Derren Brown: Pushed to the Edge

So I've just watched Derren Brown: The Push... For my fellow social psychology enthusiasts, I can only describe this "documentary" as a 'Thrill-Seeker-Reality-TV show by a modern day Stanley Milgram'.

Seriously, this was a border-lining ethical nightmare. There is such a massive potential of residual psychological distress/damage for the participants... particularly if there is no on-going support or counseling to combat guilt and/or doubt of their core morals and character.

All this under the guise of teaching society to think before blindly following (or believing) the "Man"?

Hmmmmmm.

While the ethics of this "experiment" are certainly questionable, it's still tremendously entertaining for outside viewers. By the end, my friend and I were both on the edge of our seats, hands trembling, as we awaited the climax. My only complaint was that some aspects of it were explained by the narrator a little too late (one instance being at least 15 minutes after the initial showing of the trick), but it didn't make the show any less exciting.

As a social conditioning experiment, I found this very interesting! As a human mental health experiment, I truly hope they were plants.

Seriously disturbing, yet very compelling.

Derren Brown is incredible at what he does. I am a fan of pretty much anything he has done. This feature is very interesting and entertaining. My only real criticism is that there isn't much of Derren performing his own illusions. He obviously designed the experiment and keeps it on the right track. His job in this is mostly limited to presenting and narrating. You don't really get to see him perform very much. For this reason, I would not say it is his best release. However, the concept of the experiment is very interesting and it is executed very well. He basically figured out a way to do 'Weekend At Bernie's' in real life, which is hilarious. Not only that, he even named the character Bernie and made him wear sunglasses. None of the participants noticed which made it even funnier. This really is very entertaining. Derren is the best.

I see many people questioning it's reality and how this affects the contestants psychologically. But i assure everyone that an episode of this scale will not cause any psychological trauma as long as they know it's not real.