The Mole (TV series): Difference between revisions

Originally a Belgian show, the USA version had five seasons and three hosts, the first and probably most popular one being CNN reporter Anderson Cooper. It has quite a dedicated fan base that made two attempts to revive it: one by sending "lemon heads" (a season five reference) to ABC, much like what was done with the CBS show ''[[Jericho]]'', and also by posting "Save The Mole" videos on [[YouTube]] to help advertise the show. Some former contestants and season five host Jon Kelley also got involved; a compilation of their videos can be found [http://abcsavethemole.com/ here].

 

 

* [[Adventure Towns]]: The players are always on the move, traveling from town to town (and occasionally country to country) to complete their various tasks.

* [[Asian and Nerdy]]: Dorothy.

* [[The Cameo]]: The Mole from the first season makes a brief appearance towards the end of the second season.

* [[Celebrity Edition]]: Has had two, both hosted by Ahmad Rashad.

** The Dutch version ''became'' this with every season after the fourth one casting Dutch celebrities only. Strangely, unlike with the US celebrity seasons which all but killed the show, the Dutch celebrity seasons haven't had nearly as much of a negative impact on the show considering that the show has remained popular enough to go on for at least ''eight'' celebrity-only seasons.

* [[The Chessmaster]]: Stephen and Jim from the first season could both be seen as this.

* [[Confession Cam]]

* [[Eliminated From the Race]]: At the end of each episode, the contestants take a quiz on The Mole's identity. The player with the lowest score is "executed."

* [[Elimination Houdini]]: The winners of seasons two and five, Dorothy and Mark, definitely had luck on their sides. In ''The Next Betrayal'', Elavia accepted a $50,000 bribe to leave the game in place of an elimination. This spared Dorothy, who scored the lowest on the quiz that night and would have been executed. Mark failed the quiz ''three times'' and only escaped execution by finishing faster than the eliminated players.

* [[Like You Would Really Do It]]: [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] by the players when, at the outset, their bags of personal effects were thrown into an incinerator. {{spoiler|[[Genre Savvy|The players were right, of course]]-- the bags had been switched for fakes prior to destruction.}}

** Averted in season five, when the players (sans Craig, who was ill from the last challenge) were instructed to find a volunteer to have his journal destroyed. When Alex reluctantly came forward, it was revealed that the whole exercise was a [[Secret Test of Character]] and that his journal would be spared while ''everyone else's'' journals would be burned. Mark was [[Serious Business|not amused.]]

* [[Metagame]]: Due to the elimination quizzes, there are three key elements to being a good Mole contestant.

** Gathering as much information as possible about the players and their activities, whether by copious note-taking or by establishing an alliance with another player to share info (although this information is not always reliable);

** Another excellent example is the Mole from Season 3 of the Dutch version who remains the most beloved Mole of that version because they were so good at painting themselves as too lovably goofy to possibly be the Mole.

* [[Off the Rails]]: In the Season 5 mission "Travelers", Craig was chosen to pick out modes of transportation for the rest of the group to reach a monument within a set amount of time, and was told he would be given an exemption if none of them made it. Going for the exemption, he chose modes of transportation that were... unhelpful, including stilts, scuba gear and a two-person llama costume (Bonus: He assigned the head and rear of the llama costume to arch-rivals [[Alpha Bitch|Nicole]] and [[Jerkass|Paul]], respectively.) Rather than participate in the game, the remaining contestants unanimously decided not to play this game right at the start and simply drove to the monument in the vans, forfeiting the money and netting Craig the exemption. {{spoiler|This was [[The Mole|Craig's]] most blatant sabotage of the game. Doubles as a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|CMOA]] for Craig, as despite single-handedly ruining that mission, [[Magnificent Bastard|not one person suspected him of being The Mole.]]}}

* [["Previously On..."]]

* [[Punny Name]]: In a late episode of season 2, host Anderson Cooper and the players are all eating McDonald's food as a reward. Anderson states "that all of this is compliments of Mickey D's". Aside from the fact that McDonald's was a sponsor of the show, guess who else involved with the show has that nickname? Hint, they're in the title.

* [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]]: Besides the mystery of The Mole's identity, the other big part of this show's watchability is the sheer fun it is to watch the contestants try to complete the various tasks.

* [[Reality Show]]

* [[Reunion Show]]: All five seasons had one. Season one was the only season where The Mole and The Winner were revealed through episode footage shown to the players at the reunion show.

* [[Scenery Porn]]: Almost all the time, as the players are always moving.

** Airing The Mole 2 on a [[Friday Night Death Slot|Friday night]] when almost no one was watching, one week after 9/11 happened and the American viewing public were not the in mood for backstabbery.

* [[Secret Test of Character]]: Every civilian season has had this in one fashion or another. Most famously was the second season, when the team travelling on bus were stopped first by a pair of pretty ladies, then later by an older woman, to fix a flat tire. They fixed both cars, and were rewarded. Had they just fixed the pretty ladies' car, they would've lost money.