Death by Magic

Money has a cool persona and carries himself in an entertaining believable fashion but I don't understand why they start the show with the disclaimer that "there are no camera tricks and everything is real," when anyone can tell there are camera tricks at work here. This entire show is based on cinematography as they show clips of whatever city he is in, and clearly every person who he performs a trick form is coached by someone where to stand and what type of look to give etc. kind of entertaining but I don't know how they can be proud of boldly stating there is no illusions or camera tricks when there is.

In theatrical magic there are only a certain number of tricks. What marks out one magician over another is their presentation and this guy has his presentation down cold. One trick is to make something disappear only to be produced again from an impossible location. This could be a driver's license inside a sealed coconut in Miami or a playing card stuck to a ceiling in a Cape Town bar. It's the same trick. Another trick is taking an empty container and filling it with some thing or many things. This could be a paper bag magically filled with packs of playing cards, a cone made of news paper filled with sweets or a paper bag magically filled with a pair of shoes ( or for that matter a hat with a live rabbit ). All the same trick, just presented differently. The weakness here is that we have no idea if the tricks were performed for real? Were the audience actors or real people? There's a caption before each episode telling us it's all legitimate, so that's all right then because TV shows never lie. Do they?

It says that "no camera tricks are used" at the beginning, but there are no explanations or not even hints to the tricks done and It really seems like there are camera tricks used all the time every time everywhere. If you want to make a series about magic tricks, you have to successfully separate that from a sci-fi movie. I can't see any difference here. What reference do I have that there really is some illusion done successfully? If you want to do you magic tricks and you don't want do reveal the secrets of them, the audience must, I'm saying again, the audience "MUST" be there so that the tricks done "MEANS" something. If you are doing those on a TV show, you are going to have to prove somehow those are not camera tricks otherwise I would watch Star Wars instead. I suggest you to watch some Derren Brown shows to get some kind of an Idea for how to do this. And the "you" I am referring here is not the reader, It's the Drummond Money-Coutts!

It can be entertaining to watch but it's WAY over dramatic with things that we've all seen before or when we know he's obviously not in danger. I understand a bit of suspense for atmosphere but this was another level of intelligence-insulting drama. He also tries to pay homage to other magicians by doing things they died doing which is pretty cool. But sometimes he changes it completely while making it seem like he's doing the same thing but because he changes it, there really wasn't any danger. That's kind of a slap in the face to the other people who died doing it by acting so dramatic about doing the same dangerous thing...when you're not. Also, many times the people in the background act like background actors in a Sitcom. It's like they were told to ignore the fact that there are cameras and a guy doing magic and just act natural. It made it feel less genuine. At one point he interrupts a couple eating at a restaurant and says he's doing magic. When he goes and sits back with the other couple he's doing the trick for (2 feet away) the other couple don't even act interested or try to see what he's doing. If you like magic you might like this but don't expect too much greatness here.

Just enjoy the show! I feel like the other reviewers are just looking for something to be wrong as opposed to just enjoying the wonder. I bing watched the whole season and liked every second of it.

If you study anything to long or expect to be disappointed then you probably will be.