In the Dark S1

Murphy can’t see – but she can drink. A lot. It’s a combination that makes the police regard her as a very unreliable witness. So when she stumbles over a corpse that she realises must belong to her friend, teenaged drug dealer Tyson, it’s left up to her to investigate.

Perry Matfield (Shameless) plays irreverent, rude Murphy, the blind protagonist, who goes full Sherlock Holmes in an effort to solve Tyson’s murder. Canadian (with South African roots) actor Thamela Mpumlwana plays Tyson, one of Murphy’s two sole friends. Most importantly, Levi the golden retriever plays Murphy’s guide dog, Pretzel.

Murphy is not going to let her blindness hold her back from investigating – except it does, in hilariously dark ways.

The show is irreverent in the right places while pushing boundaries of what’s socially acceptable in others. If you’re looking for something light-hearted, move along. This is dark and dank but well worth the laughs… even when it’s over things like blindness, murder and drugs.

“In the Dark isn’t subtle about wanting to be daring and defiant,” writes variety.com’s Caroline Framke. “It brands its heroine so aggressively as an anti-heroine that hardly a scene goes by without a reminder that Murphy is a surly alcoholic with a taste for one-night stands and crippling emotional immaturity. She is also blind, a fact that the show alternately treats with respect and as an extra winking twist on TV’s default sighted protagonists.”