TV: Criss Angel: Mindfreak
On the pilot episode of Mindfreak, Criss Angel says he wants to make magic "popular culture." I'm not exactly sure what that means. If it means having magic on TV, I guess he's gotten off to a good start. Although we've already seen David Blaine and David Copperfield specials, and we've all heard of Siegfried and Roy. But that's all beside the point. Let's get on to the magic...or whatever it is this show is about.
Angel says that his magic touches people "on an emotional level." What is that emotional level? Well, in the next sentence he says "I like to play with people's fears," so I guess the emotion is fear. This makes sense because he's doing things that people are afraid to do (setting himself on fire, laying on a bed of nails and having a Hummer drive over him, etc). Heck, I'm afraid to do those things. So what happens on the show is that there's a main illusion for each episode. Thoughout the show, Angel gets ready by doing a bunch of warm-up magic on the streets with the regular people, who react with your typical cursing and blasphemy when they see the illusions that Angel performs. Of course they do.
During the course of his street magic, his crew (mainly consisting of his brothers, it seems) proceeds to talk unceasingly about how crazy Criss is and how one of these times he's going to hurt himself and how worried they are about him. Then at the end of the show we get the main stunt that this has all been leading to.
Now this all has to do with magic, so you're probably wondering where the "mindfreak" thing applies. Well, the theme song at the beginning of the show is your basic thrash metal song and goes something like this: "I am the Mindfreak! Mindfreak!!!" Then, before each commercial, we get a weird camera angle of Angel and he says (without moving his mouth, of course), "Enter my mind." Then he eats the camera. His eating the camera transports us to his mind, which is a bizzarre place where we are treated to about 30 seconds of abject weirdness. The scene always involves a beach, something dangerous (fire, etc), and what looks like some old-time carney-types. These carney-types also show up during the title sequence, and I'm not sure what their significance is.
So there's your show. There is magic and there's general wackiness. Angel's magic is definitely impressive, which it should be if he's going to have his own show. He's more of an extrovert than David Blaine, and he has charisma, so the show is definitely watchable. That having been said, you'll probably tire of it after a few episodes, and it'll become one of those shows that you'll stay with for a few minutes while channel surfing; maybe you'll flip back to see the main illusion or something. It's definitely not can't miss tv, though.
Final Score: 2.5 cents
Angel says that his magic touches people "on an emotional level." What is that emotional level? Well, in the next sentence he says "I like to play with people's fears," so I guess the emotion is fear. This makes sense because he's doing things that people are afraid to do (setting himself on fire, laying on a bed of nails and having a Hummer drive over him, etc). Heck, I'm afraid to do those things. So what happens on the show is that there's a main illusion for each episode. Thoughout the show, Angel gets ready by doing a bunch of warm-up magic on the streets with the regular people, who react with your typical cursing and blasphemy when they see the illusions that Angel performs. Of course they do.
During the course of his street magic, his crew (mainly consisting of his brothers, it seems) proceeds to talk unceasingly about how crazy Criss is and how one of these times he's going to hurt himself and how worried they are about him. Then at the end of the show we get the main stunt that this has all been leading to.
Now this all has to do with magic, so you're probably wondering where the "mindfreak" thing applies. Well, the theme song at the beginning of the show is your basic thrash metal song and goes something like this: "I am the Mindfreak! Mindfreak!!!" Then, before each commercial, we get a weird camera angle of Angel and he says (without moving his mouth, of course), "Enter my mind." Then he eats the camera. His eating the camera transports us to his mind, which is a bizzarre place where we are treated to about 30 seconds of abject weirdness. The scene always involves a beach, something dangerous (fire, etc), and what looks like some old-time carney-types. These carney-types also show up during the title sequence, and I'm not sure what their significance is.
So there's your show. There is magic and there's general wackiness. Angel's magic is definitely impressive, which it should be if he's going to have his own show. He's more of an extrovert than David Blaine, and he has charisma, so the show is definitely watchable. That having been said, you'll probably tire of it after a few episodes, and it'll become one of those shows that you'll stay with for a few minutes while channel surfing; maybe you'll flip back to see the main illusion or something. It's definitely not can't miss tv, though.
Final Score: 2.5 cents
Tha Docta's two cents. | 12:13 AM
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