Derren Brown: The Events

[poliphilo]

It doesn't give me any pleasure to say it- because I admire the man- but Derren Brown's latest series fell flat. That final episode- where he promised to break a casino for us, then showed us some grainy video that purported to be live footage of him going into a nameless casino in a nameless European country and then just failing to pull off the coup- can't have fooled anybody who bothered to think about it.  What this series has demonstrated, above all, are the limitations of TV magic.  Brown has a handful of basic tricks: he predicts things, he hypnotises people, he does sleight of hand.  He  dresses his repertoire up in all sorts of clever ways, but we've seen enough of him now to know he's repeating himself.  Also, once you introduce electronic trickety into the mix, anything becomes possible and so nothing really impresses. 

Comments

[tf-1.livejournal.com]

I guess one of his main problems is that he makes such grandiose promises that living up to his own hype is impossible. If he did some sleight of hand and a bit of hypnosis and prediction and dressed it as "Derren's Clever Trick Show" it may at least measure up to our expectations.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I thought his Trick or Treat series was awesome. This latest one suffered, as you say, from being overhyped. That's the problem, though, he has to hold our interest by continually going one better- and now he seems to have reached the limit. He made impossible promises- and largely failed to keep them.