Why Does The Mole Suck So Much?

I've tried very hard to like The Mole this season, and I'll certainly tune in next week to find out who the winner is, and of course who the mole is. But it has been a desperately mediocre show, speaking generously.

Why is that? The premise of the show is pretty solid -- one of the many players is working against the group, the rest of who are trying to win challenges to put money in a pot that the winner will take home. At the end of each show, each player takes a quiz to see who they think The Mole is...the one with the worst score (e.g., the most 'clueless' person) goes home.

It's interesting because it's in each players interest not only to determine who the mole is -- but also to make other players think that they might themselves be the mole.

So why isn't it good? A few ideas:

The host, who seems like a nice guy, is really pretty dull. So dull that I had to check the website to find out his name is Jon Kelley. No Jeff Probst, he. Nor is he worthy of Anderson Cooper who, yes, was the original host of the show.

Worse yet, the players are even more boring than the host. And as we've winded down towards the end, it's become perfectly clear that there is simply no enjoyable result here.

The final three players are listed below, and why it's totally irrelevant if they are the Mole:

Nicole - The easiest reason she can't be The Mole is that she isn't trying to hide that at all. If she ISN'T The Mole, she's not only a complete moron and a terrible player at this game, she's probably legitimately clinically insane. She literally walked through the last challenge, made some random comments about being "a poet" - she's actually an OB/GYN which is frightening enough on its own - and it would be painfully unsuprising if she is actually The Mole. If that is in fact the case, I'm shocked the producers and editors have made it so obvious.

Craig. Craig shouldn't be The Mole mainly because he's been pretty obscure most of the season, aside from being seemingly a very nice guy and having a medical attack during one show (something I can't imagine could have been faked, even if he is the Mole.) If he turns out to be the guy, I guess that's sort of interesting -- but really, is it shocking? I can't remember anything he did particularly cleverly all season.

And then there's Mark. Mark is the best choice for being the Mole, because he seems to have played this VERY intensely, and has been the reason some challenges got won. But as Craig pointed out this show, Mark has also been responsible for keeping a good amount of cash out of the pot...if he is the Mole, it's at least somewhat interesting as he's been a notable player who seems to be working for the team, not against them. On an unrelated note, he not only looks sort of like Steve Carell but he sounds identical to him. So he's got that going for him, which is nice.

A few other questions about the show -- why is it taking place in foreign countries? That seems cool but also totally unexplained. Why can't we seen ANY of the answers some players make during their quiz? We see what players are left, but really not given any information to help play along.

The Mole is a decent show conceptually, but this season is pretty much of a flop.