3 out of 5

Written by: Iain Sharkey, Stephen Long, Derren Brown

Yes, probably gone are the years of being “surprised” by the unfolding of a Derren Brown special, though credit is certainly due to the man and his team for trying to adapt to this awareness over the years: in Pushed to the Edge, for example, Brown doesn’t take time detailing all the setup he’s done to achieve his calculated environment; we hear and see the hints, and – knowing the gist – can be assured there’s plenty more we’re not seeing without it having to be told to us.  And like a lot of his latter-day specials, some of this ends up feeling a tad forced.  I mean, yes, it is, but when things drop into Weekend At Bernie’s moments – the dead guy is even called Bernie, goodness – you gotta’ wonder if Brown is just pulling our legs at this point.

Pushed to the Edge isn’t exactly new territory for Derren – can we get someone to do something crazy? e.g. push someone off a building – and the lazy moralizing at the end and comedic moments somewhat undermine the effort, but, as usual, it’s still a mostly fascinating psychological study, and presented with a bit more honesty than most of Brown’s productions.  I don’t know if any of us can say what it would take to really catch us off guard from Brown at this point – as can be seen when he appears at the end of the show, and his ‘victim’ is suddenly relieved – so it’s pretty cool that he keeps finding ways to stay watchable.  But in some imagined world, there will be something that feels as risky or evil as Russian Roulette or The Heist, or as fun as his early live acts.