What if a tiger came to tea? What if you won a ticket to a magical chocolate factory? What if an owl was afraid of the dark? What if a machine suddenly appeared in the grocery store of a small unassuming town overnight that was able, for $2 and your social security number and fingerprints, to tell you your true life potential?
As irresistible premises go, that of The Big Door Prize is a great one. Adapted from MO Walsh’s 2020 novel, the 10-part series uses the (largely unexplained) existence of the machine to explore that ever-fascinating question of whether there is such a thing as too much knowledge, and how much truth humanity can bear. Is the machine a liberation or an electronic Pandora’s box?
