‘The Mole’ Season 2? You Mean, ‘The Ari Shapiro Show’?

By Emma Chance | TV | July 11, 2024 |

By Emma Chance | TV | July 11, 2024 |

As a contestant says in a confessional, “The Mole is a game, within a game, within a game.” It’s like Survivor, where a bunch of strangers compete together, but only one wins the cash prize. It’s also like Amazing Race, with contestants running around and competing in physical and mental challenges in various foreign locales (season 2 is in Malaysia). Plus, it’s like The Traitors, as one contestant secretly acts as a “mole,” sabotaging challenges to prevent the others from adding cash to the pot, all for their eventual individual gain. This lucky person works with producers behind the scenes, so they have more information than the other contestants, who have to take a quiz at the end of each episode, guessing the mole’s identity.

Are you lost yet? I am. I can’t follow the plot, who’s winning, who’s suspicious of whom, where they are, or the goal of any of the ridiculous challenges. The schtick of having a mole is interesting because it makes the contestants act suspiciously—every word or small action is taken as “suspicious” and categorized as “mole behavior.” If it’s not, it could be a “double bluff.” It’s fun because the viewer doesn’t know who the mole is either, making it feel like a choose-your-own-adventure murder mystery party. But everyone is so suspicious of each other and trying to draw suspicion away or toward themselves that they honestly don’t even need a mole—they’re sabotaging everything on their own.

Much like The Traitors, such a high-concept game show needs a campy host. Enter Ari Shapiro. You might recognize his dulcet tones from NPR’s All Things Considered or maybe from the jazz group Pink Martini, which Shapiro sings with. Perhaps you know him from his comedic stage show with Traitors host Alan Cumming, Och and Oy: A Considered Cabaret. Or maybe you’ve seen him out at the gay bars in DC, like this person:

The original run of the show was in the early aughts, hosted by another famously gay journalist, Anderson Cooper. After a couple of sports journalists, the first season of the reboot in 2022 was hosted by journalist Alex Wagner.

Why The Mole needs a journalist as its host, I don’t understand, but Shapiro fits the theme. Unlike his predecessors, I had never known or cared what he looked like. So, imagine my surprise when he turned out to be the personification of a demon who will eat your soul in exchange for participation in a Netflix game show. He’s like Disney’s depiction of Hades from the Hercules cartoon after a dramatic weight loss. His eyes are black holes that I dare not look into for too long lest they suck me into oblivion. His voice is warm and calm, but hearing it combined with his body language and demeanor is haunting and a little titillating. There is something about him that freaks me out and simultaneously makes me want to stand up and clap. Maybe he’s the mole.

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The Ari Shapiro Show The Mole season 2 is streaming now on Netflix, and the finale (where we find out who the mole is!) drops tomorrow, July 12th.