‘Million Dollar Secret’ season 1 premiere review: A Millionaire’s guide to chaos & cash

What do you get when you combine the mystery of The Mole with the cutthroat aspects of The Trust? You get Netflix’s newest reality TV experiment, Million Dollar Secret. The game is another foray into the recent reality TV trend of players holding a secret identity or power competing for the group pot. Think of this style like games such as The Traitors on Peacock, The Anonymous on USA, Claim to Fame on ABC, or The Circle on Netflix. While Million Dollar Secret doesn’t offer anything new to the reality TV landscape, it still captures that fun, electric magic to reel us into this alluring mystery. And the season premiere didn’t disappoint with the explosive drama that’ll keep us returning for more.

A game of cutthroat clues

At its core, the structure of Million Dollar Secret is a simplified version of The Traitors. Less players, less hidden identities, less eliminations, but with a bigger prize. And while that approach opens doors for comparisons, I don’t want to spend too much time pitting them against each other. The debate of Million Dollar Secret against other shows of the same style doesn’t give them enough justice for their own gameplay and approach. Million Dollar Secret is its own show, so I’ll treat it as such. However, if something doesn’t work or pales in comparison, it needs to be called out.

One noticeable

set-up for Million Dollar Secret is its simplistic approach for “innocent” players. Each round consists of one challenge, one visit to the Trophy Room to discover a clue, and then a group vote to banish one player. No doubt there will be twists coming in future rounds, but the 3-episode season premiere got straight to the point to introduce the format and game. This allowed viewers to focus on the game and learn the different strategies for how the game could be played. For instance, how players could tie the clues together from the Trophy Room, or what could happen if someone were to reveal they gave up the million dollars.

Hopefully in future rounds, this will change up as the repetition may become stale after some time. Million Dollar Secret is a game that could unravel due to its meta-gaming. We saw this come to life during “Going to Hell on a Scholarship” when Cara easily deduced that Phil was the latest Millionaire. He only had the prize money for one round and his entire secret unravel just from one Trophy Room clue and one tied vote. This revelation just goes to show how fluid the game can be … and how dangerous it is to be the Millionaire early on.

Two in a million

Speaking of the Millionaire, the elements involving the hidden player had some of the most interesting scenes. The Millionaire being forced to complete a challenge each round to prevent a game-changing clue was a smart twist that gives both the Millionaire and the players a lot of power. Lauren successfully completing both of her challenges helped her game immensely as it shifted eyes and power away from her. The win during “Instant Millionaire” alone was enough to save her life and hide in the shadows. Phil, on the other hand, is now on life support because he chose not to complete his challenge. This task has so much potential for how it could shift each round.

However, my two biggest gripes with Million Dollar Secret’s structure come from the Trophy Room and how the Millionaire is selected. Firstly, I love the concept of the Trophy Room – it gives the players a chance to learn important clues about the Millionaire. In a secretive game like this, the players need some deduction element. However, having the winning players collectively agree on the one person who gets to hear the secret will only cause more issues later on. This type of function can force players to start “majority alliances” so that they can control all the decisions and the game at large. A majority alliance forced out Lauren during “Going to Hell on a Scholarship”; just imagine how much worse that will become if players continually get shut out of every decision.

And with how the Millionaire is selected, this gives too much power into the hands of the show/producers. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine for the first Millionaire to be chosen at “random.” All the players randomly selected a key & animal identity, so it could be reasoned that Lauren was randomly chosen. However, after that, we have to take the show at its word that Phil was randomly chosen. What’s to stop them from choosing the most dramatic option for storylines? It would be best if the outgoing Millionaire chose a key at random, and only revealed to the host & viewers. That way the process is shown and it keeps the game’s integrity in tact.

Who’s the real villain?

Now, when it came to the game, Million Dollar Secret kicked up its pacing across the three episodes. It’s only been a few days (in-game world) and some of them have become vicious already. Jaimi’s, Sydnee’s, and Chris’ behavior was very shocking. Understandably, you’ll never get along with everyone, and certain actions or behaviors annoy you more than others. We’re all humans with complex emotions. However, their treatment of Lauren seemed extreme, like they purged an evil monster or bully out of The Stag (e.g., the mansion).

Using the vote to eliminate a strong threat is a valid strategy. Only one person can win Million Dollar Secret. If it’s advantageous to pick off players to keep the obvious Millionaire in, then do it! Just don’t lose yourself in the process or claim that you’re the one making the “noble” decision because someone lied. Million Dollar Secret is a game about lying. Lauren was the first Millionaire and gave it up; she played a part. End of story.

The same can be said for how players reacted when they suspected someone of being the Millionaire. For instance, Phil lashing out at Se Young because she couldn’t remember where she sat at breakfast the morning before. The pressure of the game got to her. There’s a level of suspicion necessary in a game like this, but the nastiness shouldn’t be fueled by it. Don’t get me wrong, bring on all the reality TV drama and fights! However, it should be light-hearted fun, not a nasty teardown.

The power of information

The three challenges of Million Dollar Secret’s Season 1 premiere were all fun, simple, and easy. Each game could easily be completed by a single player. It also presented an interesting mind-game for how to play it. For instance, the obstacle course of “Instant Millionaire” benefited the players who weren’t the runners. All you had to do was remember a single 8-movement code puzzle for the dog to be released. While on “The Five Suspects” and “Going to Hell on a Scholarship”, all you had to do was shoot a flying disk or solve a name code. Like I said, all games could’ve been done quickly and easily.

But from the Trophy Room prizes, these wins gave us some juicy secrets. Show of hands: would you have preferred the box reveal clue or something like the dog challenge riddle? Both clues have their advantages because they cleared players and placed the spotlight on suspects. These clues only work because of its large cast. It’ll be interesting to see what twists and clues the host Peter Serafinowicz reveals in the coming round. Like, will they change? Will anyone keep it a secret for themself?

Leaving The Stag behind

Three players went home during the season premiere – all for various reasons that made sense. For players like Harry and Se Young, it truly came from being outsiders and the bad luck of the draw. For example, Harry couldn’t have planned around the group thinking his hand-holding was suspicious behavior. Or that both Harry and Se Young became suspects in the same Trophy Room clue that targeted Lauren. Reality TV competitions can be really unfair. These two eliminations were prime examples of how the game/the pieces fell around them to become the easy targets.

When it came to Lauren’s elimination, it was more a case of her being a dangerous threat for the secrets she didn’t share. It makes sense not to reveal everything; this is a game where only one person will win. While her position of being the first Millionaire made her a target, I’d say her growing rivalry with Sydnee and the growing animosity from others were what truly sealed her game. Once Lauren got outed as being “a liar,” it was the fuel to give others the justification to get her out.

Though the biggest surprise from Lauren’s elimination came from Phil’s vote. What was he thinking?! Truly, he made a very brainless decision. If the host tells you that the Millionaire will break the tie, why would you double down to give the group more information? Now everyone knows that the Millionaire was one of the people who saved Sydnee and voted Lauren out. It would’ve been much better for Phil’s game to eliminate Sydnee and hide in the shadows. Not only because it doesn’t reveal where he voted, but it also helps to break apart a majority alliance that wasn’t shy about voting out someone who 100% wasn’t the Millionaire. That group prioritized their wants and goals over voting out the Millionaire. Unless a miracle happens, Phil’s game is done.

Overall

The Season 1 premiere of Netflix’s Million Dollar Secret was a fun and explosive start. While the format didn’t introduce anything new to the reality TV genre, the players still delivered on bold decisions and big fights. The first three episodes introduced a cutthroat feud that will no doubt affect the players for rounds to come. And the Millionaire(s) had a lot of work to do to keep their identity a secret. It’ll be interesting to see where the game goes next, especially when the players are so close to finding out the truth.

Million Dollar Secret streams new episodes on Wednesdays on Netflix.