Kriti Mehrotra
With Netflix’s ‘The Trust: A Game of Greed’ revolving around 11 individuals from all walks of life as they vie for a share of $250,000, we get an original series that can only be described as gripping. After all, with it comprising a variety of social experiments as well as tests to appeal to one’s innate selfishness, there are a lot of betrayals, drama, hugs, and wholesomeness in it along the way. So now, if you simply wish to learn more about it — with a particular focus on its actual production and precisely how much of it is real (if at all) — we’ve got the necessary details for you.
Is The Trust: A Game of Greed Real or Fake?
From the moment ‘The Trust: A Game of Greed’ was first announced, it has unequivocally been billed as an unscripted, variety entertainment competition reality series. This indicates that not a single facet of it is directly controlled by professionals, meaning the cast is not ever handed any pre-penned dialogues and/or instructions on how to play out a situation. All they’re asked to do is ignore the camera and behave as they normally would in the real world. However, if we’re being honest, since shows such as this do utilize a lot of resources in terms of energy, money, time, and personnel owing to its scope, there are a few gray areas producers have control over.
First things first, producers can indirectly interfere to push a couple of different narratives simultaneously to keep the audience engaged for bingeability. They ostensibly do not create any situation from the ground up, yet they may nudge contestants to pursue particular topics of conversation at specific points or have sudden “tests” and voting rounds to create drama in the most natural sense. The minute they see momentum slowing down, they probably do move ahead with such conceptual aspects, but they have no hand in the way things pan out or the real, honest emotions displayed. For example, it’s possible the timing of Bryce Lee’s one-on-one conversations with Tolu Ekundare and Julie Theis after he’d declared himself a millionaire may have been instigated by them.
Then there’s the indisputable producer involvement in the series’ staging (planning) throughout the filming process, especially as it enables them to capture the best audio, video, and overall content quality for us. This essentially refers to their daily efforts regarding camera placements around the seemingly designated activity areas, such as the edge of the hill, poolside, as well as bedrooms to document every critical moment. In fact, if this wasn’t done in the right manner, we probably wouldn’t have had a lot of footage of Josh and Julia’s budding romantic relationship or the contestants’ secret strategizing with different groups of people. There’s also planning in terms of the whole initial conceptualization of this show in itself, but that goes without saying.
The final area that needs to be touched upon is thus the post-production process, wherein interference is utterly unavoidable since it is the sole means through which producers can effectively bring together a smooth flow within the program. If this isn’t done, plot points as well as cast narratives can completely miss the mark, making them lose not just viewers but also affect their long-term reputation, harming their opportunities to acquire future projects too. However, this will undeniably also happen if they get too involved in any area and it comes to light that the show is scripted, so there’s a fine line that they walk.
In other words, despite the various possible gray areas, Netflix’s ‘The Trust: A Game of Greed’ appears to be as real as possible because no conversation, mentioned feelings, or expressed motives are pre-penned for the contestants; it’s all natural. Nevertheless, we need to clarify that any such reality show should be taken with a grain of salt because no one outside of the production process ever really knows how much manipulation (if not manufacturing) has been done to make it as appealing as possible for mass consumption.
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