I watched this based on a tweet from Henry Winkler (Barry, Happy Days). I knew nothing about it other than Mr Winkler liked it. The show is an exercise in identity and includes some phenomenal sleights of hand. The camera is close up on Derek's hands and his skills are amazing.
Spoilers The story that ties the different facets of Derek's life together to help us learn his journey is too disjointed to adequately provide a smooth transition from one segment to the next. The two segments that were the most impressive (other than his card handling) were when people randomly selected from the audience randomly select a letter from a pile and then read it to themselves and then out loud. Many of them burst into tears reading these letters, and we learn that they are from their relatives or friends. So, not really random at all. This viewer felt manipulated since the method of the selection appeared random, but clearly some clever behind the scenes work made sure these letters were made well in advance and would wind up as planned in the hands of those "random" people. The second impressive thing was the end, when Derek somehow was able to assign each I AM card to the exact audience member with 100% accuracy. Amazing trick and or memory exercise or both. I believe I saw David Blaine, Bill Gates and Tom Ford participating in the audience. That was interesting but also made it feel even more of a trick than some personal identity epiphany.
Bottom line, some really good moments with over-dramatic staging.
Spoilers The story that ties the different facets of Derek's life together to help us learn his journey is too disjointed to adequately provide a smooth transition from one segment to the next. The two segments that were the most impressive (other than his card handling) were when people randomly selected from the audience randomly select a letter from a pile and then read it to themselves and then out loud. Many of them burst into tears reading these letters, and we learn that they are from their relatives or friends. So, not really random at all. This viewer felt manipulated since the method of the selection appeared random, but clearly some clever behind the scenes work made sure these letters were made well in advance and would wind up as planned in the hands of those "random" people. The second impressive thing was the end, when Derek somehow was able to assign each I AM card to the exact audience member with 100% accuracy. Amazing trick and or memory exercise or both. I believe I saw David Blaine, Bill Gates and Tom Ford participating in the audience. That was interesting but also made it feel even more of a trick than some personal identity epiphany.
Bottom line, some really good moments with over-dramatic staging.