Entertainment

Derren Brown's New Netflix Show Looks Super Creepy, So Obviously We're Pumped

by Lara Williams
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Derren Brown, the illusionist, hypnotist, magician, whatever he is, has just dropped a very exciting trailer for his new Netflix special Miracle. The trailer suggests the show is set to be a classic, the sort of thing that will surely leave us staring at the screen questioning how the hell he managed to pull any of it off at all. So if you're a fan of Brown's mind-boggling magic, and are wondering when does Derren Brown's new Netflix series Miracle start, then this should have you covered.

According to the tantalising trailer, the show lands on Netflix on June 22 — meaning it will be on screens in just over a week's time. And to tell you what the show is actually about, I'll leave it up to the man himself to explain. "It’s about the present moment," Brown said in a tweet releasing the show's trailer. "The stories we live by, and debunks faith healing along with the way. I never thought it would work and it ended up being the most extraordinary touring experience I’ve had." Sounds intriguing. But does the trailer live up to the hype?

Opening with an ominously ticking clock, the footage certainly begins in a trademark mysterious Derren Brown fashion. It doesn't give a huge amount away about the content or narrative of the show, rather hints at what's to come, with some strange little moments and details.

There's a bit where Brown eats what looks like a handful of smashed glass. "Great! Cheers!" he says, opening his mouth and revealing not a scratch. There's a section in which he tells a visibly nervous audience participant, "What I'm gonna show you now has been banned in 16 countries" before the trailer cuts to a woman's hand hovering over what appears to be an upturned spike concealed in a paper bag, before Brown smashes the poor woman's hand down. Rather than resulting in the anticipated blood bath, she of course emerges unscathed. "Don't go home and start doing that alright?" he tells the cooing crowd.

In the show, Brown gives audience members the chance to experience what they believe to be a "spiritual transformation." Some that were there claim to have had their eyesight improved, while others say their aching bodies have been relieved of pain — all off of the back of his magical shenanigans.

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The Netflix special seems to be based on the Miracle show he's already toured: his seventh one-man show. Described on his site as "extraordinary demonstrations and exposés of evangelical faith healing," the show toured the UK between 2015 and 2016, scoring some rave reviews. In fact, The Telegraph described the show as "completely astounding". "The take-home message," the review concludes, "even for those of faith, is life-affirming: we are infinitely suggestible, but also incredible. Mind over matter is a godsend fact of life."

Meanwhile, The Guardian was similarly gushing, describing the experience as "the sort of synaptic buzzing that comes with having to recap and untangle what it is you’re astonished about" — though the reviewer does lament an absence of explanation (and who can blame them?).

If you can't wait for June 22, then why not get yourself in the mood, by bingeing Brown's most recent Netflix special, The Push? This similarly stunning show also featured plenty of baffling antics, exploring suggestion and manipulation as tools to compel people to do things they wouldn't ordinarily consider (in this case he is investigating whether he'd be able to convince an otherwise ordinary person to commit murder).

Brown says his new show Miracle is something he never thought would work, but that it ended up being "extraordinary". In just a week's time fans will be able to find out whether it's every bit as extraordinary as we've been led to believe...