A strange machine delivers a card revealing the “life potential” of those who enter it and sows discord in an American town. A comedy of astonishing depth.
Chris O’Dowd as a history teacher in the midst of an existential crisis. Apple TV+
Published on March 29, 2023 at 4:00 p.m.
Dn the supermarket of an American town, a strange machine appears mysteriously, Morpho, a sort of photo booth which delivers to those who sit there a card announcing their “life potential”. All the inhabitants rush there and come out convinced (or not) to drop everything to become a potter, dancer or mathematician, or perplexed by more enigmatic cards like “father”, “royalty”, “superstar” or “hero”. The balance of everyone, of families, of couples, of the whole town is called into question, half of the inhabitants feeling reborn, the other hesitant, unable to decide whether to take seriously the word of the mechanical oracle.
The Big Door Prizeadaptation by Canadian David West Read (Schitt’s Creek) from a novel by MO Walsh, is an irresistible philosophical tale that opens like a comedy before revealing its depth. Each episode exposes the “potential” of an inhabitant. The first of them, Dusty Hubbard (Chris O’Dowd), is an a priori very happy history teacher, who does not believe in the predictions of the absurd machine. But from the second episode, a multitude of metaphysical questions assail him in the face of the reactions of his neighbors – should I give up everything I have built because I have not lived up to my potential? Is what I can be better than what I have become?
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