Description

  “Trick or Treat” is a British television show hosted by Derren Brown and broadcast on Channel 4. The first episode was broadcast on 13 April 2007. The focus of the show is on one person selected from a pool of volunteers who responded to adverts in the national press to take part in the show. The experience the volunteer receives is decided by which card they choose. If they choose the card that says ‘Trick’ they receive a bad experience and if they choose the card that says ‘Treat’ they receive a good experience. This distinction is not always obvious, however: in Series 2, a participant’s dark experience of being persuaded to (supposedly) kill a kitten was a ‘treat’ because of the positive attitude to life Derren believed she would consequently develop; similarly, a volunteer who chose a ‘trick’ was kidnapped, but had been taught escapology techniques which enabled her to easily escape.Episodes of Trick or Treat are not preceded by Brown’s usual claim that no actors or stooges were used in the filming of the shows. Indeed, some participants (such as the ambulance crew in the final episode of Series 1) are declared to be actors.Series 1Series 1 of Trick or Treat began airing on 17 April 2007.The cards which Brown used throughout this series of this show are deceptive as they are rotational ambigrams and can read either ‘Trick’ or ‘Treat’ depending on which way up Brown chooses to hold them, and thus the card chosen by the participant is irrelevant, in terms of the following events.Ep1 – Trick The subject is put into a trance in a photo booth in London, and is transported to Marrakesh, Morocco. He wakes up in a photo booth in the back of a cafe near the main square.Ep2 – Trick The subject participates in a ventriloquism show where he becomes bound to the dummy. When the dummy is put in its trunk, the subject finds he cannot see.Ep3 – Treat The subject, an elderly lady, is taught how to read bluffs and play poker. She takes part in a tournament with professional poker players and is beaten only by a fluked final hand.Ep4 – Treat The subject is taught to play the piano and gives a professional standard recital within weeks. Later it transpires that the subject was a pianist, but Brown persuaded her to forget this, so that she could rediscover her lost joy of playing.Ep5 – Trick The subject is firstly kidnapped in a London taxi cab and then becomes a street madman.Ep6 – Trick The subject is put into a trance and wakes up at the scene of a staged road traffic accident in which she sees herself dead in her car. She is unable to move and the ‘rescue personnel’ do not respond to her presence. Prior to its broadcast, this episode was criticised in the Daily Mail newspaper for trivialising the issue of road deaths and potentially harming the subject psychologically.Series 2Series 2 of Trick or Treat began airing on 2 May 2008.The cards which Brown used in this series are not the ambigrams as used in Series 1, but are clearly independent ‘Trick’ and ‘Treat’ cards. However, it is not unlikely that Brown uses his psychological techniques to force the outcome he desires for each particular person. It should be noted that each participant has picked the left hand card of the two.Ep1 – Quiz Treat The subject is taught a technique of speed learning, and spends a week scanning hundreds of books in preparation for a Night of the Champions pub quiz, in which he enters as the only solo participant and comes second only to two teams who tied for first place.Ep2 – Kitten Treat The subject is shown a kitten in a metal cage and told that it will be electrocuted if she presses a button. The subject would win £500 if she stays in the room for five minutes without killing the kitten. Derren’s negative suggestion forces her to press the button at the last second. However, she finds the cat is still alive and thus wins the £500. The treat was that the subject would think back to the moment if she was ever being negative in future, and would then become a more positive person.Ep3 – Time Treat The subject, guest star David Tennant, appears to have the ability to time travel. He is taken back to the early 1930s and gives out facts, which appear in a newspaper from that date. He then predicts what a member of the public will draw on a card, twenty minutes beforehand. Finally, he performs automatic writing, predicting two news items which would appear three days later in The Guardian newspaper. It was mentioned in the episode that Tennant had applied to the programme in the same way any ordinary member of the public would.Ep4 – Escape Trick The subject is taught ancient techniques on how to get free from complicated, risky situations. Subsequently, the subject – with hands and feet tied – is inserted into a sack and thrown into a lake. The subject gets free. During the course of the show, Derren claims that the subject will be completely alone under the water, bar a stationary camera. However, two divers emerge from the lake (and give each other a thumbs-up sign) in the final seconds of the program (as the credits are running.) Whether this is supposed to indicate that they actually released the subject, or merely that there was added security is left unresolved.Ep5 – Confidence Treat The subject is tested in speed dating consquences. Derren then attempts to build The Subject’s confidence. Then, the subject, returns to speed dating, securing at least on interested party. Brown then, finally, tests the subject in a robbery.Ep6 – Superstition Trick All previous contestants from the series returned, and were placed in a room with a counter and several objects, saying that they had to score 100 points within half an hour. However, the points were awarded randomly and not by any actions performed in the room. If they had realised that, they might have noticed there was a further element, and found the sign above them on the ceiling telling them that the doors were unlocked and £150,000 waiting for them if they went to get it. They didn’t.In another part of the episode, a superstitious woman was tested on her beliefs by being made to walk on pavement cracks and under ladders, smash a mirror, etc. (causing her to comment on whether she would be killed on the way home), to see if it affected her luck in a following experiment, which it didn’t. A gag notice came up at the end of the show saying that the episode was dedicated to her memory, having been killed on the way home.