Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Criss Angel's stage show, magic
Likes: Stunts
Dislikes: The fake drama of the show's reality TV elements
Hates: That he's gone Hollywood

The Story So Far... Criss Angel combined traditional stage magic with dark and dramatic imagery to create a unique and highly entertaining show that earned him a cult following and the respect of the magic community. He then parlayed that success into a series on A&E, resident gigs in Las Vegas, and a spot as one of America's top magicians. The show, "Mindfreak" follows Angel as he performed his magic and travelled the country. A&E has released three DVD sets of his shows so far, and DVDTalk has reviews of of of them: Season One | Season Two | Halloween Special

The Show
As Criss Angel's star continues to rise, with a new Las Vegas show in coordination with Cirque du Soleil and a higher media profile (including a guest-starring role on CSI,) his increasing fame has made "Mindfreak" into something of an ego-stroking item of wish fulfillment. Sure, the show is named for him, but it was always about the magic, for the most part. With Season Three though, it's all about the man behind the magic.

The season gets off to a good start, with the usual amazing stunts, like his unexplainable levitation above the Luxor hotel, his getting crushed by a steamroller or an escape from a van full of explosives driving off a cliff. The change is obvious though, as you skim through the episode summaries, and see memorials to members of his family, challenges to his hero Houdini, indulgences into his love of cars, made-up characters and a focus on his fawning fanbase. There's also an increase in storylines told through magic, bordering on saccharine sweet (especially in "The Kid in Criss",) representing the influence of another of Angel's heroes, Doug Henning. It's odd to have seen the transformation from the dark magic of his off-Broadway show to the almost cartoonish gangsta-goth TV star of today.

Now, I probably sound like a big critic of Angel, but I am really a big fan, and would argue that he is genuinely charming and that some of his Henning-inspired bits were actually quote good (watch the reaction of the children he involves in his tricks and you can't deny the power of his magic.) My problem lies in the problems inherent in a reality TV show, which this one has certainly blossomed into, after starting as more of a magic anthology. Once you spend a bit of time with the initial concept, the drama can end up feeling manufactured because scenes are set up in ways that can come off as painfully artificial, thanks in no small part to his family and crew's bad acting. It's a big difference from the power of his earlier escapes and feats of of personal power, which felt real, since the viewer was just following a magician trying tricks. But in the third season, it's as if Angel is a modern-day Caine, wandering Las Vegas spreading the word of magic. Unfortunately, no one is interesting all the time, which has been the downfall of basically every reality show since the first season of "The Real World."

When the show is working, it's a well-balanced mix, bringing together street magic, Angel's excellent Teach-a-Trick tutorials and his grand-scale tricks, like his nude escape from a jail cell, his underwater feats and the disturbing roller-coaster segment. Though he gets some star-power from the various celebrities that join him, including Flavor Flav, a pre-scandal Dog the Bounty Hunter and the enjoyably scared Carrot Top, there's nothing like seeing him amaze a table of drunks or hypnotized some Playboy bunnies, except maybe his fun "Sucker" episodes, where he shows how con artists use slight of hand. What's not as entertaining are his character sketches, like his Andy Kaufman homage, "Nicky Glass," or "Justin Case," his traveling salesman, both of which utilize excellent make-up and decent acting on the part of Angel. Amusing, sure, but they are about as far removed from what you expect from Criss Angel as possible, and are probably more entertaining to him than anyone else. Disappointingly, his best character, an imitation of one of his heroes, is limited to an appearance in the extras.

What you expect from Angel, instead, is mindbending magic, and there's thankfully a good deal of it, like a barefoot walk atop screwdrivers, but with the exception of the awesome Luxor float and the two explosions, the tricks felt a bit like a step-down from past shows. For example, there was a way too much set-up for his vanishing act in "Raging Bull," "Burning Man" featured a hypnotized chicken, a scarecrow brought to life and a fire-ring vanishing, and the big Season-Three premiere stunt, an escape from a cement cell hung five stories in the air in New York City, was ultimately underwhelming. Of course, how he did them all is a complete mystery and incredibly impressive, but they just aren't as exciting. That didn't stop me from watching every single one though. He's just that good.

The DVDs
This three-disc set, with 20 episodes of "Mindfreak," isn't exactly the complete seasons set the title describes, if you use the A&E episode list as a guide, as there are seven episodes from Season Three not included. After switching packaging styles between the first two season releases, this set keeps the same set-up, as the discs are packaged in three clear slipcased ThinPaks, each with a one-sided cover. The discs feature a sparse, slightly-animated full-frame menu, with options to watch all the episodes, select individual shows and check out bonus features (where applicable.) There are no subtitles, closed captioning or audio options available.

The Quality
The video quality of the full-frame transfers is tight, with a crisp image with features appropriate color and no noticeable dirt or damage. It looks as good as it ever did on TV, and actually rises above that standard in spots, as some of the more vibrant colors look great. There's some minor pixelation visible along hard edges, but it's basically free of dirt, damage and digital artifacts.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtracks are a solid recreation of the series' music, delivering the sound cleanly through the center channel, which no noticeable dynamic mixing in the dialogue or sound effects.

The Extras
The extras are put together differently than in previous sets, as there are no commentaries this time out. Instead, we get a 12:36 behind-the-scenes featurette is made up of a collection of segments in which Angel and some of his crew share their thoughts on how the episodes came together, mixing the interview segments and some on-set footage to provide a brief version of the insight that would have come from a commentary. A second featurette spends 6:39 focusing on two his celebrity guests, Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) and Amazing Jonathan, and includes footage of him doing a great imitation of one of his heroes, in a bit that is a bit creepy also.

A collection of additional scenes is the most extensive extra, running almost 25 minutes. It's a blend of a fan service Q&A, promo appearances, a biography (with home-video footage,) bloopers and short clips about his bikes, cars and cleanliness OCD, as well as deleted scenes from the show. It's a nice supplement to the DVDs, but I'd probably trade it for more of the commentaries from the previous sets.

Things wrap up with a text bio about Criss Angel.

The Bottom Line
Perhaps the show is a victim of its own success, or perhaps Angel needs to find a new direction for the series, but there's definitely something "off" about the third season of "Mindfreak," as it's doesn't quite clear the bar set by the previous seasons. But like pizza and sex, even when Criss Angel is "bad," he's still good. One only hopes that he can recapture the magic of the past (pardon the pun.) This DVD set looks and sounds solid, and the extras, though a bit slim, are a bit more in-depth than previous sets in some ways. If you enjoy Criss Angel's act, you can't help but check out this collection, but newcomers to his magic will probably want to go back to the first season for an introduction.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.