I guess there’s nothing like tuning into the first season of a show only to learn a second season is currently underway. The Big Door Prize offered some interesting surprises for me, so I’m looking forward to the second season, even though it’s strange as hell that I never saw it advertised anywhere.
Admittedly, I knew very little about this comedy-drama and a bit science fiction-y show, so I was kind of going in blind. I did know that I liked Chris O’Dowd, and I was even more tickled to see Josh Segarra and Mary Holland show up as regulars! In this show, we open up to the mundanity of a small town in Iowa where everybody knows everybody and they all just seem to be going through the motions. That is, until some weird and shiny new machine plops itself in the middle of their convenience store. It’s labeled the Morpho and promises that it can tell you your life’s potential.
Naturally, everyone is a little curious, and even those who actively avoided it still managed to give it their social security number and handprints eventually. I’d love to know how soon this series got picked up and if they already had plans for more. The concept here seems like a gamble, especially since each episode is dedicated to a main character. And we’ve worked through everyone by the end! Even still, I hope the second season ends with a more definitive ending, because the cliffhanger at the end made me happy I knew there was more.
Dusty and his family are the main draw of the show, and though he’s firmly against the machine at first, he eventually relents and is both mad and relieved when his card reveals that he’s already achieved his life’s purpose. Maybe also a little sad about it as time goes on, but near the end of the series he starts to think there’s more to it than he initially thought. Others, like his wife Cass, have to learn what to do with ambiguously lofty purposes. Either way, the appearance and use of the machine causes almost immediate mass changes across the whole town. I would argue that the phrase “not everything that glitters is gold” fits well here, and you get a peek at just how everything turns out.
The vibe of this show was a strange one that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I think it was a shade away from really turning me off of it, but thankfully it’s a pleasing cast doing their best to sell the humor. As I said, I’ll be really interested to see what the second season brings. Stay tuned!