Review: In the Dark, “Pilot”

The CW’s new drama, In the Dark, aired its first episode last night, simply entitled “Pilot.” The show centers around Murphy (Perry Mattfeld, Shameless), a self-deprecating, twenty-something woman who just so happens to be blind.

The episode opens with Murphy having a one-night stand, with her guide dog, Pretzel, in the room watching. She unceremoniously tells the guy she was with to leave after they’re finished, and then heads to the drugstore to buy cigarettes and emergency contraceptives.

After Murphy cuts the line, mumbling apologies to the waiting patrons about having not seen them due to her blindness, she feigns surprise as Maria, the cashier, points out her transgression. The purchasing of the cigarettes and emergency contraceptives are implied to be a routine of Murphy’s.

Murphy then finds her way outside to an alley where she meets up with her teenage, drug-dealing friend, Tyson, giving him a “stupid, candy thing” she bought at the store. They have a discussion where she wishes she “didn’t like sex so much,” but he assumes she finds it enjoyable because it’s “the only time she doesn’t have to feel blind.” Tyson then tries to coerce her into feeling his face, which she immediately declines because she finds that weird. She gives in after a moment, however, the duo smiling as she moves her hands over his head.

The following day, it is revealed that Murphy and her roommate, Jess (Brooke Markham, Foursome) both work at Murphy’s parents’ guide dog school, Chicago Guiding Hope. Jess is a veterinarian, and it is unclear what Murphy does to contribute other than “taking naps and eating candy bars all day,” according to coworker Felix (Morgan Kantz, Switched at Birth). It is revealed that another coworker, Jake, is leaving his job as the company’s receptionist; we are then briefly introduced to Kim (Marilee Talkington, New Amsterdam; See) another employee. Murphy’s parents, Hank (Derek Webster) and Joy (Kathleen York), meanwhile, argue over how to replace Jake: Hank believes Murphy can fill the position, while Joy thinks otherwise.

Later that night, Murphy is reluctantly walking Pretzel when she stumbles across a dead body in the alley where she usually meets Tyson. After feeling the person’s face, she comes to the conclusion that it is her friend, which she wouldn’t have known had she not felt his face the night before. Back at her apartment, she attempts to convince the detectives of what she found, however they are radioed by the police who claim to have not found a body. One of the detectives, Dean (Rich Sommer), is sympathetic toward Murphy as he has a daughter who is blind.

The following day, Murphy is seen at Chicago Guiding Hope, having decided not to participate in the celebration for Jake, and is approached by a couple wanting to make a $10,000 donation. We then cut to later that night, where Murphy is reluctantly about to sleep with the husband while his wife is away. Their affair is cut short when the wife comes home and finds Murphy hiding under a glass table; she is then thrown out without her cane, and wanders outside where she manages to use a hotdog vendor’s phone to call Felix, interrupting his date. There is a brief scene of the trio in the car, where Felix’s date is astounded by Murphy, asking why she “doesn’t look blind,” to which Murphy fires back a snarky comment about how it’s probably the same reason why the girlfriend “doesn’t look stupid.” After franticly retrieving her backup cane from her apartment, Murphy returns to the alley and runs into Tyson’s cousin, Darnell (Keston John), who tries to tell her that Tyson ran off with a girl, and is appalled at her going to the police instead of coming to him first.

We find out the following day that the $10,000 check had a stop payment put on it; Murphy explains the almost-affair to her parents, where her mother expresses deep disappointment. We learn later that Murphy was adopted by Hank and Joy after spending years in foster care, and that Joy still attends a support group for parents of children with disabilities. After Joy comes home from her meeting and finds Murphy asleep in their couch, she offers to let her stay the night but bristles at the idea of Murphy calling herself an Uber to get back to her apartment.

Cut to a poignant scene where Murphy and Joy are speaking over each other quite loudly, with Pretzel barking intermittently, as the women argue about Murphy’s independence and her desire to break free of her mother’s control. Joy seems to push the assumption that Murphy needs her, much to her daughter’s disagreement.

The following day at the guide dog school, we are introduced to Dean’s daughter Chloe, who lost her vision a few years prior in a car accident. Dean is trying to push his daughter to get a guide dog for the companionship; there is a dialogue between Chloe and Murphy while they are the only two in the room, as they voice their displeasure of the common misconceptions/forgetfulness they face by their sighted peers (Felix told Chloe a chair was “over there,” as opposed to giving more specific instructions). It seems the two have bonded, but not before Dean stumbles over asking Murphy how she lost her vision (it was due to Retinitis Pigmentosa, where one loses their vision gradually; she became completely blind at the age of fourteen). Murphy then tells Dean to start treating Chloe like a normal kid as opposed to sheltering her, which is something she wished she had experienced with her parents.

After pulling the blind card and bribing a teenage electronics store employee, Murphy and Jess are able to track Tyson’s phone to an underpass. Murphy then reveals what she found to Darnell, who tells her he’ll take care of it, warning her not to go to the police. She disobeys, giving the phone to Dean, who is impressed and says they’ll do what they can on their end. The episode closes on Jess, Murphy, and Pretzel, in the alleyway where Murphy and Tyson usually meet, with the viewer getting the sense that someone is watching them.

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Trivia and Observations

• Chicago Guiding Hope, the guide dog school owned by Murphy’s parents, was originally supposed to be called “Breaking Blind”
• When Murphy and Joy are arguing in the car, Pretzel can be seen sitting up on the back seat; this is not standard practice for guide dogs, as they are almost always trained to sit on the floor in the front, at their owner’s feet
• The screen reading software on Murphy’s phone and computer are incredibly slow compared to the average person her age who is blind; this decision may have been made so the sighted audience could better understand what she was doing; though a very minor detail, it almost seems slightly less believable to the average viewer who is blind/has low vision
• Murphy detests Pretzel and refuses to work him for most of the episode, instead relying on Jess to walk and take care of him; Jess’s girlfriend suggests Murphy step up as it is her dog, to which she does, albeit begrudgingly
• The only times Murphy appeared to use her disability as a crutch was to get what she wanted (cutting the line at the drugstore, and going ham on the blind card with the cell phone employee); other than that, she tends to make snide comments and jokes filled with snark about her blindness
• The female detective’s assumption of Murphy’s other senses being heightened due to her lack of sight is an unfortunate misconception made by the able-bodied world, and I enjoyed Murphy telling her that she wasn’t Daredevil, dismissing the assumption as the myth that it is

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Final Thoughts

In the Dark has so far received positive feedback for its premiere episode. However, as a person with a visual impairment, there are a few minor details that were clearly thrown in for humor, such as Murphy feeding her dog some pepperoni from her pizza and something from her drugstore bag. Though the writers at The CW did a fairly good job of accurately portraying a blind woman in their new show, there are some details that could possibly be improved upon, such as Murphy’s utilization of technology and her guide dog. However, I do appreciate that Murphy’s vision loss isn’t a defining quality of her character—she’s a flawed, self-destructive woman who just so happens to be blind. It takes some time, but it appears that Murphy is eventually starting to come to terms with how she treats herself and those around her.

While I didn’t find the writing truly captivating, some of the plot points presented in this (the sighted world’s perception of people who are blind; resentment of one’s parents for not being allowed the independence they deserve) were actually relatable. Though I can’t identify with someone who lost their sight earlier in life, I found the resentful, depressed state emanating from Mattfeld’s portrayal of Murphy to be both poignant and believable.

Overall, I’d give the episode somewhere around a C. It is definitely a drama series as the majority of the pilot wasn’t written to be funny in a slapstick way, the network going the route of portraying something real and raw compared to its other programming. Despite a protest on Twitter with the hashtag #LetUsPlayUs, where a portion of the blindness community is attempting to get the show off the air as Mattfeld is a sighted actress playing a blind character, I found her portrayal to be the least offensive compared to other things out there. I do recommend that people at least give In the Dark a try to better form their own opinions.