see it with some twists. I do think Rachel has handled the heat very well and she clearly must be a very popular player, but I just cannot warm to her at all. Maybe it’s being set up for Rachel deciding to throw Stephen under the bus eventually.

I feel their own way to survive really is to shred the ultra right Tories and pivot back towards the Centre with some more moderate folk in the Party and some sensible politics with a tinge of nationalism

Yeah I was wondering what was happening in the polls- seems Reform have lost some ground so no surprise there not been as vocal. I suppose on the flip side there’s been less media coverage for then to be vocal too. Obviously I still feel Labour and the Tories will get battered in the local elections but economically Labour might have made some ok moves eg. Energy bills so let’s see if that has impact. It’s hard to get excited by anyone really and as much as I do think this Labour government are doing as best they can, they have sure made an absolute gaff of it.

Jenrick sacked for being a snake. Loads more Tories in talks to join Reform. Really does seem like the end of the Conservatives and the Reform being the purple Tories.

I still think the Traitors have made an error here by choosing to murder and not recruit. If Matt gets banished at the round table, I suspect they will just recruit Roxy to throw her under the bus, so maybe they are going with that angle. If he reveals himself as a Traitor, surely they will come back to bite Rachel.

Rachel is playing a good game but I really cannot stand her. A lot of the faithful are useless and seem completely blindsided at the moment, I wonder whether that changes. The tide is certaibly favouring the Traitors. No idea why Harriet also pressed the self destruct button. I wonder after Fiona whether she'd just had enough. Some terrible gameplay from Roxy, Matt and James tonight too. I always think these conversations with the Traitors are a poisoned chalice, similar to the Seer.

Jessie is such an obvious kill though. I agree she is really likeable and a good player, but she has no heat on her, everyone likes her so she will never get banished. It's not a case where she is dumb so you can string her along too as a Traitor. It's the unfortunate flaw in the game. Bold play from Matthew. I was thinking I'm not too sure how much of an advantage asking the Traitors is as will surely bring suspicion and heat on to the players. It will be interesting to see how that one plays out as I'm not sure Rachel could outsmart him. Will be interesting to see what Harriet's play is as she suspects Rachel, but you get the feeling she probably needs to confide in someone with her theory ala Jaz in Season 2.

Their defence is in tatters though. Surely means one of Bobb/Savinho is off though, they're very well stacked in the forward areas now.

The Traitors this year are useless. Stephen got himself in to a terrible position and while Rachel was playing a good game, she showed her hand too soon with that Amanda detective story. The game does funny things, so I can totally see why Fiona went off at her like that and called her out. She is also not wrong that Rachel would hage thrown Fiona under the bus. I think the issue here is it looks so bad for both of them, but all it takes is a few misdirections and the heat can be off them. Great TV though - don't think Traitors have gone after each other so early in the UK version at least.

I thought Stephen would be a really good traitor, but he's making so many mistakes. I can't see him lasting that much longer, feels a bit like Paul in Season 2. Agree with Dandy the play here would be to muder Reece at this point. I do think he will get banished at some point, but the smart move would be to get rid of him from the terrible error they made at the Family Portrait. Both Amanda and Stephen are toast if Reece reveals that.

Well, it's a bit like Liverpool are somehow in 4th despite stinking the place out!

Nah. I guess you have to remember of a portion of people who watch the show, it's only people who engage online who find out all this stuff. People just have way too much time on their hands. Anyway, excited for tonight. Still going with Fiona/Ellie as the traitor, although I do like the Faraaz shouts as well. Can't wait for everyone to be disappointed! Personally, I've really enjoyed the twist. It's added a fun element to the game. I think they need to do these things to freshen the show up as the cast know the game so it throws them off too. Although I still do enjoy how paranoid people get at the beginning with their theories.

So another one bites the dust and we now have Darren Fletcher in charge to play his two sons!

Tuesday 6th January West Ham United 1-2 Nottingham Forest (20:00) Wednesday 7th January AFC Bournemouth 2-2Tottenham Hotspur (19:30) Brentford 0-0 Sunderland (19:30) Crystal Palace 2-1 Aston Villa (19:30) Everton 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers (19:30) Fulham 1-2 Chelsea (19:30) Manchester City 4-2 Brighton & Hove Albion (19:30) Burnley 0-2 Manchester United (20:15) Newcastle United 2-0 Leeds United (20:15) Thursday 8th January Arsenal 3-2 Liverpool (20:00)

I'm actually not sure - I don't think it is Harriet though after suspecting it was her. There were massive hints in the episode today that it could be Fiona or Sam. There might have been more too, but in their camera solos they both kind of hinted. I think from an editor point of view, the production team won't want to make it super obvious who it is but nor will they want to at least not hinted who they were in one of the VTs. My other complete wildcard is Ross. If it is Harriet, then I think she went too early on Hugo and showing her hand to the Faithfuls. Traitor hunters often become suspicious to others later down the line.

The epilogue was long. But I get why they needed it - I thought it was nice and as far as an ending goes, I think it probably was just about perfect. It's hard for a big show to have a good ending which is not devicise, but I think they ended the show perfectly with Mike shutting the door. This might just be me, but some of the emotional scenes left me a little cold. As the show grew to be more ensemble, Mike kind of became side tracked as a character - I don't know, I felt the Purple Rain moment could have been bigger. It almost felt too short for me. I think Eleven definitely sacraficed herself, but it's nice they left it open ended. My biggest criticism is though there wasn't enough stakes in the final battle. I don't really get the whole "it's not that kind of show to kill off characters" - they have done in the past. I just felt Vecna/Mind Flyer needed one of the main characters to be killed, that way the stakes are truly high rather than what we got. I get why they didn't want to do it, but felt a bit of a cop out to me.

I always forget their names at the start with a large cast, but you're right - my money is on Harriet as the secret traitor. I do think whoever it is is female and the shot they use of them is just an actor (or Ed Gamble). Wonder what the family tree significance is? Wonder if later down the line that might come in to play during a task ala the board last year.

I think it's too obvious to be Amanda - the editing was not subtle at all and they seem to want us not to know who it is. I'm interested to see how that goes - clearly has shaken the Traitors up at least. I wonder how they will play the game themselves too as surely they won't want to give away their identify at all, but in theory there's only so long until they know who they are.

Saturday 3rd January Aston Villa 2-0 Nottingham Forest (12:30) Brighton & Hove Albion 2-0 Burnley Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-1 West Ham United AFC Bournemouth 1-2 Arsenal (17:30) Sunday 4th January Leeds United 2-1 Manchester United (12:30) Everton 1-0 Brentford Fulham 1-1 Liverpool Newcastle United 2-1 Crystal Palace Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Sunderland Manchester City 3-1 Chelsea (17:30)

The second batch of episodes was infinitely weaker. I think a problem is the cast is SO huge and clearly while all very likeabke, a lot of them have done very little this season and we've given a mass amount of screentime to Holly. I feel there hasn't been a 'moment' yet - maybe we will get that in the finale, but you can kind of see where the plot is going based off whats been foreshadowed. It's srange as I dont think thr stakes have really bee that high this series either, which is mad considering the often kill off key supporting characters. I think they'll want to give everyone a happy ending in the end.

What's bonkers is Amorim changed something that seemingly worked OK. Wolves are not as bad as the results make out away from home. I was really impressed with them against Arsenal, then they did well at Liverpool, so was likely they'd give a fair showing against Man Utd. The issue with Wolves is when they're at home and they have to be on the front foor. Plus, a bit liek West Ham, their fans hate their owners so the atmosphere can be well less toxic when away from home too. Guess we can say Villa's title charge lasted all of three days!

Burnley 1-2 Newcastle Chelsea 2-2 Bournemouth Nottingham Forest 1-0 Everton West Ham 1-3 Brighton Arsenal 1-0 Aston Villa Man Utd 3-1 Wolves Crystal Palace 1-1 Fulham Liverpool 3-1 Leeds Brentford 2-1 Tottenham Sunderland 0-1 Man City

It will be Arsenal or City. This Villa run feels like it is unsustainable - always feel they will do well at home, but it kind of feels a bit like Forest/Chelsea last season.

Friday 26th December Manchester United 2-2 Newcastle United (20:00) Saturday 27th December Nottingham Forest 0-2 Manchester City (12:30) Arsenal 2-1 Brighton & Hove Albion Brentford 2-1 AFC Bournemouth Burnley 0-0 Everton Liverpool 2-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers West Ham United 1-1 Fulham Chelsea 2-1 Aston Villa (17:30) Sunday 28th December Sunderland 1-1 Leeds United (14:00) Crystal Palace 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur (16:30)

They really need this film to knock it out of the park for the fanboys and the casuals. Just from the sheer number of cameos and actors they have it will be really well imo. I think the issue is people are elss bothered about contained stories and we got used to seeing multiple characters in one film., so audiences want that now.