Apocalypse Now: My Review of Part I of Derren's Most Daring Mind-Buggery Yet!

This is Steven, and his reaction pretty much summed up how I felt watching it. But that could mean anything so read on...

I know what your all probably thinking, "three posts in the space of three days?!" Yes, clearly I must be coming down with something severe. Well you wouldn't be far off the mark since I'm currently stricken with Derren Delirium at this very moment! It usually occurs whenever he decides to pop onto our TV screens again, giving us folks another special serving of his unique flavour of intellectual nourishment, a true feast for the eyes..food for thought in every sense of the word. But enough of my ho-hum metaphors and sycophantic sentiments, let's tuck in to Derren's latest offering after nearly a year off our screens...my god! I thought the world of decent and thought-provoking television had ended, never mind a world apocalypse it was a bloody TV meltdown at least until Derren came along again. Rest assured, this IS Derren at his best and probably his most dare I say...wicked, and no not the slang definition of it either though it is that too in spades. Now I did say I would be quite thorough with this review, but that would be at the expense of people who haven't seen it to a certain extent so I've decided to hold back a little on the intricacies of it. I'll cover some of the bases that should give you a pretty good idea of what it is so I'm not going to spill the full can of beans at this juncture. 

If you want to do one of them mash-ups from established popular culture I suppose you could say it's 28 Days Later meets The Walking Dead. It also has this core almost Stoic sensibility and philosophy at the heart of it, particularly of the Roman philosopher Seneca which Derren brings up and was one who preached that the only way to truly value what you have is to imagine that the worst could happen at any moment. Well the worst IS about to happen to this hapless 21-year-old chap called Steven. He is about to be taught the harshest lesson imaginable in how to change his ways for the betterment of not only himself as an individual but also his attitude towards those who near and dear to him. From the outset, we get a pretty good impression of this guy at the beginning through witnessing his day-to-day life at home via of course Derren's favourite tool, yep them hidden cameras again. He is literally waited on hand and foot by his parents, loafs about on the sofa with his head buried in his phone paying little attention or consideration for anything else and his room's a bloody state. Yep, he's your typical teenager then only he's NOT anymore, he's a man! Or at least Derren will soon be making more of a man out of him for sure, this is after all what it's about.

So Steven ticks all the right boxes and Derren is ready to get the ball rolling with only weeks left until Apocalypse, for Steven anyhow. He starts by planting the seeds of the coming doomsday by first getting his brother to steal his pride and joy - his phone in the middle of night. Derren then brings in a hacker (oh yes...) to work his magic so Derren and his team can have full reign of it and can send him fake news stories pertaining to the upcoming Perseid meteor shower. This is an actual event that is taking place and Derren and crew can twist it and exaggerate on the possibility of a collision with Earth which will no doubt be in the back of Steven's mind. It's all very ingenious stuff and they continue to feed him fake news stories, radio interviews and other forms of media through the house's radio and TV, very HAL 9000 almost in terms of the level of control they have on Steven's surroundings and I found that to be quite frightening in a way. Then on the day of the Apocalypse after weeks of sowing the seeds of the coming meteor shower, Steven and his brother are given tickets to see his favourite band The Killers. This is a gig he will never make, a far more terrifying and hopefully life-changing series of events is in store for our unwitting bloke...you may want to buckle up.     

  

Steven's day of reckoning. The coach he thought was taking him to see his favorite band is actually taking him to a living nightmare.

      

In a scene straight out of 28 Days Later, Steven then wakes up the following day in a run-down, abandoned military hospital. He soon experiences a series of disturbing scenes and terrors including "infected" people who are out to get him and another survivor and all hell basically breaks loose in quite stunning and often convincing fashion. It's ingeniously constructed and set-up to create a truly foreboding and scary atmosphere with plenty of creep factor, you can't help but feel for the guy in the end who is going through this truly harrowing ordeal. I must say I got some SAW vibes watching it as well since it has a similar aesthetic with some quite grisly scenes. Derren and company have really outdone themselves this time, and it's on such a different level to anything he's ever attempted before that you can't help but marvel at the sheer ambition and scale of the whole production. I know my eyes will be fixed on Channel 4 next week to see the nail-biting conclusion to what is arguably his finest piece of television for many, many years. I will again be giving a run-down of the finale and the show as a whole next week. Til then, I urge you all to dig out 40D whether it's on your PC, laptop, tablet whatever or even your TV and watch it! It will be there a good few days on catch up so I'd urge you to watch it at the best possible opportunity. This is not to be missed folks, this is television at it's most daring.