Harrie toasted with an invisible friend and then put a glass of red wine to his lips. He stood in his bedroom in black sweatpants, with serious eyes and bare chest. It was dark outside, a night lamp was on inside. Unnecessarily, because when the camera zoomed out a little you could see that fluorescent lights did most of the work. But such a night lamp is more mysterious. You turn it on to think about things that don’t bear the light of day. Or to read a book, but in reality game show The Sword of Damocles the participating celebrities are too busy forming unions and sticking knives in each other’s backs to indulge in that kind of frivolity.
“If you want to checkmate someone, you have to think five moves ahead. And Harry stayed awake especially for that,” came the voice of Art Rooijakkers. He must be pleased to present a program that is very similar to The Traitors (RTL), which is reminiscent of Who is the Mole? (AvroTros) – a program that Rooijakkers once also presented. In the rip-off of a rip-off of that old presentation job, he now explained the behavior of the candidates in a voice-over, à la David Attenborough. “Once again he turns his bed into a chessboard,” he said about Harrie, “and maps out his strategy.”
(You may know Harrie Snijders from Ex on the Beach (Videoland), With us at Camp (RTL) or a news item from Omroep Brabant with the title: ‘”Harrie van het Kamp” promotes illegal crypto site’. I will tell you why the other Dutch people are famous another time.
In the danger zone
“I have five objects here in front of me,” said Harrie. “One pillow is Remy, one pillow is Rob. The Rolex is Jamie. The make-up jar is Gaby. And I am the eye mask with my name on it.” By sliding those objects back and forth on his bed, Harrie, about whom I was increasingly concerned, played out scenarios: “Then those people are in the danger zone, and if they win, those people will leave the danger zone. But if they lose, then there is nothing to worry about. Because then they are gone, but I am still good with them, because he has put them in that danger zone. Do you understand what I mean?”
No, not exactly. My brain is oversaturated when it comes to reality game shows that revolve around trust and betrayal. All that sticks is how disturbingly serious the participants look. Last week someone was eliminated after the most charged game of shuffleboard in TV history. This time there were bitter arguments and helpless tears because one ally inadvertently sent the other home, and then that one had to cry again at the farewell, and then the other one started crying again because that one had to cry. A program that starts next week Murder party (SBS6) is called. Escalation is lurking.
The political games are not much better. This weekend was in the diptych Balkenende’s storm (NTR) looked back on Balkenende’s premiership, by the former prime minister himself and other key players from that period. They candidly discussed the mutual tensions and sensitive issues that colored their political careers. The Iraq file in particular hung “like a sword of Damocles” over Balkenende’s head, said investigative journalist Joost Oranje. In his portrait, the former prime minister still defended his decision to participate in the American invasion of Iraq, even though it has been known for years that it took place under false pretenses.
He was less rigid on other issues. Balkenende acknowledged that the CDA deliberately split the formation with the PvdA in 2003. And colleague Maxime Verhagen (CDA), fifteen years after he accused then cabinet colleague Wouter Bos (PvdA) of lying during a cabinet crisis, took back that accusation. “I don’t know why he says that now,” Bos responded to the latest development, “but it’s nice that he says that now.” Was it a coincidence that his thoughts immediately went to the question why? Suspicion can linger long after the game has been completed.
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