How COVID Brought The In The Dark Cast Even Closer Together
The CW series "In the Dark" may follow an often-underestimated blind woman who is actually a terrible person, but the cast is much friendlier in real life — partially for an unlikely reason.
Perry Mattfeld plays Murphy Mason, a manipulative, unethical, hard-drinking woman who happens to be blind. As Murphy investigates the death of her close friend, she gets caught up in a criminal world of drug dealing and corrupt cops, and she's constantly evading the law, led by do-gooder Gene Clemens (Matt Murray) and her obsessive, jilted ex, Josh Wallace (Theodore Bhat). Helping her are her guide dog, Pretzel; friends Jess (Brooke Markham) and Felix (Morgan Krantz); Felix's lawyer-sister, Leslie (Marianne Rendón); and her on-off love interest, Max (Casey Deidrick).
Though The CW network was never designed to make a profit, according to The Hollywood Reporter, it did so thanks to a $1 billion streaming arrangement with Netflix — at least until the deal ended in 2019, per Deadline. With the 2022 Warner Bros. Discovery merger, The CW owners Warner Bros. and CBS Studios chose to focus on their own streaming services rather than lose money to Netflix. As a result, more than half of The CW's series were canceled this year, including "Roswell, New Mexico," "Legends of Tomorrow," and yes, "In the Dark."
With its series finale on September 5, the small but mighty show came to an end after four seasons. At least the cast made lifelong friends while working on the series — relationships that were made stronger because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the actors themselves.
Casey Deidrick said the In the Dark cast is like family
Listen to any behind-the-scenes interviews with a series' cast, and you'll often hear how close they became working on it. That is certainly true of "In The Dark" — but not every cast can say they grew closer because of COVID-19. Casey Deidrick, who plays Max Parish, talked to Anthem about how working during the pandemic brought the already friendly cast closer together.
"We've become family, especially over the last two years because we couldn't hang out with other people outside of the show [due to Covid protocol]," said Deidrick, who is based in sunny Los Angeles but spent many months in frozen Toronto for the shoot. "We grew as friends because we were all going through the same thing and it was something that we could relate to with one another. The relationships and memories are always going to stay with me."
Despite the wonderful experience, Deidrick also looks forward to what's next for him. "That's where the bittersweet part comes in," he said about the end of the series. "I'm really sad not to be able to see everyone on a daily basis like I have, but I'm also excited for the next chapter."
At least he feels secure about the finale, as does series creator Corinne Kingsbury. "We wrote and shot two endings — one with a cliffhanger, and one that wraps up our series in a satisfying way," Kingsbury told Deadline. "I think fans will be happy with our ending," she added. "It feels pretty perfect to me."