re: Black Box. I've seen Kelly Reilly in other shows/films. She is in a movie called Shell Shock (Triage in Europe). She plays the pregnant wife of a war journalist. She shows utter fury when she learns of his fate. She doesn't have that baby doll, wimpy annoying voice that she has in Black Box. So I guess that is the way she was directed in Black Box? The script? My husband is an actor (with 2 "day jobs") & he's had directors who said things like "give me a little Betty Boop voice" But it's still really annoying. She dips her head down like she's 4 years old, covers up her hands with her sleeves. Etc
One of my pet peeves is for people who have manic-depression/bipolar disorder to be called Bipolar. As in "She is bipolar." You don't say of a person with cancer "She is Cancer." So it would be great if that could change. Have the characters on Black Box say "She has bipolar disorder."
And although many people who have this disorder (& others, like seizures) can be extremely creative, we can also fail to finish college degrees, quit jobs one after another, mess up relationships. In other words, we are not all genius neuroscientists or artists or musicians.
I personally did dance a Lot before I got onto meds. (even now, to get out of depressions, I put on dance music & that helps)
I often worked 12-20 hours days (at a Police Dept/Detective Unit) & I'd go out dancing for 3 hours with friends 3 nights a week (or 5 nights a week). Dance to exhaust myself so I could get a few hours' sleep. Or just go without sleep for weeks, months. I got high evaluation markings in my jobs until I was 45 & totally fell apart (I wasn't diagnosed until I was 45).
I was extremely attractive (b4 the meds made me gain tons of weight) But I didn't realize it! My husband tells me that if I walked into a room, everyone stopped talking & stared at me. I wondered why so many men (& women) were always trying to get me to date them, giving me gifts etc. I sometimes think that when we are in manias, we are more attractive. But I never lost control & had sex with random strangers. I Did fall in love obsessively. Thought I would Die if this or that guy didn't love me back. Luckily, I ended up with a great husband & we've been together for 28 years. But we have had some super rough spots.
I was never hospitalized. I could Always talk to therapists & convince them "Oh, I don't need meds, I am OK without being hospitalized." But I should have been, definitely, hospitalized 3 or 4 times in my life.
Black Box annoys me so much because the actress playing the neuroscientist flips out, has 3 days of going totally "nuts" and then properly diagnoses someone with a complex brain condition, treats it & they walk away cured. If your brain is so messed up that you drive down a highway with your head hanging out of the car window, then pull over, roll around in the mud & run through the woods with your shirt off----there is NO way you can go back to your job a few days later & heal someone of X weird brain disorder.
I know there are super high functioning people who have bipolar disorder. But for the most part, we struggle. A lot!
I really wanted to like Black Box. There need to be more shows that realistically protray people who have bipolar, schizophrenia & other disorders. But Black Box isn't doing that.
I don't have cable so I haven't seen Homeland.