Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Don’t Hate The Player’ on Netflix, Where A Group Of Unprepared Contestants Have To Survive The Wilderness And Outwit One Another To Win

The new French game show Don’t Hate The Player on Netflix feels familiar and fresh all at once. In the grand tradition of shows like Survivor, it pits a group of contestants together on an island in a battle of wits and physical endurance in order to win a cash prize (and a cushier place to live). The twist here is that none of the contestants knew what kind of game they were signing up for. So here they are, arriving to an island in cute swimwear and false eyelashes, and they’re told they’re going to have to rough it at a campsite…and they are not happy. Once they get used to the rules though, will they adapt and become slick strategists, or will they continue to struggle without life’s luxuries?

DON’T HATE THE PLAYER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: An opening title card explains that 13 contestants have agreed to participate in a strategy game without knowing any of the rules beforehand, in an attempt to win €150,000 (which is roughly $160,000 American dollars). The card then asks, “Will they play fair?”

The Gist: Thirteen players have assembled in Mexico to play a game that they are fully unprepared to play. It’s a game requiring some survival skills, as they all need to initially rough it in an outdoor camp where they have to cook their food over a campfire, sleep on cots or hammocks, and use an outhouse as their bathroom. It’s also a game of strategy, where they have to form alliances and vote one another out of the competition. To get in a position to vote though, they must compete in – and win – challenges of both mental and physical strength.

Host Claude Dartois, a former competitor on the French versions of Survivor and The Traitors, is here to drop information about the game to the contestants in dribs and drabs; the first surprise he reveals to them is that the beautiful, luxurious villa that the players saw when they arrived by boat to their tropical destination is not where they’ll be living during their time on this show, at least not yet. No, they have to sleep in a camp on a beach with no real shelter and barely any food, and this is a shock to everyone. The cast is comprised of mostly 20-somethings, and despite the fact that they show makes it clear that they were told nothing about the kind of game they’d be participating in, every one of them appears shocked that they’ll have to live off the land. But when a couple of the men in the group, a burly, bearded guy named Benjamin, and a man named Lucas, take charge and start telling people to gather food to cook and wood to burn, the rest of the group seems irritated at being bossed around rather than relieved that someone knows what they’re doing. There’s a very “No one tells me what to do” vibe among the players, and while that seems great as a way to stoke conflict, I feel like these people would not otherwise know how to stay warm or fed if not for these few heroes.

The larger group quickly splits along gender lines, all the woman (and the one gay man named Jordan) initially form an alliance of eight people, and the remaining five men form their own clique. Claude shows up to tell them that the next morning, they will hold a vote to elect a leader; this person will have to live at the camp, but they will hold the power to determine which people move to the villa. The women all agree that Jordan should be the leader, and as they all hold a majority, it seems like an easy election win, while the men choose a man named Anthony as the person they plan to vote for. Over the course of the night though, a rift forms between a woman named Leslie and Jordan though, and Leslie flips her alliance. (This all happened because, in this food-rationed camp, Jordan ate Leslie’s lentils and she had to go hungry. Their ensuing fight was obnoxious and petty, but to be fair, I’d probably be pretty mad too if I went hungry and didn’t know where my next meal would be coming from.) And then, in a surprise move, another woman, Clémence, also flipped her vote for Anthony, securing his place as their leader.

Not even 24 hours in, and alliances and strategies are already in play, and the contestants are furious and frantic about who they can actually trust. And now their fate is in Anthony’s hands as he gets to decide who stays at camp, who moves to the villa, and which contestant will be eliminated.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Don’t Hate The Player initially comes off as a survivalist show like Naked and Afraid (minus the nudity), as this group of people has to rough it in the wilderness with only a few tools at their disposal. The big difference here though is that this cast is fully unprepared for the great outdoors. Content creators and DJs and beauty influencers they may be, but survivalists they are not. There are also some obvious similarities with shows like Survivor and Deal or No Deal Island, as the contestants have to form alliances and try not to be deceived by their co-stars.

Our Take: There are many rules to this game – too many to lay out here and keep straight – but the thing that keeps this game interesting is that just when you think you know where the game is headed, there are twists and new elements thrown in. The show is cleverly edited, with episodes leaving off at crucial moments and cliffhangers, which keep the intrigue at its peak. Case in point, while episode one leaves off with Olivanie’s fate hanging in the balance, episode two throws in a twist that leads to a very surprising elimination that shocks everyone.

Don’t Hate The Player seems to be cast with mostly like-minded players – most of them seem competitive and easily triggered by anyone else saying the wrong thing or looking at them the wrong way. It’s a quality that I personally dislike in my reality contestants – give me the sharp-tongued comedy of Phaedra Parks on The Traitors or the gentle energy of Aron from Deal or No Deal Island instead just to shake things up – but on this show, everyone has assumed a more aggressive, play-to-win stance that they wear proudly. Thus, it’s hard to choose anyone to root for right out of the gate because no one stands out as especially charming, funny, or sympathetic yet. The show lives up to its claim that it’s a social experiment, and even we, the audience are a part of it, because both we and the players are learning the rules of the game together and our relationship to the game evolves as we learn more about how it’s played.

Sex and Skin: There’s some flirting that’s used, at least so far, as strategic gameplay, not because of any real attraction, but so far there’s nothing more salacious going on.

Parting Shot: An outspoken contestant named Olivanie stands in front of a box that leader Anthony has chosen for her. Inside the box is a card that will reveal whether she has to remain at the campsite, will move to the villa, or be eliminated from the show. But she has the power to choose a new box, and as the show’s first episode ends, she agonizes over how to decide.

Performance Worth Watching: So far there are a few contestants who have attempted to show their dominance, including Olivanie, Inés, and Benjamin. With luck seeming to have just as much effect on the contestants as strategy, it will be interesting to see who sticks around for the long haul.

Memorable Dialogue: “They say they’ll do anything, but they know nothing, not even the rules,” host Claude explains early on in the game.

Our Call: STREAM IT! While Don’t Hate The Player initially feels like just another “surviving and outwitting on an island” game, its novel approach and the surprises it brings are addictive.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.