Netflix’s ‘The Push’ May Be Reality TV, But You’ll Wish It Was Fake

The premise of Netflix’s The Push is unquestionably intriguing. English illusionist Derren Brown engineered a meticulously planned social experiment in an attempt to demonstrate how an ordinary person can be manipulated into committing murder.

An odd mix of The Truman Show, Weekend at Bernie’s, David Blaine, and The Joe Schmo Show, Brown’s intricate scheme involves hiring 70 actors to attend a fake charity event to manipulate one person, 29-year-old Chris Kingston, into eventually pushing a man to his death. Everyone involved is in on the ruse, except for poor Chris, who through a series of small escalating decisions finds himself entangled in a web of deceit. Brown’s machinations reach their crescendo when, without giving too much away, Chris is faced with a decision to push a man off a roof. A rational person might think this is a no-brainer, but Brown’s elaborate plot attempts to make Chris believe that it’s in his best self-interest to commit this dastardly deed. And then, of course, there’s a twist.

The Push originally aired back in 2016 on Channel 4 in the UK, but if you have yet to watch the special, I suggest bookmarking this page and returning after pushing play. Spoilers ahead.

If you watched the special, you already know the ending: Chris decided not to push a man to his death, which the hour-long program celebrates like it’s a heroic achievement.

Have we really reached the point as a society where we’re literally celebrating not murdering someone on Netflix?

Well done, indeed! Honestly, if Chris goes five days without murdering someone, we should all chip-in and buy him a speedboat.

I don’t want it to seem like I’m poking fun at Chris. I’m not. Chris is the only likable part of The Push. The special isn’t so much cringe-worthy as it is just straight-up cruel. Brown used the disingenuous guise of social science to pull off a mean-spirited, sensationalized stunt clearly meant to garner attention.

The big twist I alluded to earlier is that Chris wasn’t the only subject of Brown’s little funhouse of mental horrors. The final few minutes reveal that Brown allegedly ran the experiment four times, culminating with the other three participants actually pushing a man off a roof to his apparent death (obviously it was rigged so the man didn’t actually die, which is nice).

Here’s a photo of one of the contestants laughing about how he almost didn’t push a man off the roof.

Hahahahahahaha. What a hoot.

I found The Push to be loathsome television. From everyone applauding when Chris didn’t murder someone to the overall glib nature of the program, it just wasn’t for me. Intriguing? Sure. In theory. But in execution it seemed like a cheap plea for attention. Many have wondered if the show is real. A quick review of Chris’ Twitter account makes it seem like everything he went through was legit, but it’s difficult to trust the legitimacy of a program hatched by someone skilled in the art of manipulation.

Brown raises some interesting questions and makes a number of insightful observations during his special, but his points are obscured by his tabloid execution. Is Derren Brown’s The Push fake? Is it real? Like most reality television, the answer most likely lies somewhere in between.

You can stream Derren Brown’s The Push on Netflix.

Stream The Push on Netflix