The Fortune Hotel review – a fiendishly addictive mix of The Traitors and White Lotus | Television

The Traitors on a seaside, anybody? Ever because the BBC’s Claudia Winkleman-in-a-castle contest turned a runaway hit, rival broadcasters have been tripping over their hooded cloaks to fee their very own model. We’ve had The Traitors in a stratified high-rise (Channel 4’s Rise & Fall), The Traitors go Greek island-hopping (ITVX’s Loaded in Paradise), The Traitors within the Massive Brother home (Netflix’s The Belief: A Recreation of Greed) and The Traitors v James Bond (Prime’s 007: Street to a Million).

Now ITV1 has thrown its fingerless gloves within the ring with The Fortune Lodge, pitched as “a hybrid of The Traitors, The White Lotus and Deal Or No Deal”. Seems like a horrific Frankenstein format, however one way or the other it really works. Of the brand new wave of post-Traitors copycat programming, this comes the closest but. It’s a fiendishly addictive affair which may simply be your subsequent actuality repair.

Ten pairs of Brits are flown to the Caribbean and compete to win £250,000 by passing round a briefcase full of money. The purpose of the sport is to search out the cash and preserve maintain of it. With common case-swapping periods, that’s simpler stated than finished. If The Traitors is a glorified recreation of wink homicide, that is high-stakes cross the parcel.

Upon arrival at The Fortune Lodge – truly a £500-per-night resort in Grenada – company are randomly assigned a silver briefcase. Neatly stacked inside one case is the jackpot. Eight are empty. One comprises the dreaded “Early Checkout” card. Whoever is left holding the cursed valise on the finish of every episode has their keep delivered to a untimely finish. Cue sunburnt skulduggery as they attempt to throw one another beneath the airport shuttle bus.

Episodes climax with The Fortune Lodge’s equal of The Traitors’ nerve-jangling spherical tables. Over nightcaps in The Girl Luck Bar, every pair should determine whether or not to maintain or swap their case. Has the couple with the loot managed to dodge suspicion? Will their case be cruelly snatched from their grasp? Who will cross whom the poisoned chalice, like a luggage-based echo of Diane’s fizzy Traitors rosé?

Filling the Winkleman function as “resort supervisor” is actor Stephen Mangan, sporting a dad-on-a-cruise collection of Hawaiian shirts and Man from Del Monte fits. He performs it easily well mannered with a mischievous twinkle and a camp comedian edge. I sincerely hope that earlier than the collection is over, Mangan will channel Armond from The White Lotus by bingeing on confiscated medication and defecating in someone’s suitcase.

Seasoned actuality viewers will recognise sure tropes. The shiny setting and slo-mo arrivals consciously evoke Love Island. This sense of deja vu is enhanced by one contestant, “skinfluencer” Louie O’Neill, additionally showing in E4’s current Josh Should Win. Fortunately, he’s first out. Sighs of reduction from the red-faced casting crew are virtually audible.

Opponents are harking back to Race Throughout the World, with groups of spouses, siblings, greatest mates and parent-and-child duos. Ages vary from 19 to 60. Their methods are equally diverse. A budding actor activates the waterworks to win sympathy. A felony investigator lies about what she does for a dwelling, whereas a barrister instantly turns into a marked man, regardless of insisting “I’m a lawyer, not a liar”.

The vacation setting performs its half, with the five-star sunshine going straight to gamers’ heads. An inflatable flamingo acquires stunning significance. One bloke is deemed dodgy for strolling round shirtless. By episode two, somebody is sick in an ice bucket and an exit speech takes an accusatory flip. Awkward for them. Nice for us viewers.

It’s a good distance from the tweedy Scottish Highlands however nods to The Traitors abound, proper right down to the gold graphics and baroque pop soundtrack. There are plentiful photographs of portentous knocks on suite doorways. The mere act of coming down for breakfast turns into essential. If The Traitors usually remembers a company away day, full with jolly team-building workout routines, this is sort of a package deal vacation the place you develop into oddly fixated with that bizarre couple on the following solar loungers who by no means appear to talk.

ITV has excessive hopes for what it loftily describes as “an leisure occasion”, airing nightly episodes within the hope it’s going to develop into a nationwide obsession. Will The Fortune Lodge repay ITV’s religion and justify its bumper funds? Can it produce a meme-worthy equal of Jazatha Christie, Diane’s coffin or Paul’s bow? Might the channel even have discovered a phenomenon to rival The Traitors? Winkleman’s pet owl would in all probability peck my eyes out if I stated sure. So no, not fairly. Nevertheless it’s a deliciously trashy method to whereas away time till we’re again at Ardross Citadel.