It was bound to happen: one reality series hits television, spawning other successful reality series, which in turn spawn awful, genre-tired copycats. The logical next step in this progression would be movies satirizing the reality TV genre. John Herzfeld’s “15 Minutes,” which premiered a few weeks ago, brought us a pair of murderers who film their crimes for the purposes of ratings. And now we have “Series 7: The Contenders,” a searing indictment of the genre stringing wicked satire across a film that with no background or scenes “out of character,” easily could be confused as an actual television show found when surfing the endless abyss of cable channels. That is, an outrageous, illegal and brutal television show.
The film’s title stems from the seventh season of a highly popular reality game show. Six different contestants are chosen at random from a United States population lottery, localized in a specific area (this one being Danbury, Connecticut). The mission: be the last man standing by successfully executing your five opponents to receive a gigantic cash prize. Every contestant has his or her own cameraman, and the show cuts back and forth to each contestant as in a typical episode of “Survivor” or “Temptation Island.”
“I used to be in TV, and I really got a lot of the format from those first reality shows like ‘Cops,’ ‘Rescue 911’ and ‘The Real World,’” said director-screenwriter Daniel Minahan, who scripted the acclaimed “I Shot Andy Warhol” and also takes pride in the fact that the movie was finished and ready to go even before the dawn of “Survivor.” “The idea was a kind of hodge-podge draft that would throw anybody from anywhere into this … crazy mix.”
Brooke Smith (“The Silence of the Lambs”) plays Dawn, the very-pregnant, sassy-as-hell reigning champion, who has survived round after round of the show with a quick pistol and cunning strategy. The others include an ultra-religious ER nurse (Marylouise Burke), a teenager (Merritt Weaver) with all-too-supportive parents and the first great love of Dawn’s life, Jeff (Glenn Fitzgerald), who is a married, closeted gay man dying of testicular cancer. Got all that?
“It’s crazy!” Minahan exclaims. “But it’s reality. I was looking for something a little less formulaic.”
The characters play off each other with rapid-fire dialogue, come-ons, call-outs and soap opera drama in the love triangle between Jeff, Jeff’s wife and Dawn. The cameramen follow them around, hungry for action, and one can’t help but laugh out loud at the kills when they happen. These touches of extreme and ridiculous violence make this satire as sharp and stinging as a red-hot poker.
“It’s all very real life, and it’s a love-hate thing,” claims star Smith, who stars as Dawn. “You root for whomever you want. There’s guys versus girls, gay versus straight, religious versus none. It’s really an eclectic vision, and good … sick, morbid voyeurism!”
Voyeurism is the name of the game, and it’s hard to not be drawn in by the sick and soapy drama that develops as the contestants clash repeatedly. In one particularly hilarious moment, teenage contestant Lindsay is given an in-the-car pep rally from Mom and Dad, who supply her with guns and armor, excited by the prospect of her winning (look for Donna Hanover, Rudy Giuliani’s ex-wife, as Lindsay’s trigger-happy mother, in an inspired bit of casting).
The film is shot on digital cameras, presenting three different episodes of the series in 90 minutes. The fact that “Series 7” is simply the playing of these three episodes will give it significant re-watch value when it comes to video, seeing it on the very screen it satirizes so well.
Unfortunately, there are only so many bulls-eyes to hit with such an obvious satire target as reality TV. In its third act, the film degenerates into soap opera nonsense, moving from sharp satire to silly caricature . But Minahan dives at his subject with a headlong lampoon, instead of only examining one angle and dancing flirtatiously around a subject, as many satires end up doing. Credit him for getting the absolute most of his satire in taking a one-joke, three-ring-circus as far as it could go.
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