Talking To The Screen

Series 7:The Contenders :2001

The premise of 'Series 7: The Contenders' is as follows. There exists a 
government-run game show called "The Contenders" which pits six citizens against 
each other in a fight to the death in Anytown, USA.   

This film could have gone in a number of ways, but it's writer, Daniel Minahan, 
seems to have avoided any bold choices and is left with a fairly flaccid movie.  
This could have been a commentary on fame and television.  An interesting look 
how ordinary people are thrown into stardom with the advent of Survivor and 
earlier, the Real World. nope. It could have been a novel tale of a twisted 
dystopia in which the government kills its own citizens (or prisoners, to be 
more plausible) off for the amusement of the general populace. nope.  Or it 
could have been stark and shocking, void of all commentary alluding to the 
above. nope.  My best advice would have been for Minahan to collaborate with 
someone on the authoring of 'Series 7', maybe Mary Harron with whom he wrote 'I 
Shot Andy Warhol' (a very enjoyable movie, by the way). Another point of view 
could have fleshed out the rich skeleton that Minahan had crafted.

There are, however, a few things that stand out about 'Series 7'.  First of all, 
it captures the filming style of reality shows remarkably, down to the sappy 
music and montages, when a contestant dies.  Secondly, this film has a great 
sense of humor, from subtle images like that of a woman praying with rosary 
beads while smoking a cigarette to the ridiculous nonsensical high school film 
project "Love Will Tear Us Apart" written by two of the contenders.

Not a bad movie, but make up an interesting back story about the society that 
conceived of this game to keep yourself entertained while the transparent plot 
runs its course.