Netflix Show "The Circle" is Known For its Catfishes: Crazy Catfish Story

*Disclaimer: I will not be spoiling the winner of “The Circle” in this article or who gets booted off if anyone wants to watch this television show after reading it. I will only be explaining the catfish of the show, why certain contestants chose to be a catfish, and if they kept up being a catfish through the entire duration of their time on the show.*

Netflix has become one of the many video streaming services that people use to keep themselves entertained. Not only does this video streaming giant release many favorites that we’ve seen on our favorite television channels, but it also releases it’s own original content. One of its original shows, “The Circle”, has gained popularity in the United States and has got people wondering who they are really talking to on social media platforms.

What is “The Circle”?

“The Circle” is one of many Netflix originals that has gained popularity within this streaming service. It was based on a British television show and is now a Netflix original for the United States version of the show. It’s a game show with 8 contestants at a time, and their goal is to become popular on The Circle’s social media platform. The person who gains the most votes at the end of the show wins $100,000 and the title of the top social media influencer.

The contestants each get their own apartment and can not have face to face interactions with other players. They are allowed to instant message players in private or in groups, post pictures on their social media profile, and post statuses on their profile. They also play certain games and activities through their Circle accounts to get to know one another.

Because players couldn’t meet other players face to face, this allowed contestants to pretend to be someone they aren’t and catfish one another. While there were some contestants that were true to who they really were, others pretended to be people they weren’t for various reasons. There was even a guy who pretended to be his girlfriend.

Who Was Caught Catfishing on “The Circle”?

Seaburn Williams: Seaburn used his girlfriend’s photos throughout “The Circle” and formed many friendships and alliances using this persona. With his name being Rebecca on the show, he wanted to show that guys had emotions and feelings too and could, therefore, get away with successfully pretending to be a woman. Although, people started to question who he really was during one scene of the show when all the girls in the group chat were talking about period cramps and he had to pretend he had them too, but none of the girls thought he made sense.

When the remaining cast figured out that Seaburn was a catfish, they were honestly surprised since they had formed a friendship with Rebecca. They weren’t mad about it but understood why Seaburn wanted to prove a point that men can also have feelings and emotions.

Karyn Blanco: Karyn is an out-lesbian in a relationship who wanted to be as true to herself as possible, minus flirting with men and using another girl’s pictures, to win the game. She played as a straight girl named Mercedez and thought that she would attract people to her profile more if she used another girl’s pictures since she thinks she looks aggressive at first glance.

She wanted to show people that even though looks would show her as aggressive, she’s actually sweet and down to earth to prove that you can’t judge a book by its cover. By playing as someone who looked sweeter and more approachable, she chose the catfishing angle to try and win the game.

Everyone definitely had their mouths wide open when they found out Mercedez was actually Karyn. While some people were accepting of who she was and exclaimed “YEAH!” very excitingly, others wondered why she wasn’t herself to begin with if that’s the message she was trying to portray.

Alex Lake: Alex is an artist based out of L.A. who has a wife, and went into the competition using a good-looking surfer dude’s pictures as a guy named Adam. His thought process of coming into the game as a catfish was that if he used his light-hearted personality with Adam’s good looks that he would have more of a chance at winning the game. However, the girls weren’t so impressed with his good looks since his flirting game was non-existent.

When players found out who Adam really was, there was one player in particular who was excited about it since they were also a catfish flirting with Adam. Everyone else was shocked that Adam was actually Alex and wish that Alex came into the game as himself.

Sean Taylor: Sean is a plus-size model who used the pictures of her straight-sized friend Colleen, but still used her name Sean on the show. She saw how plus-sized women received hate on social media and didn’t want that to take away from people liking her and winning.

As the show went on, she eventually revealed herself to the other contestants who were accepting of who she really was. There were some contestants who understood why she wasn’t true to herself at first, and there were others who thought that she should’ve been true to herself in the first place.

Ed and Tammy Eason: Ed’s pictures were used for The Circle, but his mom Tammy was also there to make sure her son was well behaved. This isn’t as much of a catfish situation as everyone else, but contestants were super shocked to learn that Ed was actually two people, with one person being his mother.

How This Relates to Real-Life Catfish Situations

In the real world, many people are catfished on a daily basis without even knowing it. These people are convinced that the photos behind who they are talking to are actually of this person when in reality they were stolen from other people.

While some people criticize “The Circle” for allowing them to catfish their contestants, I think this actually teaches us an important lesson to watch out for who you are talking to, because just like how these contestants thought these were actual people, you could also be fooled into thinking that as well. These contestants formed real friendships with these catfish without knowing who they really were, and you could be doing just that too without even knowing it.

If you suspect that you are being catfished, please don’t hesitate to seek out the help of Social Catfish! We help seek out who is catfishing people by performing a reverse search using a name, social media username, email, phone number or image. If the information matches the person you think it is, chances are you’re talking to someone who is legit. If there is no information on your person or it doesn’t match up, chances are you are talking to a catfish.