Psychological illusionist Derren Brown returned for another special on Channel 4 last night, this time trying to secretly "program" an unremarkable creature-of-habit into seizing his life more proactively, before giving him the chance to become a hero and land a stricken passenger jet at 30,000 feet...
It was a peculiar 75-minute special with silliness padding out the titular stunt, gradually revealing itself to be far less crazy than it first appeared. The subject/guinea pig was Matt, a young man stuck in a rut -- unremarkable dead-end admin job, a steady girlfriend, aspirations to be a policeman he's never acted on, still living at home with his mum and her boyfriend, with an easily suggestible personality. The perfect ball of clay for Derren Brown to mould into a hero over 30 days; presenting Matt with carefully-constructed challenges and events designed to boost his self-confidence, make him re-examine his daily routines, and develop his bravery...
Matt became the bystander in an armed raid at a petrol station, found himself locked inside a police superintendant's plush home after trying to return a missing wallet, stroking a crocodile in a rainsoaked corn field (don't ask), and even tied to a railway track in a straight-jacket as a train slowly approached. All before travelling to Jersey, under the pretense of appearing on a Derren Brown gameshow, only to find the pilot taken ill and the flight attendants asking for a volunteer to land the plane. Would Matt put his debilitating fear of flying to one side, in order to save the day?
As always with these Derren Brown specials, it feels like you're not quite seeing the full picture. I'm sure there are many levels beneath the surface of what we see, which means there are times when the "story" being told encourages incredulity. Matt was regularly awoken in the middle of the night by Derren (talking to him via a speaker hidden in his bedroom), and told to meet him outside in the garden. We're led to believe Matt's just in a suggestible, half-dreaming state of mind, but wouldn't any normal person just sit up in bed and wonder where the creepy voice is coming from? It often feels like there's more hypnotism going on in these specials than we're led to believe -- certainly, it's a definite component of the trick, as Matt was clearly put into a trance seconds before he was about to step into the cockpit and insted transferred to a flight simulator.
Does nitpicking spoil the fun, or is that part of the conversation you're expected to have afterwards? I think it's a bit of both. I'll always wonder why Matt (who had volunteered to be on a Derren Brown gameshow) didn't wonder why his audition was followed be a month of bizarre events happening to him. Surely any rational man would suspect they're the ongoing victim of a Derren Brown stunt? This isn't the first show Derren's done when people recruited for a fake show become the unwitting stars of the real one, so wouldn't Matt realize this? It's likely his misgivings were edited out of the show, of course, because a lot of the joy is in believing Derren has this peculiar power over people and can bend their reactions to his will.
Overall, Hero At 30,000 Feet wasn't the most remarkable special Derren Brown's done, because they tend to use the same basic principles in different ways, or for a different outcome. In that respect, it's more evidence that Derren's genre of magic is beginning to flag, but it's still great fun watching credulous people have their lives manipulated in such an amusing and life-affirming way. There was a positive streak behind this special that worked very nicely, and perhaps inspired a few viewers to likewise break out of their routines and, well, host a street party for a neighbourhood they barely interact with.
Plus it was fun to spot the nods to Donnie Darko (the sleepwalking, the month countdown, Derren Brown as a Frank the Rabbit figure in the garden, the golf course). The homages would have been complete had Matt's plane lost an engine and fallen through a cloudy time portal, but I guess that's beyond Derren's abilities.
8 SEPTEMBER -- CHANNEL 4/HD, 10PM
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