★★★★☆ (4/5) Loses one star because I now know my cat isn’t psychic; he just hears the treat bag from three rooms away.

Buy it if you want to be the smartest person in the room. Avoid it if you still want to believe in wonder. As for me? I’m off to make my coffee cup float. (Spoiler: It’s invisible thread. It’s always invisible thread.)

The Armchair Skeptic

The Ultimate Magic Video Collection is a paradox. It’s a masterclass in deception that feels painfully honest. For $59.99, you get roughly 12 hours of content that will make you the life of every party for exactly 20 minutes (until you forget the patter) and a suspicious, untrusting soul for the rest of your life.

Let’s be honest. We’ve all been burned by “magic” before. You buy a DVD set expecting David Copperfield making the Statue of Liberty disappear, and instead you get Uncle Jerry from accounting explaining, in agonizing detail, how to force a card using “The Hummer Shuffle” while his cat walks across the table.

First, the production value is absurdly high. We’re not talking about a guy in a sparkly blazer filmed in a hotel conference room. This collection spans six discs, covering everything from Victorian parlor tricks to modern street magic that will make you question the laws of physics.

The set also drags slightly in Disc 4, which is dedicated entirely to “Mentalism.” Watching ten different men in black turtlenecks guess your number is tedious if you’re not a hardcore enthusiast.

The Ultimate Magic Video Collection is not that. In fact, watching this set feels less like a tutorial and more like accidentally finding Houdini’s lost Netflix password.

You’ll Believe Your TV Is Haunted (In a Good Way)