What’s That Now? Netflix’s New Special "The Push" Pranks People by Urging Them to 'Kill' Someone

Well, that is dark!

A trailer for Netflix’s new special, The Push, has debuted online, featuring UK “illusionist” Derren Brown and a team of actors working to manipulate an unwitting person into committing murder.

Or, at least, they think it’s murder.

In the trailer, a man is urged to simply "push" a man off the side of a building, after being threatened with taking the blame for some other kind of crime.

In the clip, Brown argues that the special will explore "how readily we handover authorship of our lives," and certainly there’s some similarity here to the work of Stanley Milgram—who tested to see if people would electrocute unseen strangers—and the infamous Stanford prison experiment, which both explored the complicity of Nazi officers "following orders".

Buuuuut… those weren’t produced a) by an "illusionist", b) for our viewing pleasure and c) in the same format as Punk’d.

Also unlike Punk'd, The Push probably doesn't end with Ashton Kutcher running out and relieving some B-list celebrity of an awkward encounter, and will instead feature people confronted with the darkest corners of their very soul.

Welcome to the era of Peak TV!

The Push arrives on Netflix 27 February, so you have until then to decide if this is how you want to spend an evening of viewing. However, it has already aired in the UK, so be wary of online spoilers.

Photo: Netflix