I just finished watching this television program Derren Brown: Apocalypse.  It is stated that the entire segment was not staged, however, I can't help but question the authenticity of the entire performance.

The show is an emotional, twisted version of Punk'd.  A young man named Steven is described a being a lazy, good for nothing fellow who takes everything in his life for granted.  From these qualities, Steven is selected to be secretly filmed for an odd experiment in which he is placed into the stimulation of a zombie apocalypse, ideally to come out with a new perspective on life.

Sounds like a pretty neat idea, but the whole charade just seems off to me.

The camera angles were just too convenient not to be staged.  Considering that all of the cameras were supposed to be hidden, it seems too unlikely that they would catch so much clear footage.  The camera suggests that it would have been placed nearly right in front of Steven, which would make it obvious to anybody that the entire ordeal was a lie.  However, the show carries on after this point, which would insinuate that this Steven is just an actor.


How did Steven find the will to restrain himself from killing the zombies?!  I think most people would agree that during a zombie apocalypse, zombie slicing is 100% encouraged.  Here he is, behind the safety of a fence standing a couple feel away from a crowd of zombies, but he makes absolutely no effort to kill any of them!  DO YOU NOT PLAY LEFT 4 DEAD?!
 
Steven didn't try to confirm the authenticity of the zombies.  I don't recall him inspecting the zombies at any given moment, and it seems unusual that he could so easily accept the idea an apocalypse.  Such an outrageous idea would certainly require some extent of skepticism, right?

 Maybe the entire concept of the show was to create something that people would want to question, something that would immediately become a hot topic.  If that were the case, it evidently worked, because a Google search would support that many spectators are also making an effort to dissect the credibility of Steven's case.
 
Although it series looks to be obviously staged, it's still a fun way to kill time.  If you would like to make your own judgment how convincing the acting is, it's currently posted on YouTube.

- PK