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[REVIEW
> SERIES 7]
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 "'Series
7' is as real as a documentary, yet as guiltily entertaining
as an episode of the Jerry Springer shows..." |
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Reviewed by Sue Limsukonth
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| From the first scene, we are gripped by the
image of a very pregnant woman in a maternity dress rushing
into a Seven-Eleven. With a gun in hand, she goes up to
a customer in front of the store's cash register and fires
a few shots into his skull. But before she is to leave
the store, she rushes down an aisle and tries to complete
yet another important mission - getting some bean dip.
A gruesome scene does a one-eighty. Unlike the killing
sprees we see on the news, what happened in this scene
is justified by the fact that the pregnant woman is part
of a reality game show. The man who just got shot is another
contestant the woman has to kill off in order to win the
game. Welcome to the current popular television culture
as parodied in "Series 7" by Daniel Minahan.
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| Brooke
Smith
plays Dawn Legarto in SERIES 7 |
During the 1-1/2 hours, we, the audience, become television
viewers watching the unfolding of a show called "The
Contenders." This spoof of reality-based shows follows
the lives of six individuals, randomly chosen in a state-sponsored
lottery, to hunt down and kill off each other. The last
one alive is pronounced the winner. Most of the action
follows Dawn, a woman eight-months pregnant, as she tries
to off the latest segment's competitors: Lindsay, an 18-year-old
sweet-natured virgin, whose parents prep her slaughtering
skills like an aggressive stage mother; Connie, a seemingly
skittish and religious nurse; Tony, a middle-aged unemployed
family man; James, an old retiree; and Jeff, a young married
artist who turns out to be Dawn's old high school sweetheart.
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| Like the MTV's "Real World," "The Contenders"
glues the television audience to their seats with surprises
as the contestants' backgrounds and drama unfold. And
like Survivor, it keeps them hooked to find out who will
become the survivor, literally speaking. But "The
Contenders" sinks the watchers to a new level, where
they are delighted by the cliffhangers as they wait for
the contestants, one by one, to be bludgeoned, shot, strangled,
lethally-injected or slashed to death. It's an ultimate
guilty pleasure for most of us who secretly hope for a
fatal crash every time we watch car racing on live TV.
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Shot with a hand-held video camera and acted by unfamiliar
faces (except for Brooke Smith who played the woman kidnapped
and survived in The "Silence of the Lambs"),
"Series 7" is as real as a documentary, yet
as guiltily entertaining as an episode of the "Jerry
Springer shows." At first glance, you may think it's
just a spoof, but it's actually a sign of the times. Those
of you who find yourselves tuning in to watch "Survivor"
week after week will be left delightfully satisfied after
the film ends. And to those of you who perceive yourselves
as too good for reality shows, watching "Series 7"
will give you a chance to laugh at the "buffoons" who
largely contribute to the Nielsen ratings. .jpg) |
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