Why there should be a Nerve TV show

This is a bit unorthodox but here me out.

I was recently listening to the excellent ‘The Sun’s Gone Dim and The Sky’s Turned Black’ from Jóhann Jóhannsson and it took my back to last summer’s underrated Nerve. I won’t be surprised if you don’t remember it, it was forgotten amongst the blockbusters of the season and didn’t do massively well with the critics.

Yet, I really enjoyed it. I loved its blend of neon-drenched techno Black Mirror-style Sci-Fi and Indie High School drama. It had a great style to it and a nice central conceit that established it as a prescient and important movie. Plus It also had a great selection of music which only served to make me all the more attracted to it.

However, I was disappointed with the ending. What could have been a ballsy ending, featuring the death of the main character and a montage (set to the aforementioned song) of online perpetrators walking away from their computers and their guilt, was undercut by the final five minutes.

Instead, Emma Robert’s Vee survived and the film ended happily ever after. Ever since I’ve wondered what if? What if the film had had the guts to end it with the shock death and the potent socio-political message?

As much as I wanted it, it never materialised and the film is likely to disappear and be forgotten. Yet, listening to that song again, I realise that the best platform for this I may never get braver ending could be on the small screen.

Imagine for a second, a mini-series, just six or seven episodes set over one night. Where our heroes, not played by Roberts or Dave Franco, start out by playing dares for fun but slowly get drawn into something darker.

You could keep almost all of the great stuff about the film, from its visual flair, energetic songs and Sci-Fi concept to the slow downfall of Vee’s best friend Sydney. There’ll also be more time for side characters, particularly Kimiko Glenn’s Liv and Samira Riley’s hacker.

You build the story up better, building tension and greater serving the stories real villains, the anonymous online viewers. From there you develop it as a proper cautionary tale instead of a romance/adventure drama and give it the ending it deserves.

The finale will echo the film, except when Vee gets shot at the hands of the baying online mob, it’s real and she dies. The song ‘The Sun’s Gone Dim and The Sky’s Turned Black’ plays as the viewers all get a message saying they are an accessory to murder and they walk away from their screens.

Its concept wouldn’t last much longer than that unless season two expanded to other countries, yet as a small event series based off of a lesser seen movie, it could really work

Nerve was a great film, hindered by an ending that didn’t have the guts to be something special and by transplanting it, mostly piece by piece, I believe it could become something brave and truly invigorating. I still really enjoyed it but it could be so much more.