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ShowsThe CircleSeason 1
Premiered January 2020 · Netflix

Season 1

Strangers move into separate apartments and only ever interact through a purpose-built social app called The Circle. Every player can appear as themselves or invent a persona, and the group's ratings of each other decide who stays and who gets blocked.

Premiered
Jan 1, 2020
Netflix · January 2020
Episodes
12
12 episodes released in three drops
Format
One app · ratings · blocks
No face-to-face contact until a player is blocked
On this page
  1. 01The take
  2. 02The shape of the season
  3. 03Where it sits in the canon
  4. 04Also appears in
01The take

Season 1.

One shared app decides who's genuine, who's playing a part, and who goes home.
02The shape of the season

A rhythm worth tracking.

The Circle's debut season lays out the format cold: strangers move into separate apartments in the same building, never meeting face to face, communicating only through a purpose-built social app called The Circle. Some play as themselves. Others invent a persona from scratch. The group rates each other, the top-rated players become Influencers, and Influencers decide who gets blocked. It's a strategy game built entirely on perception.

03Where it sits in the canon

The #01 slot.

Sole entry in the The Circle Editor's Canon so far. Season one is the only entry ranked so far, and it takes the top slot by default — it's the blueprint every later season builds on. The format arrives fully formed: separate apartments instead of a shared house, a single app instead of face-to-face conversation, and a rating system that turns every message into strategy. The choice to appear as yourself or invent a persona gives the show its central tension, and the debut cast commits to both approaches without hesitation. There's a rawness here later seasons polish away — no returning host, no franchise shorthand, just strangers figuring out how much of themselves to show through a screen.

No spoilers. Every page is reviewed before it goes live.
04Also appears in

Cross-references.

The Circle — Season 1 — tiered.tv