Series 7: The Contenders (2001): You Must See this Movie

All posts in this blog are intended to highlight movies (either really good or really bad) that run the risk of being overlooked by the public. Great movies that are well known to the general public need not apply.

The following movie is in the Good category:

This movie entirely takes place within a mock reality show which is on its seventh competition. Supposedly this is a series of episodes edited together. The show’s premise is that the show’s players, save the winner from the previous round are randomly chosen and all have to try to kill each other. The most prominent of these players is the reigning champion Dawn (Brooke Smith).

The movie doesn’t explain why the players have to play the game or what would happen if all the players refused to do so; instead this is taken as a given in the TV landscape. Since the show appears as the audience would see it, presumably the fictional audience already knows such details. It is clear, however that the players can’t opt out.

What makes this movie brilliant satire is that is has everything you’d expect from a competitive reality show: catchy but in your face music, an unseen narrator, “coming up” bits, and talking head bits where the players talking to the audience about other players. Unlike The Running Man where the satire is part of a larger action movie, with Series 7, the action is entirely a part of the satire. At no point do we see anything that the audience at home wouldn’t see. If not for the kills, this could be mistaken for an actual reality show. While Smith’s performance is the stand-out, all the actors playing competitors and their family are great, and they do an excellent job of maintaining the illusion.

This was writer/director Daniel Minahan’s first movie as director (he previously wrote I Shot Andy Warhol), but he shows a level of confidence rivalling more seasoned directors. Disconcertingly, this movie came out in 2001, and actual reality shows afterwards came a lot closer to this one. Therefore, while reality shows never reached this extreme, the movie has aged really well. Nowadays, reality shows have died down, and there are a lot more of them like Keeping Up with the Kardashians that aren’t competitive in nature, and the surviving competition ones like Survivor and Amazing Race fortunately aren’t anywhere near this extreme. But this movie did accurately predict that viewers’ appetite for reality TV would push things beyond what they were in 2001, and in a matter that feels a lot truer than The Running Man (which to be sure is also a fine movie, one that is too well known to be covered on this site). You must see this movie.