Damon Lindelof is one of my favorite showrunners/screenwriters based on his work on LOST, The Leftovers, & Watchmen. He is able to weave timely social/personal commentary into genre fare like perhaps no other. In "Mrs. Davis", Lindelof teams with Tara Hernandez of The Big Bang Theory & Young Sheldon fame to construct a series that is unlike anything in his oeuvre to date.
For a very basic overview, "Mrs. Davis" tells the story of Simone (Betty Gilpin), a nun who is one of the few holdouts to not use the Mrs. Davis algorithm that seems to give the rest of the world's population its purpose. In a "deal with the devil" of sorts, Simone is ultimately drawn into a quest to retrieve the Holy Grail and have the opportunity to turn off the tech-bot for good (or would it really be good?!).
There are quite a few things that "Mrs. Davis" does right and is very thoughtful/entertaining about:
-The musings on social media culture are interesting and come together nicely in a fantastic finale episode.
-Simone's familial story involving mother Celeste (Elizabeth Marvel) and father Monty (David Arquette) is the show's emotional center and largely works over the 8-episode arc.
-Simone's quest-partner Wiley (Jake McDorman) is an interesting fellow with a backstory that again pays off down the home stretch.
That being said, "Mrs. Davis" is very much a show that relies as much on snarky eye rolls and wacky sight gags as deep introspection. If that style isn't your cup of tea, it may make for a rather odd viewing experience, leading to a few arenas that don't quite hit the payoff jackpot:
-An interesting angle involving a deity-Jay (Andy McQueen)-never quite seems to live up to its quirky potential.
-Another thread involving protectors of the Holy Grail (actors Katja Herbers, Mathilde Ollivier, & Ben Chaplin) is more confusing than clarifying in the middle episodes.
-The wacky antics of JQ (Chris Diamantopoulos) and his band of merry men are more distracting from the actual interesting threads than anything else.
Sew all of those elements together and I landed on a 7/10 rating for "Mrs. Davis". It certainly represents an interesting branching-out for Lindelof and I give him and Hernandez credit for trying to conceive a "snarky show with a message". But I also felt like it bit off more than it could chew plot-wise and relied too much on eye-rolls and sight gags when the interesting messages could have flourished.
For a very basic overview, "Mrs. Davis" tells the story of Simone (Betty Gilpin), a nun who is one of the few holdouts to not use the Mrs. Davis algorithm that seems to give the rest of the world's population its purpose. In a "deal with the devil" of sorts, Simone is ultimately drawn into a quest to retrieve the Holy Grail and have the opportunity to turn off the tech-bot for good (or would it really be good?!).
There are quite a few things that "Mrs. Davis" does right and is very thoughtful/entertaining about:
-The musings on social media culture are interesting and come together nicely in a fantastic finale episode.
-Simone's familial story involving mother Celeste (Elizabeth Marvel) and father Monty (David Arquette) is the show's emotional center and largely works over the 8-episode arc.
-Simone's quest-partner Wiley (Jake McDorman) is an interesting fellow with a backstory that again pays off down the home stretch.
That being said, "Mrs. Davis" is very much a show that relies as much on snarky eye rolls and wacky sight gags as deep introspection. If that style isn't your cup of tea, it may make for a rather odd viewing experience, leading to a few arenas that don't quite hit the payoff jackpot:
-An interesting angle involving a deity-Jay (Andy McQueen)-never quite seems to live up to its quirky potential.
-Another thread involving protectors of the Holy Grail (actors Katja Herbers, Mathilde Ollivier, & Ben Chaplin) is more confusing than clarifying in the middle episodes.
-The wacky antics of JQ (Chris Diamantopoulos) and his band of merry men are more distracting from the actual interesting threads than anything else.
Sew all of those elements together and I landed on a 7/10 rating for "Mrs. Davis". It certainly represents an interesting branching-out for Lindelof and I give him and Hernandez credit for trying to conceive a "snarky show with a message". But I also felt like it bit off more than it could chew plot-wise and relied too much on eye-rolls and sight gags when the interesting messages could have flourished.