5 out of 5

Like most of the Derren Brown filmed stage specials, there’s always something a little lacking when it’s boiled down to an hour.  Especially post his introductory era, when a lot of bombast could be done around what’s now his “regular” shtick and thus, desensitized to that, later shows requiring more elaborate themes linking had-to-be-there type tricks equated to home viewing of – always entertaining, but – greater or lesser value.

And yes, in Miracle, it has that hour-format limitation to it: the slight rushed feeling to things; the inability to feel the vibe of the audience.  But Derren has been taking wonderfully thoughtful strides to somewhat reground himself in the question-everything setting of his older-school stuff that I think helped initially separate his antics from other mentalists; there was something pleasingly challenging – respectful – to someone outright telling you that it’s just your mind fooling you that spread a healthy layer of skepticism atop the act, bolstered by Brown’s genuinely charming presentation.

This started to get mixed with too much of a “you’re all wonderful superheroes” mid-life crisis message, and it felt like, for a while, Brown’s act had lost its edge to encroachingly wince-worthy positive preaching.  But, thankfully, he got over it and started to crawl back into the shadows.  Still: How do you synthesize this evolution while still being mindful of your audience now fully being aware of what it is you do?  Answer: Miracle.  And so, despite its TV limitations, the fact that this was an amazing update and representation of what Derren does – it’s again the type of thing you want to scramble out and tell all your friends to watch – easily overcomes those limitations.  And interestingly, it was something of a small tweak, although that’s not to discount the amazing amount of planning that must go into these shows.  That tweak was to put most of the act into the audience’s hands.  And not just in the sense that they provide the fodder for the mentalism stuff, but by having people come up on stage and seemingly freely choose to eat glass, or slam their hand down on a bag which might very well contain a nail.  This is then a lead-in to Brown going full evangelical (a mentioned adaptation of his Miracles for Sale special) and ‘curing’ people of pain and woes, which is a nice callback to more evil times like The Heist, when the curtain is fully pulled back on how willingly we can fool ourselves.  It does get mixed back around to a message about how powerful our potential is, but again, it feels more in line with the wry and questioning side of Derren that made him stand out.  It’s especially satisfying to see such a skilled showman be so aware of avoiding moments where we can “see” him manipulate something; watch Penn and Teller’s Fool Us to see plenty of examples of performers touching a key item or forcing a decision, and then marvel at how hands-off Derren is.

Stunning entertainment, that has successfully baffled me for any inkling of how certain parts were done.