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I didn't enjoy it because it didn't entertain me and it taught me nothing, there were no aspects that inspired me to learn and research things because it was nothing new to me, that's it in a nut shell really.
Obviously I'm going to watch the last one just incase...

Love the witty user name btw ! I think its fab !

But I guess peoples (ie magi) opinions of the shows differ by why they watch them. If you were watching so gain information (and I dont mean in a negative way) there was very little magic in there, none in show 2 and very little in show 1. So perhaps they will have less appeal.

I certainly learnt as much from last nights show, as much as I did from seance and russian, but im approaching it most likely from a different angle and with a different agenda !

Evie x

Harris wrote:Love the witty user name btw ! I think its fab !

But I guess peoples (ie magi) opinions of the shows differ by why they watch them. If you were watching so gain information (and I dont mean in a negative way) there was very little magic in there, none in show 2 and very little in show 1. So perhaps they will have less appeal.

I certainly learnt as much from last nights show, as much as I did from seance and russian, but im approaching it most likely from a different angle and with a different agenda !

Evie x

Oh sorry, i ment they didn't teach me anything psychology wise (which is what these are really about)
and thank you!
edit- My mother has a psychology degree so i'v been reading books on the subject since i was little, i did an a-level in it and was going to do a degree but ended up not because it didn't seem interesting or involved enough so i just continued with my own way of learning (I'm SURE i said i have a degree somewhere on here- i was clearly p*ssed and confused when i typed it)

Was talking about this one with my friend today, who also does a bit of magic like me (nothing special just when we are out now and then we do some card tricks) and he mentioned that although he's enjoyed them, he wishes, at least in last nights one, that Derren didn't get involved at all.

His point being as soon as the guy was sleeping and Derren's voice came on and then he was also in the room helping to carry him outside it negates the whole situation somewhat because we now can't be 100% certain the guy (at least on a subconcious level) isn't thinking that this is now some kind of elaborate set-up and it would have been better to see if he confessed without there being any chance he was on a Derren show (again perhaps not entirely possible anyway, since he did apply, but I think realistically we could safely assume he didn't have a clue it was an elaborate charade).

It was a good point, however we both agreed the guy genuinely seemed like he was questioning himself and jumped to the conclusion it must have been him that did a murder. I don't think you can easily fake the way Jody clearly seemed affected.

wittyusername wrote:Oh sorry, i ment they didn't teach me anything psychology wise (which is what these are really about)
and thank you!
edit- My mother has a psychology degree so i'v been reading books on the subject since i was little, i did an a-level in it and was going to do a degree but ended up not because it didn't seem interesting or involved enough so i just continued with my own way of learning (I'm SURE i said i have a degree somewhere on here- i was clearly p*ssed and confused when i typed it)

I'd be extremely surprised that you could learn anything 'psychology wise' from a Derren Brown show.

Just as I pointed out earlier, about Derren not wanting to do card magic etc and how his tastes have changed...read this interview:

http://derrenbrown.co.uk/blog/2011/11/derren-brown-interview-times/

He clearly states how he's "grown out of it" in regards to doing tricks.

I would love if he did one last series in the vain as his old ones, but really, really go for it in terms of trying to impress. However I don't think there's anything left to do.

Grimshaw wrote:

wittyusername wrote:Oh sorry, i ment they didn't teach me anything psychology wise (which is what these are really about)
and thank you!
edit- My mother has a psychology degree so i'v been reading books on the subject since i was little, i did an a-level in it and was going to do a degree but ended up not because it didn't seem interesting or involved enough so i just continued with my own way of learning (I'm SURE i said i have a degree somewhere on here- i was clearly p*ssed and confused when i typed it)

I'd be extremely surprised that you could learn anything 'psychology wise' from a Derren Brown show.

He does mention some sociological and psychological experiments and conditions etc. He's obviously not going to go into detail and he's clearly not an actual psychology lecturer, no.

MisterRawlings wrote:He does mention some sociological and psychological experiments and conditions etc. He's obviously not going to go into detail and he's clearly not an actual psychology lecturer, no.

He did the Milgram experiment, sure but....what else?

"People are more likely to......" fill in the blanks and its called psychology. I'd call it statistics.

Ask someone to think of a number between one and ten and people are more likely to pick seven, then three.

Its stats, not psychology. It tells you little to nothing about their behaviour or the motivation for it.

People are more likely to behave differently in crowds than they are individually......

NOOOOO. Really? You don't say. That's a shocker isn't it?

That's common sense, not psychology (even though social psychologists would argue with me about that).

MisterRawlings wrote:
He clearly states how he's "grown out of it" in regards to doing tricks.
.

I think you may have taken his words out of context. He actually states that he has grown out of performing magic tricks as a means of meeting people socially.

He says that he no longer feels the need when trying to impress on people.

Good interview. Thanks for sharing.

Alec

@Grimshaw. But it is telling you things about psychology and sociology. You may already know it, it may be common knowledge, it might be that all you're learning is the fancy words for it, but it's still 'teaching' something about it.

Alec Kobain wrote:

MisterRawlings wrote:
He clearly states how he's "grown out of it" in regards to doing tricks.
.

I think you may have taken his words out of context. He actually states that he has grown out of performing magic tricks as a means of meeting people socially.

He says that he no longer feels the need when trying to impress on people.

Good interview. Thanks for sharing.

Alec

Ah yes, good point. However he has in Devil's picturebook talked about how he doesn't feel card magic to be enough anymore for what he wants to do, or something like that, and how he only does card tricks at dinner parties now but for his shows going forward he would do little in the way of 'standard' magic. That's what I'm trying to get across.

MisterRawlings wrote:@Grimshaw. But it is telling you things about psychology and sociology. You may already know it, it may be common knowledge, it might be that all you're learning is the fancy words for it, but it's still 'teaching' something about it.

As I said, I don't believe that to be the case. Stats and common sense (which is all I believe social psychology to be), maybe. Furthermore, if you're looking at The Experiments as educators of psychology / sociology, you're really only - bar the second episode - looking at case studies since he's using one person. You can't hope to generalise and say "Yes, that's what we'd all do in that situation". Derren even says particiapants are selected on the grounds that they'll basically help to make his experiment work (they're more suggestible). That's not science, its entertainment. Climate changes scientists might alter the data to fit, but real scientsts can't do that. (Bit of controversy at the end there for ya)

Oh don't get me wrong, I completely agree that these aren't proper psychology experiments, of course, they're entertainment. But I would say some of the things he talks about and touches on are based in psychology (more so with these shows than when he pretends he's using psychology in his early work) and you can learn some basic terms and references to actual psychology experiments. But yeah that's about it.

See everybody? MisterRawlings and I participated in a brief exchange of ideas and opinions regarding the latest Derren Brown shows. There was no malice, no sniping, no bad feelings. In order to keep this fourth thread the right side of open, perhaps we could all follow suit. Its not that difficult.

I have to say I'm really enjoying this series too. I thought The Assassin and The Guilt Trip were better than The Gameshow but that's just personal preference.

The bitching and moaning about his change in direction is getting tedious. People change and often want to try new things and move in new directions. I'd much rather see a creative person challenge themselves and sometimes fail than stick to the same area because it's comfortable. And the fact it pulls in viewers and entertains people shows he's being successful. Does this make them fanboys? No, it makes them different from people who don't enjoy it.

The System was an interesting one because it was a scam I'd read a lot about a few years prior so was good to see it in action. That said, I know people who saw it and thought it was fantastic because it's was real and not shrouded in mystery like the more mystical ones. Different strokes, different folks.