Black Box - Pilot Episode 1.01 - "Kiss the Sky" Review - Kiss it Goodbye

I had high hopes for ABC’s new midseason drama “Black Box.” It deals with a fascinating topic, it contains an original premise and it stars a female lead, all things that if done well can make for a standout series. But the actual show did not deliver. The characters were underdeveloped, some of the acting was erratic and the pace felt extremely frenetic. Scenes moved from one situation to another to another in a rushed mode, without devoting the time necessary to develop any important moment. Because of that, you couldn’t invest fully in the characters or plot.

Kelly Reilly stars as Dr. Catherine Black, an acclaimed neurologist in New York City who suffers from bipolar disorder. She doesn’t tell anyone at work that she has the disease, despite the fact that she sometimes willfully refuses to take her medication. When she is not on her medicine, she has extreme high manic episodes where she feels on top of the world. In fact, we see her in one scene standing on top of the balcony overlooking the city in a hyper visual overload of colors and light, almost as if it’s a painting. The visual imagery was a nice intention to show us a different world that Catherine sees in this state. But it didn’t add the right notes to the overall feeling and tone of the show. When it starts raining and Catherine falls backward onto the patio, it ends up looking fake. These scenes, like many others in the show, end up feeling melodramatic.

I was very eager to see how Kelly Reilly would do in this role. This year I saw her at the Sundance Film Festival costarring in my favorite film of the Festival, “Calvary.” Reilly stars as a priest’s troubled daughter who must learn to forgive. She was quiet and subdued, but effective. And this is mainly how I’ve seen her on screen. She often plays a sweet, quiet woman, like in “Sherlock Holmes,” where she portrays Mary, Watson’s girlfriend and later wife. Reilly is a good actress who perhaps hasn’t had a full chance to shine just yet. So I was eager to see her in this all-encompassing role where she had to command the screen, playing someone larger-than-life when she is in her manic state. Dr. Black morphs from a “normal,” intelligent doctor to a hyper sexualized woman who dances provocatively in the stairwell and wants to feel everything around her. In these scenes, I felt a slight awkwardness on Reilly’s part. It was as if she was going full steam ahead but wasn’t quite sure if she could pull it off. But in all her other scenes, I thought her acting was one of the highlights of the show. Unfortunately though, often she was acting opposite someone who left a lot to be desired. And at other times the writing was simply too bad to let her shine.

My least favorite character in the show was Reagan Black (Laura Fraser), Catherine’s sister-in-law. She had no redeeming qualities whatsoever; Fraser was the weakest link in the cast. Her scenes made me cringe. I was also disappointed with the character of Will Van Renseller (David Ajala), Catherine’s boyfriend.

He had the potential to be charming and sweet and make you feel bad that Catherine was not ready to commit to him. But instead he was bland and boring and prompted no feelings at all. I especially hated the scene where Catherine finally tells Will in the car that she is bipolar. The scene should have been a dramatic climax in the episode. But instead it was dry and dull. There was no music buildup (which would have helped) and no emotional buildup on Catherine’s part. She goes from telling her brother that after an entire year of dating, she hasn’t told Will the truth yet to suddenly just telling him in the car, spitting it out like it’s nothing. The scene was cheesy (mostly on Ajala’s part) as Will gets upset that Catherine has lied to him and tells her to get out. Ajala’s portrayal couldn’t capture the significance of the scene.

By the end of the show after Catherine has gone off the rails and come to Will dressed like a dominatrix and scratched him, and then he meets her to tell her he liked it and wants to do it again, I had to roll my eyes. Seriously? It was so stereotypical I just couldn’t take the writing seriously. Will was originally the sweet, kind boyfriend who wanted to do right by Catherine. But now he likes her kinky side, too. Oh, brother. (More eye-rolling.)

The other male lead character was also underdeveloped. Dr. Ian Bickman (Ditch Davey) is the womanizing neurosurgeon who is supposed to make up Catherine’s nice little love triangle. But he also held no captivation. In fact, I hardly got to know anything about him except that he was a good neurosurgeon and a playboy. He wasn’t charming enough to add any intrigue and his character hardly had anything to say. I had no reason to care whether Catherine was attracted to him or not. He gave me no reason to watch.

As for the other characters, I didn’t mind the brother or the niece/daughter. They were the only characters who felt true and likeable. And I did like Vanessa Redgrave in the role of Catherine’s therapist, Helen Hartramph.

Redgrave did a fine job in the role, but the coldness of the office and the sterility of the role again didn’t offer much to be excited about. I also did not like how the therapist scenes were interwoven around the past and the further-in-the-past flashbacks. It pulled you in too many directions for a pilot episode, trying to both show and accomplish too much. The end result was you didn’t develop any real connections to the show or characters.

The plot itself and its themes also tried to achieve too much, or perhaps tried to achieve its goal too loudly. I felt the theme of normalcy was driven home too many times, hitting you over the head with the intentions and aspirations of the series. Note to writers: Yes, we get it – you want to question what it means to feel and be normal. We understand. You said it enough. The theme could actually have been interesting if it had been a little more subtle. But instead it was shouted at every chance. The very first scene showed Hartramph asking Catherine, “How do you define normal, Catherine?” The therapist then proceeds to tell her that normalizing allows her to live long enough to do her best work. The theme of mediocrity also rises as Catherine questions whether being medicated forces her into a life of mediocrity. But her therapist emphasizes that it is no better to be exceptional if she is dead. Later Catherine bristles at the sight of a suburban house that conjures images of a white picket fence. (The implication? “This is too normal for me.”) Then Catherine medicates a female patient who sees hallucinations of a dwarf but then realizes that “normalizing” the patient leaves her too lonely and hurt. She also tells Will he is a kind, intelligent, “normal” guy who shouldn’t have to deal with the mess she brings to the relationship. Again, I think the themes of normalcy and mediocrity are interesting ones to explore – but not in such an obvious and repetitive way.

The other theme of Catherine discovering how much her disease is wrapped up in her identity worked better, simply because it wasn’t pounded into us. Earlier she tells her boyfriend the disorder is part of her identity and personality and that it is hard-wired into her brain. But later her therapist tells her the best part of her is who she is and the rest is a disease.

With the plot, we were led to believe that because of Catherine’s own mental history, she could understand her patients better. In fact, these parts of the plot could have been a powerful and effective tool. But the patient cases were too jumbled into the rest of the quick-paced mess, leaving them glossed over and uninteresting. Catherine had so much going on in her life that I didn’t really feel how much she cared for these patients and wanted to help them. I was told it, but I didn’t truly feel it. Her connection to them seemed hollow.

More time in the episode needed to be spent on developing the cases and investing the viewer into what was happening with them, similar to Grey’s Anatomy where what the doctors are going through and learning is wrapped up in their patients. If that connection doesn’t happen and the cases are glossed over, they seem irrelevant and you lose interest in the main character because her empathy and purpose becomes ineffective.

Overall, I think the pilot unfortunately was enough of a disaster that it will not build the viewership ABC had hoped. I can’t imagine this series will go past the 13 episodes that have already been ordered. And it’s a shame because it had so much potential.


What did you think of "Black Box?" What were the best and worst parts of the show? Will you continue watching? Let us know in the comments below.

About the Author - Tonya Papanikolas

Tonya Papanikolas is a freelance journalist who loves covering entertainment and television. She spent more than 10 years as a broadcast news anchor and reporter. Now she does everything from hosting to writing. She especially loves writing TV articles and reviews for SpoilerTV.