The Big Door Prize

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Voyage. Welcome to watch this tonight. I'm your host, An Bettimore.

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I'm a produced writer of film and
television and now a podcast producer. And

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despite having every streaming service, I
never know what to watch. So anytime

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I watch something good, I talk
about it on the show. This way,

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you'll never have the same problem I
do. I watch this tonight,

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there's always something good to watch.
Let's get started. Today on the show,

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we're talking about the Big Door Prize
on Apple Plus. There's a great

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bit on Family Guy where Peter Griffin
has offered the choice between a mystery box

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and a boat, and he says
there could be anything on that mystery box,

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maybe even a boat. That's essentially
what the Big Door Prize is about.

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It stars Chris O'Dowd, who is
really one of the most underrated actors

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around. He did a get shorty
series that he started that very few people

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saw. It was on Epics.
It was excellent. He was really good

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in it. He's just a really
quality leading man. You can kind of

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plug him in anywhere. You can
do comedy, you can do drama.

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He's really an excellent actor. So
you meet him, he's got a really

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nice life. He's got a good
relationship with his daughter. He's got a

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good relationship with his wife. His
wife is beautiful. Everyone that is around

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him is like, you're lucky you
got with this woman. He goes out

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to dinner with his wife to a
restaurant and he's talking to the owner of

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the restaurant and somehow comes up in
conversation and he says, I think I

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have everything I ever wanted, And
the owner of the restaurant says, maybe

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you didn't want enough. And you
can see it really like shakes Chris adown

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And the high concept mature of this
premise is that there's this box that showed

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up in the town and it can
tell you your life's potential. So even

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though Chris's life is great, literally
he's in bed with his wife, they've

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just had sex. She wants to
have sex again, and all he can

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think about is this Bob and maybe
there's something more than this. Right,

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he can't appreciate the life that he
has. This is a very human thing.

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We get something and we just want
more and more, and it's very

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hard for us to appreciate what we
have and be content. What's great about

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so Dowd in this role is that
he's you know, he's immediately likable.

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He just is it. It's an
underrated skills and actor. You're instantly rooting

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for him, you're instantly relating to
him. I want to share one example

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that jumped out of me. He's
talking to his wife about how their daughter

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has not been sharing everything with them
like she used to, and his wife

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says, what's wrong with that?
Maybe some people will want something that's just

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for them, and he replies,
that's a weird and upsetting thing to say,

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are you okay? And the way
he delivers that line, it was

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funny, but I also felt bad
for him. I also felt that he

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cared sincerely about her, and he
played all three of those notes simultaneously,

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and again, it hits that theme, right. He asked his wife are

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you unhappy in this life? In
that same conversation, and she doesn't answer

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him, she changes the subject.
There's also a great running gag. We

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start on Chris O'Dowd's birthday and he's
doing a scooter ride to work and I

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think he's like listening to music as
he's doing the ride, and it's almost

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like he's in his own music video. He's dancing, he's having a great

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time, and then every day after
that it's a little sadder and sadder and

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sadder because it's not a special day. And it's kind of like, how

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do we hope with life? Because
in life, most days are not in

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a special day. He asks his
students, he's a history teacher, write

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down what you are and write down
what you are going to be, And

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then one of them asks him the
same question. He can't answer it.

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He talks to a priest and he
says, I thought I already made my

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big life change. I thought this
was it. You know, he's forty

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years old. He doesn't know what's
next. He doesn't know what his life's

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about. And they make a point
to tell you that even though his wife,

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like everyone seems to be enamored with
her in the town, it's the

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only relationship that he's ever been in, so he can't fully appreciate her.

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So at the end of the pilot
he does it. He goes to this

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mystery box to find out his life's
potential, which is not a spoil They

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show that that he's going to do
that at the very beginning of the pilot

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episode. A stupid thing. They
probably only bothered me though, so it's

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a machine. You go inside the
machine and then it asks you your social

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security number. But in context of
the show, they clearly indicate that this

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thing just appeared. No one knows
where it came from the store. It

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appeared in the store owner. It's
like, I don't know where it just

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happened one day, was just there. If that happened, no one's putting

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their shoal security number in that thing. I wouldn't put my security number that

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thing. So yeah, I just
thought that was one thing, that stupid

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thing. They probably only brother me. What's great about the show is that

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when you hear about it, you
think it's going to be this sort of

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gimmicky, silly thing, but they
really ground it and it actually is very

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substantive. I think it's it's it's
almost like an existential philosophical show. It's

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not you kind of think, is
it going to be like silly and stupid

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or is it not going to have
any sort of weight to it, And

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it's almost the opposite. Really,
it's actually surprisingly sort of like insightful.

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It makes you think about your own
life. And what I think is great

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about the premise is it's a placebo
effect. Premise. A placebo effect is

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basically if they give you a sugar
pill and they give somebody else an actual

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pill that does something, and then
compare the results. Sometimes people who take

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the sugar pill will have a medical
result, which is the placebo effect.

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So if you give somebody a card
and you tell them, hey, what

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it says in this card is your
life's potential? You can just make it

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up. I mean this is basically
how fortune cookies work too, right,

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just randomly assign it and a lot
of people will be like, oh,

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maybe that is my life's purpose.
It's like a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

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where the secret to life is like
the number forty two. You know,

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there's kind of no grant answer,
you know, it's that's It's just a

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really interesting premise. Now, my
question was how do you get a TV

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show that premise as opposed to a
feature? And they do have an answer,

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which I'll get to at the end
with the spoilers. But I really

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like the tone I feel like with
this and Shrinking Apple has done a really

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good job and double down on these
shows. It just makes you feel good

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to watch. They're very pleasant,
they're very approachable, you can put them

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on no matter what mood you're in. Both Shrinking and this show are going

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to be shows that if I'm just
sitting around, I can kind of throw

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them on. They're not too explicit
or violent or anything like. It wouldn't

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be the end of the world if
my kids were around. They're not,

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you know, super edgy, where
I kind of got to be in the

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right mood to take them in.
I think it's a very smart programming choice.

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Now, there's only one thing in
this whole pilot that is a spoiler,

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which is what does it say on
Chris O'Dowd's card when he finally does

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use the box. So if you
don't want to know that, this is

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your spoiler warning. But before I
spoil it, I want to say that

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I was surprised how much I liked
this show. You know, I think

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it's actually especially if you're someone who
is thirty five or older, I think

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you will find a lot to relate
to in this show. I definitely did

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all right spoilers. So, Chris
O'Dowd's card says teacher slash whistler, which

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is what he already is. I
left out loud, especially his face.

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You could see his face like like
go sort of slack as he sees what

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it says. It's like he's already
fulfilled his life's potential. It's a very

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clever, funny ending, and it
brings the story full circle in such a

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way that it almost could have been
a great short film. So again,

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how do you make it into a
series? Well, we see it at

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the end. His wife has a
card at the end of the pilot,

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and we don't know what our card
says, but it likely explains why she

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was acting so weird earlier. So
ultimately, I think the show's going to

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be about all the different people in
this small town and how finding out with

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their potential is supposed to be changes
who they are, but specifically changes their

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relationships with each other. There's something
called Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and this

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show is playing on that, right, the idea that is that as human

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beings, we need like food,
shelter, and you know, stability and

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things of that nature. But once
you get to the top of that and

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you've satisfied all your basic needs for
survival, the top thing is to self

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actualize, and that's what the show
is exploring. Like you're kind of like

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if you're if you're sort of doing
okay, you're not like in danger.

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You have shelter and food and a
job, but now you want to self

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actualize. You know, how does
that drive your behavior if somebody says this

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is how you can do it?
So again, Apple Plus man, feel

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free to sponsor the show at any
time. I'm really not making this like,

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honestly, like I'm trying to think, hasn't been in any shows that

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I didn't like. I haven't seen
extrapolations which I have heard mixed things about,

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so I guess that's the only one. But yeah, I mean,

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in general, I've been so impressed
with Apple plus is programming. I think

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that they really have a ton of
good stuff. And honestly, like I

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wouldn't I wouldn't do the episode.
I promise you Apple is not paying me

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to say this. I would not
do the episode unless I really felt this

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way. So yeah, I was
very pleasantly surprised by this show. That

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is the podcast for today. As
always, if you're enjoying the show,

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please do leave me if I start
review an Apple podcasts, I get you

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know, producers of the Big Door
Prize should do that. That's the best

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way to help the show. It
sort of drives other people towards the show

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it's doing. That is a way
to make sure the show keeps going.

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So if if you haven't done that
yet, going out a podcasts take thirty

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seconds to do it. It's the
biggest way you could support the podcast.

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That's the show for today. As
always, thank you for listening. Until

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next time, Bye bye.