I was curious about Peacock’s new series Mrs. Davis and since I have a year’s worth of the service at a highly discounted price (99 cents/month), I decided to give it a shot. I’ve watched all four of the episodes that are currently available, and as usual, I have thoughts. Spoilers below – read at your own risk.
Frankly, the show hasn’t made enough of an impression on me to say that I have strong feelings about it (either positive or negative). I think partly that’s because Mrs. Davis doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. Is it a satirical commentary on our far-too-plugged-into-our-phones culture? Or is it a pseudo-spiritual fantasy about good vs. evil? Or maybe it’s meant to be a quirky take on our search for meaning, in our lives or in life in general? Sometimes it feels like it wants to be the next The Good Place, only without all that pesky philosophy getting in the way (which is not what I think of The Good Place by the way – I love that show).
The first episode started off interestingly, if a bit violently and bloody. As an aside, I’m not sure all those beheadings and stabbings needed to be shown in quite that graphic and gruesome a manner, especially not in a show that feels like it hovers on the edge of wanting to be quirky and humorous in a Pushing Daisies-kind of way. But I digress. I liked the whole shtick with the nun arriving on horseback to unmask the magicians trying to fleece an unwitting dupe. And I really liked Sister Simone refusing to deal with the AI (the eponymous Mrs. Davis) and insisting on calling it “It.” In fact, they had me all the way up to the point where Sister Simone agreed to the AI’s demand that she go on a quest to find and destroy the Holy Grail, in exchange for which the AI would shut itself off.
Simone’s acceptance of the “quest” felt off and everything that has happened since then has had an air of the writers/show runners asking themselves what ridiculous thing can we throw at Simone next? So far, Mrs. Davis hasn’t taken itself too seriously, but then it also hasn’t taken itself seriously enough to be a gripping must-watch show.
It should be horrifying that it was seemingly so easy for an unknown AI — who programmed ‘Mrs. Davis’ and why? — to essentially take over the world. And even more horrifying that so many people were perfectly happy to give up their free will to a machine. Maybe that’s the social commentary the show’s writers are striving for. Though if that’s the case, they need to change the tone of the show.
And talk about tonal dissonance, let’s talk about the ridiculousness of the whole ‘wings’ business — and the stupidity of the ‘expiration date’ option. Who in their right mind would be stupid enough to sign up for voluntary euthanasia at a time specified by a machine just to get fake wings that are only visible via cellphones??
I have to say the whole ‘married to the big JC’ fantasy-esque scenes feel calculated to generate backlash (i.e. buzz for the show). ‘Ooh, aren’t we clever, taking the whole nuns are the betrothed of Christ thing to a literal conclusion – can’t you feel the controversy already?’ I find that whole thing more of an annoyance than something to be upset about (annoyance because it gets in the way of the only part of the story I’m really interested in — who is behind Mrs. Davis?).
At this point (4 episodes in), Mrs. Davis feels like it wants to be too many conflicting things at once. Maybe I’m wrong and it will all come together in a satisfying way. However, since the show was created by one of the creators of Lost (Damon Lindelof) I have to say that I’m not holding my breath.
