REVIEW: ‘The Circle’ Season 6 Sinks Even Lower

Not all reality television series are created equal, and The Circle Season 6 is proof of this. The latest season of the influencer-based reality competition series melts brains with glee as it tries and fails and tries again to be something of relevance. Trash TV is nothing new, but the Netflix series brings it to new heights. There is nothing quite as soul-crushing and headache-inducing on air as The Circle, and for that, it might as well be commended.

The Circle Season 6 follows many of the same parameters as the previous seasons. Individuals are invited to either play as themselves or ‘catfish’ their way through the competition. The goal is to become the ultimate influence in a bid to win points with fellow contestants and rule who stays in the game. As the series progressed, more rules introduced themselves into the proceedings. So much so that it makes season one look quaint in comparison.

From celebrity assistants to mother-and-son duos to competitors having to team up with one another, the series has run the gamut of odd choices to keep things fresh. But Season 6 takes the cake in the most frustratingly tone-deaf decision to date that also calls to question the streaming services’ motives. The change? It has AI playing as one of the contestants.

In theory, there’s a bit of fun with this idea. However, the more you sit with it, the more it sours. Because this series is positively buried in artifice, that’s part of its initial charm. There’s no need to try to relate to these competitors because there’s not a single authentic element about them. The fun is in trying to dissect and watch them as fictional characters instead of real people. This is again established in The Circle Season 6 as we meet our main initial competitors.

They’re all easily definable. Kyle, 31, is a dog guy. He’s married and plans on attempting to catfish the other contestants by lying about his profession. He’s a basketball player in real life but, through the game, is playing as a basketball trainer. Lauren is a Twitch star whose portfolio boasts many a confession as she leans heavily into fandom for her aesthetic. Myles, 29, does his best at Machine Gun Kelley cosplay and, shockingly, becomes one of the more likable contestants.

There’s the 34-year-old nurse, Brandon, masquerading as his blonde female friend who finds a kindred spirit in an astrology fanatic who thinks both astrology and nursing achieve the same level of healing. We want to hate all of them. I kind of do. Lauren and Kyle talk about One Piece, and it’s the closest I come to caring about a single of them throughout the premiere episode.

The series also shows signs of developing through its communicative systems. Little things, such as different alerts and chat bubbles, change to adapt. But part of the charm of The Circle is the sameness it embodies. No matter what apartment we’re in, it all looks the same. Each contestant is given the baseline attention grabber to help sustain themselves through hours of no communication. Be it hula hoops, inflatable toys, or other arts and crafts. Each room is a copy of itself to make us sink into the unreality of this reality series.

It’s part of why the integration of AI is such a foul move. We already knew that this series was trash — we embraced it even. Adding AI makes it more challenging to defend said trash with the requisite irony. This is true even as it integrates itself into part of the show with contestants having to vote on who seems most human. Of course, a computer might be able to win.

That isn’t nearly as interesting as whether or not a real-life human can strip themselves of their innate character, personality, and humanity enough to become a hollow enough shell onto which other contestants will project. It also doesn’t help that, by the end of Episode 4, we’ve yet to have one single elimination.

There’s a difference between fun, trashy TV, and utter garbage, and The Circle Season 6 falls into the latter territory. There’s no doubt that viewers will latch onto this reality series. It is, without fail, addicting despite its vapid toxicity. But there are other reality series that do the same thing but better. Series that also capitalize on a bizarrely early 2000s aesthetic where everything is both incredibly washed out and garishly vibrant at the same time. But from the droll voice-over work to contestants who increasingly feel like caricatures, to rules that irritate rather than intrigue, the series suffers in its lack of ambition.

The Circle Season 6 Episodes 1–4 are available now on Netflix.