For anyone that didn't see the first two episodes of Criss Angel's new show, Mindfreak, on A&E tonight, try and catch one of the reruns that are airing most nights this week. It was edge-of-seat entertainment.

As I've mentioned here before, I come to this from a fairly specific position - Scaramouch is the stage name I used many years ago when I worked as a semi-professional magician, so I have both an inbuilt love of the genre, coupled with a technical eye that can pick apart poor technique and method pretty quickly. And from where I was sitting, Angel really stepped up to the plate with a flawless show.

He has fantastic stagecraft, a genuinely interesting performing persona, and some illusions that made my heart skip a beat on more than one occasion. In a way, Angel is not bringing anything particularly new or avant-garde to the table - the actual magical techniques he uses have been around in one form or another for a while. But the story, as always, is in the telling. And by taking something old and coupling it to the theater of Vegas, the street roots of David Blaine and the gothic underpinnings of Hard Rock, it's a completely fresh, believable approach to magic on TV.

TiVo must be a magician's nightmare, so full marks to the team here for creating a show that you will want to record so you can replay the “money shots” again and again. Don't be put off by the fact that this is buried on A&E - this is GREAT TV. Catch both episodes if you can, but especially the Levitation one. It may just blow your mind.

This comes with an 8 out of 10 on the Scaramouch scale - HIGHLY recommended. And you know, I have no idea how he did that thing with the pins and the Voodoo doll.