There's something weirdly refreshing about the premise of The CW's new series “In the Dark.” It's about a young, blind woman, but it avoids all the blind-person cliches.
Murphy (Perry Mattfield) is obnoxious. She's combative. She smokes. She drinks. She's rude.
“You're not even nice to your own dog,” she's told by a drug dealer in the premiere.
The series opens with Murphy kicking a guy out of bed after they've just had sex. And she resents paying for condoms.
“I wish I didn't like sex so much, because it's a very expensive habit,” she says.
It’s not that there aren’t people like this in the real world. But generally, characters like this aren’t at the center of a network television show.
And, generally, blind TV characters don't act like this. They're usually noble, helpless and/or inspirational. Murphy definitely is not.
Oh, she’s not irredeemable. “In the Dark” revolves around Murphy’s search for a murderer. She stumbles upon the body of Tyson (Thamela Mpumlwana), a teenager who once rescued her from a violent mugger — but by the time police arrive at the scene, the body is gone and nobody believes Murphy’s story.
The inspiration for this drama came when Lori Bernson — a blind inspirational speaker — appeared at a CW staff retreat. Nicholas Weinstock, who partners with Ben Still in Red Hour Productions, contacted writer/producer (and now show-runner) Corinne Kingsbury, “and all I said to her was, ‘Do you think it’s possible to do the most unconventional blind character anyone’s seen, whom you don’t feel sorry for and you don’t pity?’”
Who “you don’t really like so much,” Mattfield added.
Well, it's clearly possible. “In the Dark” premieres Thursday at 8 p.m. on The CW/Channel 30.
(Photo courtesy Marc Hom/The CW) Perry Mattfeld as Murphy and Levi as Pretzel in “In the Dark.”
The bigger question is whether you can produce a TV series that centers on a thoroughly unlikable blind woman. And, judging by the first three episodes of “In the Dark,” the answer is a resounding — no. Murphy is more of a damaged sweetheart.
She has a heart of gold. Her bad behavior is the result of her not-so-deeply-buried anger about her blindness.
“I don't care about myself, like, at all,” she says. “I think that's pretty obvious.”
Bernson is on board as a consultant; she helps Mattfield, who isn’t blind, portray a character who lost her sight when she was 14. According to Weinstock, the producers auditioned many blind actors but cast Mattfield “because she was the best actor for the role.”
Calle Walton, who is blind, has a supporting role as the daughter of the good-guy police detective (Rich Sommer) who isn’t really investigating Tyson’s disappearance. And one of the writers, Ryan Knighton, also is blind.
The cast includes Derek Webster, Murphy’s supportive father; Kathleen York as her frustrated mother; Brooke Markham as her supportive roommate, a lesbian veterinarian; Casey Diedrick as a potential love interest; and Morgan Krantz as the administrator of the guide dog school her parents mistakenly believed would give her purpose.
By the way, Levi, who plays Murphy's guide dog, Pretzel, isn't a real guide dog. He's an actor.
Weinstock insisted that “In the Dark” is a “big-swing idea,” and that in his 15 years of developing TV shows, such ideas result in “either a good show or a really bad show.”
Three episodes in, “In the Dark” isn't a really bad show. It's also not really good, although it does get better as you watch more.
If only Kingsbury and her team would stop trying so hard to make Murphy seem like a bad girl by emphasizing her sexual behavior, which seems sort of regressive.
Follow @ScottDPierce
