The names, unfortunately, roll off our tongues with a simplistic, yet hesitant ease.  Survivor, The Real World, Temptation Island, Big Brother, Love Cruise, in the past few years, societies twisted fascination with reality based television has given birth to these slices of Americana.  So it was inevitable that Series 7:The Contenders, would come along.  With an idea that was born before the Survivor craze, but well into the Real World run, director Daniel Minahan has satirically, but brutally shown the extremes to which entertainment could go.  While it fades a bit in its finale, drifting away from its edgy commentary, and into soap operatic predictable schmaltz, the overall effect is one that will cause any viewer or fan to think twice about the emanations from the cathode ray nipple that feeds society's voyeuristic yearnings. us.  

There is a fitting bit of irony in Minahan doing this film, since he was one of the pretentious heathens who gave us Fox’s When Good Things (insert animals, cops, ex-wives, whatever) Go Bad.  It is very obvious from the presentation, that he is very familiar with televisions innate draw and power of manipulation and cathartic hypnosis through shock therapy, that it can cause. Now some may say that it is hypocritical for him to make this film, but I see it more as striking back.  He is not only biting the hand that fed him and lifted him to where he is, he is attempting to exorcise the monster that he helped create.  And he is definitely off to good start. The film jumps right in, feet first, as if the viewer was familiar with the series and the rules.  The Contenders is the name of the show, with each episode becoming a series number.  The rules are painfully simple, there are 6 contestants, chosen randomly using identification numbers and informed by a mysterious masked militia (who also serve as enforcers) who walk in, hand them a gun, walk out, and seal their fate, at least for three episodes.  Each contestant must eliminate the others in order to move on, after 3 episodes, the prize is freedom, no money, no lavish gifts, just self-preservation and survival of the fittest, presented for entertainment purposes.   We are brought into Episode 7 of the fittingly popular series.  The reigning champion is embittered, seething mother-to-be Dawn LeGarto (Silence of The Lambs, Brooke Smith) who has earned a reputation for being a ruthless competitor, which she defends vehemently by stating that she’s doing it for her baby.  The episode takes place in LeGarto’s hometown, a midsize Connecticut town, where 5 other residents become her competitors: Franklin, an elderly man who’s the most hesitant of the group, Connie, an innocent looking nurse who has a darker side, Lindsey, a teen who feels the parental pressure, Tony, a father on the edge, and Jeffrey, a mid-30s cancer victim with a death wish.  

T.V., it satellite links our United States of unconciousness
Apathetic therapeutic and extremely addictive the methadone metronome

At first glance, the contestants would seem to be a cross section of society, but closer looks reveal, as it may inside most of us, that when put into apparently average people are put into situations, they may discover sides of themselves heretofore not know about, or displayed. Minahan deftly intersperses the progression and explanation of the game, with some slice of life human moments, showing that these are normal people, put into a fight for their lives.  He grazes over, thankfully, being too preachy about the hesitancy of the participants, or the legalities of things, letting the natural flow of the game lay things out, and the viewer can discern and pick things as things go along.  The series are broken into 15-minute segments, with each promoted as TV does, complete with tacky taglines (These cats, don’t have, nine lives), and dramatic voiceovers.  The tension builds, as the game goes on, and the movie heads towards its conclusion.  By the time it comes around, including a shocking, but not wholly surprising, sequence of events in a shopping mall, the after effects show just how calmly we have been woven into Minahan’s web of a story without even realizing it. 

T.V. is it the reflector or the director?
Does it imitate us or do we imitate it
Because a child watches 1500 murders before he's twelve years old 
and we wonder how we've created a Jason generation 
that learns to laugh rather than abhor the horror

I leave the rest, as any TV show would, for the teller to unveil.  Needless to say, the story unfolds in a manner that hints at more beneath the surface, not just with the individual characters, but also with their interactions.  This plays out in the movies third act, and brings to light an interesting question and commentary may be Minahan's underlying message.  Does life imitate art, or vice versa.  In Series 7’s case, I think it is intentional, but not wholly forgivable.  Society does influence actions, but when darkly satirizing something, conformity is not always the best path chosen.  Minahan tap dances around some serious issues, in favor of focusing on the familiar, crowd pleasing, dramatic elements and touches that seem to litter televisions landscape these days. Was this just a grasp at being more universally accepted or just an insightful mockery of it?; it is difficult to say really, but the movie does stumble towards its conclusion, losing it’s edginess in place of sentiment.  Although, I had to admit a weak spot for the inclusion of Joy Division’s oft-forgotten 80’s classic “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, as a part of the link between two of the characters.  Others may question the legality or overall ramifications of such an endeavor, and it must be remembered that this is a movie and is make believe, but if you think about it, how far would fans go, for entertainment.  Minahan shows this haphazard societal disregard in two very fitting, yet frightening scenes.  One involving a confession session by the nurse, and another involving police stopping Lindsey at a metal detector, only to have her say “It’s okay, I’m a Contender” and be let through no questions asked.  There is no question that there are darker issues at work in Series 7, and for the most part, Minahan hits the right notes, but others are glazed over, as stated before. 

He has a cast of relative unknowns here, save Smith, and that also works in the films favor.  As the latter 2 Survivors have apparently shown, recognition, either of faces, or circumstances, is tainted when there is a familiarity.  The relative anonymity allows the audience to really get into, and learn the characters as people, and as things progress along, and become a part of the game.  Watching the film, I could morbidly see how society could get hooked on something like this, as proven in Spike Lee’s Bamboozled; anything is probable and possible, if there is money, and popularity to be gained.  

It's the perpetuation of the two party system
where image takes precedence over wisdom

Television, The Drug of the Nation  (1991), performed by Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, lyrics by Michael Franti

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