David West developed ‘The Big Door Prize’ is an Apple TV+ surreal comedy series that tells the tale of the citizens of a tiny town called Deerfield where a mysterious gadget is discovered one day in a grocery store, read from the namesake novel by M.O. Walsh. It is known as the Morpho machine, and in exchange for two dollars, a social security number, and fingerprints, it can reveal a person’s life potential. Deerfield residents wonder if their lives are headed in the right direction as more and more individuals discover about their potential.
The Hubbard family continues to play a significant role in the story even though each episode focuses on a new character. Dusty (Chris O’Dowd) is a family man, a talented whistler, and a history teacher at the neighbourhood school. He is married to Cass (Gabrielle Dennis), who battles relentlessly under her mother’s emotional abuse. Trina (Djouliet Amara), the daughter of Cass and Dusty, struggles with guilt and sadness as a result of her boyfriend’s passing. The interactions between these three people and the other characters are also explored in “The Big Door Prize.” If you enjoyed the series when you watched it, here is a list of suggestions that might be to your liking. The majority of these programmes, including “The Big Door Prize,” are available on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime.
Atlanta (2016–2022)
Even though “Atlanta” is set in one of the country’s largest cities and has a far larger scope, it retains some of “The Big Door Prize’s” strange oddity. The series centres on Earn’s (Donald Glover) regular existence in the title city. Earn’s life had seemed promising, but after dropping out of Princeton, he is now faced with homelessness and destitution. He persuades his cousin, upcoming rapper Alfred “Paper Boi” Miles, to hire him as his manager in an effort to better his situation so that he may spend more time with his daughter.
Gravity Falls (2012–2016)
Twelve-year-old twins Dipper and Mabel Pines arrive in the titular town in Roadkill County, Oregon, to spend their summer break with their great uncle Stan Pines in “Gravity Falls,” the only animated series on this list (alternatively Grunkle Stan). The twins quickly learn that things in Gravity Falls are not always as they seem. Dipper and his sister set out to solve the myriad mysteries they discover throughout the town after discovering a mysterious journal in the forest. Family, science fiction, and surreal storytelling are some of the additional elements that can be found in “Gravity Falls” and “The Big Door Prize,” in addition to the shared small-town setting of both programmes.
Schitt’s Creek (2015–2020)
In addition to being another show set in a tiny community, “Schitt’s Creek” also included Read as an executive producer and writer. The humour of both shows is hence very similar. The wealthy Rose family, whose members lose everything after their business partner steals their fortune, is the focus of “Schitt’s Creek.” As a result, the family is compelled to relocate to the named town that the patriarch had bought as a prank for his son’s birthday.
Scrubs (2001–2010)
Scrubs appears to be a comedic medical drama. But, as anyone who has seen even one episode of the programme can attest, it is a profound examination of human existence using both slapstick and surrealistic humour. Zach Braff plays John Michael “J.D.” Dorian, a young physician with a vivid imagination, who is the film’s main character. He starts out the series working at Sacred Heart Hospital alongside a number of other interns, including Christopher Turk, his best buddy, and the surgical intern. Although J.D. and his friends, mentors, and coworkers cope with life and death on a daily basis, much like some of the people in “The Big Door Prize,” their fight is frequently with internal anguish.
Stranger Things (2016–2024)
‘Stranger Things’ is set in Hawkins, Indiana, a typical American small town like Deerfield, and is a love letter to the pop culture of the 1980s. The story centres on a group of friends whose lives are permanently altered when they meet a girl named Eleven. Eleven is actually the result of a covert government experiment, and as extraterrestrial monsters approach, she is humanity’s only hope.
The Leftovers (2014–2017)
The Leftovers, based on Tom Perrotta’s 2011 novel of the same name, examines what happens after a catastrophic catastrophe causes 140 million people to mysteriously vanish. New faiths were conceptualised in the years that followed, while the old ones saw a sharp fall. The first season takes place in a fictionalised version of Mapleton, New York, in a small village resembling Deerfield. The story mostly centres on Kevin Garvey, the town’s police chief, and his family. Kevin and his wife Laurie follow the Guilty Remnant religion, whose founder considers himself to be the Second Coming of Christ.
The Twilight Zone (1959-1964)
The Big Door Prize’s singular narrative cleverly makes it look like an episode of the venerable television programme “The Twilight Zone,” which ran from the late 1950s through the early 1960s. The CBS television show created a lasting legacy over its six-season existence. Rod Serling, who also acts as the show’s host and primary presenter, developed it. Every episode features both newbies and seasoned pros from the industry and deals with a different tale. In the years that followed, “The Twilight Zone” earned a reputation as one of the best science fiction shows ever produced in terms of creativity.
This Is Jinsy (2010-)
The world of “This is Jimsy,” created by Justin Chubb and Chris Bran, is deliciously strange and surreal. This Sky Atlantic series is also set in a tiny town like “The Big Door Prize.” Whilst the Arbiter Maven and his assistant Sporall, the two figures in charge of the town, continue to be at the core of the story, the narrative centres on a variety of unusual inhabitants of the made-up island of Jinsy. Jimsy was modelled after the series’ writers’ native Guernsey, an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.
