BritCulture is BACK!
a love letter to 'The Traitors', streaming on BBCIPlayer/101 everyday at 8pm
Nothing unites British people more than good television. Especially good television that’s on every day or every week for a family night esque vibe. Right now, I’m at uni so I’m not watching anything with anyone but myself, but trust I’m tuning in every day on BBCIPlayer to watch ‘The Traitors’ live! It’s the British show we’ve latched onto for now, after Britain’s Got Talent fell off with their shitty winners. Come Dine With Me is still a contender but it’s a very hit or miss show. Either all the contestants get along really well and it’s wholly carried by the commentary of Dave Lamb, whom I hope never dies. OR it has some truly golden moments that I, and other Brits, can and will reference.
‘The Traitors’ is not a perfect selection of candidates.
(spoilers ahead)
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Armani and Linda are absolutely terrible at hiding that they’re traitors. Anyone with eyes can see that Linda, bless her 70 year old heart, is whipping her head every time she hears the word ‘traitor’. Armani…don’t even get me started. Her strategy of being a big personality was okay, at first, but going around everywhere getting opinions and not thinking anyone seriously suspects you? Shifting advice to fellow traitors and thinking they need to step up? Do you want ALL of you to lose the game?? Only traitor truly holding it down is Minah. I hope she wins, I can’t lie. Or narrowly misses a win. Whatever happens on the show, I’ll be tuning in just because of the sense of unity I get talking to people about the show, looking at the tweets after a round table discussion, the multiple TikToks. It feels like we’re all in a giant digital room together and it’s a lot better than the pointless discourse usually happening on British media platforms.
After watching last night’s episode, I had a strange and powerful hope that the show would incite some kind of new look dedicated to Claudia Winkleman. The makeup looks of last year I truly have nothing to say about because they gave nothing. It was ‘clean girl’ and a bunch of adjectives that was really just saying you were going to be using more blush or Clinique almost lipstick looks. With more local looks, however, I am very happy to see that British staple looks like Essex girl makeup prevails. The tan foundation, big or messy hair, Russian strip lashes are an acquired taste, but it shows some form of personality. I like every video of a middle aged woman doing Essex full glam MAC looks for a work dinner party religiously and I will continue to do so. Claudia’s look is not too far off from the vibe that Essex makeup gives. In an ideal world, I would love if a Claudia inspired look were to arise from the show. I actually wrote it in my journal in detail, which I will share now:
Claudia’s look, although her aim is to look like a gay French student called Pierre (her words, summarised) also has a bit of a gyaru feel to it. I think it’s because of the tan x bold eye look combo. There is something that has the potential to be so chic about it. I am thinking this kind of look:
Imagine…an intensely black smokey eye (think either JT’s black smokey eye look or Buchona smokey eye) with a gyaru white waterline undereye situation. Tan foundation, all matte base with visibly pink blush and NYX Lingerie XXL shade ‘Knockout’.
I thought it gave sort of an early Barbie doll makeup feel, probably only I will try it out, but the main thing I took away from this little stroke of creativity is that if I am feeling a stronger inclination towards British cultural icons from one show, Brit Culture is slowly crawling back.
Why do I keep saying that BritCulture is back? Am I implying it ever left?
That is exactly what I’m implying.
I think that the messy time of British politics where we didn’t have a solid PM and what seemed like issue after issue in the House of Commons put everything out of whack. But what made everything feel more out of whack was how it was a missed opportunity to take the piss. I don’t know whether it was just me, but I saw no efforts in satirising the experience by big British TV shows or anything. A lot of the humour that came from it all seemed to come from randoms on the Internet, which was fun, but it wasn’t entirely unifying. Shows that should’ve united British people further like Doctor Who, thanks to fearmongering over ‘woke ideology’, were brushed over by a lot of the public as too much (even though the whole point of Doctor Who’s creation was to be transgressive, being the first TV show on the BBC to be designed for a teenage audience in 1963, but I digress). Love Island has slowly felt like it’s going down a slightly downhill path in quality…it was just an amalgamation of things. Hopefully, with the strong pull of people I’ve seen talking Traitors, I’m correct in feeling that there has been a shift.
These small unifying figures within British culture are the gift that keeps on giving. As people are growing more inclined to go out of the country to get the good vibes they feel they’re missing from the UK (I’m going abroad this April, I’m one of them, lol), it’s good to have something to unify us. These small things can help grow certain trends or exacerbate wishes that we all didn’t even know we had. I truly believe it’s up to big creators of British cultural media to lean into things that will incite unity (for example, broadcasting shows on a weekly/daily basis rather than binge all at once) and taking the leap to satirise current events more to create a stronger sense of British culture.
‘The Traitors’ Season Three, you are a positive cultural sign!
This post may have been waffling a little, but whatever, I hope you enjoyed reading!
-Halle
Omg I meant 9pm but whatever ðŸ˜