5 out of 5

It’s cheap, but Derren Brown’s new special brings back some of the charm of older Brown specials while working within the limitations of his audience knowing his usual shtick and though moving forward with onea’ them moral underlying points to it, it’s not rammed down our throats and smartly chooses to focus on keeping things fun.

But most importantly: haircut.  Derren’s been losin’ the old hair for a bit, so it’s great to see him embrace it and go for the shaved head look.  It looks great.  Whenever I see bald dudes look great, it gives me confidence.  To be great, I mean.  Not that I need that confidence, it’s more just, like, confirmation.  Somehow.  Weep.

So we start with our proclamation of intent or promise; for Art Heist, it’s Brown approaching a millionaire philanthropist and telling him that he’s going to steal a painting from an upcoming charity gallery he’s hosting.  He gives Mr. Philanthropist (who ruins our millionaire philanthropist ill-wishes by being handsome and charming and affable) the time, the date, and even a photo of the thief, and opens the playbook to say that any security measures can be put in place to prevent the theft but it’s still gonna’ happen.  Brown smiles, then we rewind one month before the planned heist while Derren does his planning montage (flipping through photos) to ‘pick the perfect team’ for the job.  The team… of pensioners.  Which establishes DB’s goal (or excuse) for the program, as the way it goes down I’m not entirely convinced the setup was necessary, but whatever.  I was entertained TO FIVE STAR LEVELS.  Basically, he wants to explore / take advantage of the way the elderly are overlooked as active members of society.  Notably, his picks for the team are sprightly.  In some between-scene shots of other old folk, we get a view of some grumpy, stinky, hobbled looking motherfuckers.  So, Brown, you pulled a little bit of trickery there already – we dig the wily grandma who says the odd thing now and then and kicks ass at bridge; but we’re disgusted by stinky man who can’t wipe himself.  Regardless, sympathies won, and we’re all scared of getting older, so we’ll jump on board when you tell us we can still be on TV in our 60s.

The format of the 90-minute (I think) special is then the ‘prep’ for the team.  Interestingly using some similar motivational tricks to the bank heist setup (but with much different triggers and a more ‘friendly’ pitch for the viewer), he loosens up our principles and introduces them to the potential stresses and rewards of the intended act.  Some things go wrong, which we’re assured “wasn’t intended” but we suspect things are still in control… and there’s a bit of wonkiness with information withheld, such as how we’re never shown the photo of the thief he provided to the target, and some sprinkled details about how a ‘security protocol’ was agreed upon so that the painting wouldn’t get damaged… so… was that a realistic protocol?  Would this have been possible in an environment with less input on the external factors?

But whatever.  All criticisms, but it didn’t matter.  I was laughing, I was edge-of-your-seat, I was cheering.  This is Derren in entertainer mode, enjoying himself, and the vibe absolutely carries over.  It also is impressive at the end of the day, simply from the planning and execution standpoint, which doesn’t always come across when things get foolishly overblown like in ‘Apocalypse.’  Is it the special to show your friends when trying to introduce them to Derren?  No, because he’s perfunctory here, allowed to set this up because of who he is, but the tricks don’t (on the surface, anyway) tap too much into the ‘wow’ factor of previous things.  So this is great supplemental stuff, and actually, because it’s fully entertaining and stands alone, perhaps it’s a better bridge to his older stuff to skirt past some of the skepticism a lot of people approach it with when its been built up by friends.  (Obviously I’ve run into this wall a few times…)

So keep it simple, Mr. Brown, and keep it coming.