Rashida Jones gets by with a little help from an AI friend in 'Sunny'

WhatsApp Group Join Now
Telegram Group Join Now
Instagram Group Join Now

Are we on? Hot TV Robot Summer's Edge?

This week on HBO, Julio Torres' hilarious, awkward comedy Concepts is wrapping up its first season, and one of the main characters is Bibo, a helpful but pushy domestic robot with a secret desire to become an actor. Now comes Apple TV Sunlight, where the chipper but potentially annoying robot is the title character, and the main focus of the plot. One more, and it's officially a trend!

Designed by Katie Robbins (CaseFrom the book by Colin O'Sullivan Black Hand, the series takes place in an alternate near-future version of Kyoto, where American expat Suzy (Rashida Jones) is grieving the death of her husband Masa (Hideoshi Nishijima) and their young son in a plane crash. Trapped in a country where her grasp of the language is shaky at best, where the only person she knows well is her controlling mother-in-law, Noriko (Judy Ong), Suzy's life becomes increasingly troubled. When he discovers that Masa was not, as he told him, a refrigerator designer, but the genius behind a new line of domestic robots. One of them, Sunny (voiced by Joanna Sotomura), is Masa's posthumous gift to him, but may also be the key to unlocking the mystery of what he was doing with his life, and his plane. Why did it crash?

Sunlight It's a mystery at various points, a psychological drama, another science fiction story about the dangers of creating artificial life, and a buddy comedy, where a friend has a glowing screen for his face. Some of these modes are more exciting than others, but the overall style of the show, as well as Rashida Jones' lead performance, is interesting enough to compensate for the parts that don't work.

Jones has spent most of her acting career playing straight women, most famously as Beautiful Ann Perkins. Parks and Recreation. But she can play big, and funny, when called upon, like in the goofy TBS cop show parody Angie Tribeca. It's not hard to see why she was drawn to both executive produce and star in them. Sunlight. Before the first episode ends, she's sitting on the toilet, drinking from a bottle—and engaging in a teenage argument with an angelic-voiced robot, and it's funny because Suzy lets it all go. . The filters of his pre-accident life fall away. But there's also a real emotional core to the character and Jones' performance, which makes the desire for answers about Masa (who often appears in flashbacks and dream sequences) feel like something the audience wants almost as much. Suzy does. He is fantastic.

Hidetoshi Nishijima as Masa

Apple TV+

Similarly, world-building is what Robbins and his collaborators (including lead director Lucy Techerniak) do in presenting this slightly off-kilter version of Japan, where robots like Sunny don't seem out of place. In one episode, a character tries to deal with a deep-rooted mental issue by imagining himself as a contestant on a Japanese game show, and it makes as much emotional sense as anything else.

Trending

The episode is also one of several since the season finale devoted to explaining the show's byzantine plot, which involves both Masa's secret electronics company and a war between local yakuza factions. It's less than ideal to hold off on the story long enough for the audience to finally understand what's going on. It's a credit to Robbins and company that they let Suzy express her impatience with things after a while, as most viewers would have related more than that by then. But there are also some moments of genuinely thrilling suspense toward the end of the season, and the relationship between Suzy and Sunny becomes deep and compelling enough to justify a season-ending cliffhanger designed to set up additional episodes. can be done With Jones playing at the bitterest, most satirical end of his range, Sunlight A strange and dryly funny treat.

The first two episodes of Sunlight Now streaming on Apple TV+, additional episodes are released weekly. I have watched all 10 episodes.

WhatsApp Group Join Now
Telegram Group Join Now
Instagram Group Join Now

Leave a Comment