The Traitors series three: return of 'completely riveting' reality TV

Season three of "The Traitors" kicks off with an "utterly gutting twist", said Rachel Aroesti in The Guardian.

As the new group of contestants "merrily bond" on a steam train bound for the Scottish Highlands, Claudia Winkleman makes the shock announcement that there isn't room for all of them in the game, and three players must be ejected. After a stretch of "awkward silence", three "noble souls take one for the team and clamber [down] to the tracks". The message is "crystal clear": in this reality TV show, "goodness gets you nowhere".

It's a "thoroughly galling" opening that proves the latest series of "The Traitors" won't be "resting on its laurels". And, as a study of human psychology, the show remains completely "captivating", right from the start.

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The premise of the show will be familiar to many: Winkleman, clad in "ridiculously chunky" knitwear, welcomes a (now smaller) group of contestants to an "immaculate Scottish castle", and secretly picks three Traitors, who are tasked with "murdering" one person each night in order to win a jackpot of up to £120,000. Meanwhile, the remaining "Faithfuls" must "sniff out and vote to banish alleged Traitors during a daily round-table ceremony".

From a "self-destructive mistake" to an "emotional betrayal", last year's finale of the hit show "had everything", said Nick Hilton in The Independent. "So how do you top that?" Each series "lives and dies on its casting", and this year's line-up features another assortment of "mild eccentrics", including a Londoner who, "for inexplicable reasons", has decided to fake a Welsh accent, and an ex-soldier "masquerading as a nail technician".

After the opening episode, viewers will be left "fearing" for the trio of Traitors. "Unsubtle looks, teary over-performance, near-audible gasping: this doesn't look like a team capable of making it to the last leg." And yet, some of the top Traitors from earlier seasons also had an unpromising start before growing into the game. That's what makes the show "so compelling".

If series three is to reach the same level of drama as last year's, the "brutality must be upped", said Carol Midgley in The Times. The final has been tweaked for this latest instalment, so the last few contestants to be banished will no longer reveal whether they are a Traitor or a Faithful, making things even harder for the contestants who remain. "But, frankly, the best change they could make" would be to throw out the "tedious" group tasks.

It's tricky to pull off a show that is "both profoundly unserious and completely riveting", said Anita Singh in The Telegraph, but "The Traitors" succeeds. It's so "well-made", you'll reach the end of the first episode "desperate to know what happens in the second".

All of the "key ingredients" are "already in place" at the start of series three, said El Hunt in London's The Standard. Although it's difficult getting to know all of the new characters in the opening episode, "potential threats" are coming into view. "A winning formula strikes again."