Jennifer Cartwright
In between the regular reality TV fixtures of Britain’s Got Talent in the spring, Love Island in the summer and Strictly Come Dancing by October, TV networks spend their time trialling what is going to be the next big reality show.
We’ve seen some successes, such as BBC’s BAFTA-winning The Traitors and some failures such as Channel 4’s one-season-only Rise and Fall. ITV’s latest answer has been The Fortune Hotel.
In The Fortune Hotel, we see ten pairs – a mixture of best friends, couples, and relatives, all jet off to the Caribbean. Greeted by charismatic host Stephen Mangan, each pair is assigned a case. The twist? Eight cases are blank, one has £250,000, and one has the dreaded early checkout card. Through a combination of strategy and luck, pairs swap cases in the Lady Luck bar and hope that fortune has been on their side.
A Traitorous Influence
A game focused on trust and deception featuring adventure challenges and breakfast discussions, The Fortune Hotel is certainly influenced by rival BBC’s smash-hit success The Traitors. The cosy Scottish Highlands are exchanged for the sun-kissed Caribbean but the premise is the same: these are games of duplicity. When we see the building and breaking of alliances, combined with the slowed-down version of a popular song, The Fortune Hotel appears like copied homework with little bits altered.
“I didn’t expect The Fortune Hotel to work when I first watched it”
As well as this, the tense opening and closing of cases is reminiscent of Deal or No Deal, Golden Balls, or even the 8 Out of Ten Cats comic segment ‘Carrot in a Box’. Meanwhile, the beachy hotel setting of course reminds us of the Love Island villa. It seems that The Fortune Hotel is a bricolage of reality TV shows, taking what makes them successful and blending it all together.
The strange thing is, it kind of works.
Rule Twists
Perhaps knowing the inevitable comparisons to other reality TV shows, The Fortune Hotel differentiates itself through regular rule twists. At first, when you’re already navigating the complicated web of who has what case, additions such as an extra random case swap, or the introduction of the ‘room service challenge’ alongside the ‘main day trip challenge’, are difficult to keep up with. But gradually, these rule changes are what maintain the show’s momentum and keep it exciting.
For example, the twist that mid-way through the series, each pair who has the cash case at the end of the episode can bank £10,000, encourage pairs to take risks and swap cases even if holding onto their own blank case is the safest way to survive the episode. Across the series, we see front runners pushed to the back of the pack and dark horses take the lead, which perhaps wouldn’t happen if the show kept itself simple.
ITV chose the right structure of airing the series nightly on Mondays to Thursdays, as The Fortune Hotel would certainly be difficult to follow with a more spaced-out schedule. It is exactly the type of show to consume at a fast pace.
Good Casting
But where The Fortune Hotel excels is in its casting. Yes, episode one feels like a nervous first day at work where you’re trying to keep up with countless new introductions and you probably won’t know your Adam from your Scott until at least episode three. However, the show does well in casting pairs from all sorts of different walks of life who bring a mixture of intelligence, humour and entertainment to the game.
The casting of Louie O’Neill, who had just been on Channel 4’s Josh Must Win is a slight slip-up because questioning where you’ve seen him before diverts your attention. Yet, he and best friend Chloe’s multiple mishaps on the first challenge are a highlight of the series, and so it is understandable why ITV wanted him.
Another stand-out moment is in an early episode when contestant Claire has a clear opportunity to win a challenge but instead chooses to stop and help a competitor in need. It adds a moment of humility to the series and proves the power of this show is more than its big-budget prize pot.
So is it Worth the Watch?
I didn’t expect The Fortune Hotel to work when I first watched it. In fact, I only chose to watch out of intrigue from the trailer I had seen so many times in between my regular TV fixes.
I was surprised at my level of investment. I found myself genuinely caring for the pairs in the series, strategising what I would do differently, and envious of the sunny location.
In The Fortune Hotel you get the opportunity to win an amount of money that could change your life. Even if you don’t win you get a free Caribbean holiday just to participate. Now where is the application for season two?
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Featured image courtesy of Robert Bye on Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image license can be found here.
