I tuned into The Mob using my Hulu subscription, expecting it to be Disney's answer to The Traitors. After watching, I can say there are similarities, but there's also one big change in the power dynamic that I like more.
As the series continues its run on the 2026 TV schedule, the same time as The Traitors: New Blood airs on NBC, only one is effectively nailing what the power balance should be between the ones who kill and the ones who can be killed. Surprisingly, The Mob is doing it better.
The Mob Balances The Power Dynamic Between its "Traitor" and "Faithful"
One of my biggest complaints about The Traitors is that the Faithful are sitting ducks, and largely at the mercy of the Traitors. Thus far, the best strategy is to play dumb and then guess the Traitors at the end to collect the prize money. There's no way to hit back at the Traitors, outside of random powers that come without warning.
The Mob does things a little differently. To start, everyone votes on who will be "The Don," who essentially runs the game. The Don decides who gets "whacked" and which contestants are awarded prize money at the end of each challenge. As for the challenges, the Don is never present and must rely on the word of the contestants about what went wrong and who is to blame.
The Don is untouchable, but their reign entirely depends on the votes of the rest of the cast. If the contestants feel The Don has acted unfairly, they can totally boot them, and the next Don can have them whacked.
It has me wondering if The Traitors would benefit from Faithful having the opportunity to forcefully swap who is a Traitor, or anything that would give them the ability to balance the scales of power. I really like how it is in The Mob, but it's also a completely different show. Time will tell if it's worthy of being named one of the best reality shows, but I'm liking it so far.
How The Mob Is Similar To The Traitors
The Mob does things differently than The Traitors, but the guts of what people like about the latter are still there. The Season 1 cast is comprised of a mix of reality television stars as well as people who appeared in mafia shows or movies.
Beyond that, The Traitors connection more or less ends there. I will say those who grew up loving movies about the mafia or the characters from them will thoroughly enjoy this series.
I'll also add that I think because of the way cash is dispersed, the challenges hold a little more weight in The Mob than in The Traitors. That's a completely different article, though, because the last thing I want to do is go off on a tangent about the issues I have with how The Traitors does its challenges.
Catch new episodes of The Mob on Hulu on Mondays. Readers should give the first couple of episodes a try to see if they like it, and I guess if not, they can still catch The Traitors: New Blood on NBC on Thursdays.
