Thursday 24 April 2014

Black box – manic highs and lows?... was just lows!



I had déjà vu in the first 30 seconds of this show…I saw it the first time it was on… when it was called “do No Harm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_No_Harm_(TV_series)) - which coincidentally was cancelled after airing only 2 episodes…after doing significant career harm to everyone on the cast.

Once again we see what we are supposed to believe is a brilliant doctor – in this case a neuroscientist – who is also bi-polar. So….well respected and smart, supportive aunt, involved in a healthy romantic relationship …but every now and then doesn’t take her meds and goes on crazy sex filled, hallucinogenic adventures?….hmmm…something about this is not adding up.  I’m no neuroscientist but I don’t think that this is a recipe to the successful life that they would like us to believe she has been living.

Kelly Reilly is a newcomer to the North American small screen and in the beginning her charismatic nuances and her fresh face made me more interested in watching the plot unfold.  Her opening scene with Vanessa Redgrave is quite compelling. Perhaps if Redgrave had been the main character I might have been more impressed with the remainder of the episode, because other than Redgrave, Black Box is severely lacking in likeable characters

In a nut shell – this show is overly busy, overacted, over explained and medical terms are delivered to the audience like directions to a 3 year old for potty training.  There was too much, too soon, and it was all too obvious. It was tiring as a viewer to watch case, after crazy case, unfold in the first 25 minutes.

After 30 minutes I wanted to turn this show off but I had to keep watching.  I wanted to be able to conclude at the half way mark that Black Box was the worst show ever I had ever seen.  Instead, I found myself watching until the very end and was not disappointed as I got to see it hit the epic low I knew it would.

Conclusion is, the creators were using old ideas and the writers should get new meds!

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