Mrs. Davis
There’s a scene in Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones finds himself face to face with a scimitar wielding foe. The enemy flourishes the blade menacingly for a few moments before Indy, out of patience, simply shoots the man and kills him avoiding the fight altogether. It’s a great moment because of how little needed to be done to completely disrupt our expectations as viewers. Mrs. Davis is an entire series designed around that feeling.
If someone asked me to describe Mrs. Davis, I’d probably boil the premise down to: a nun, her mother, and a cowboy go on a quest to destroy the Holy Grail. Still with me? Good because in the process they’re going to run into a secret society of militant banking women, Schrodinger’s cat, a sneaker-hoarding priest and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Damon Lindelof and Tara Hernandez helm this series that plays out as if by stream of consciousness for how quickly it ping pongs from one insane moment to the next. It’s hard to play Mrs. Davis in a particular genre but then Lindelof in particular has never been one to be hemmed in by those kinds of rules. The result is a show that blends Indiana Jones, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Moby-Dick, and Dan Brown novels like The Da Vinci Code. It’s wholly bizarre, very funny and above all, profound. It’s a show to be experienced not described.
With the rise of AI in our world Mrs. Davis comes along with a very timely premise: In a world much like this one an artificial intelligence called Mrs. Davis has achieved omnipotence and, in the process, has worked her way into the lives of nearly everyone on Earth. Her achievements are many including eliminating war, famine, and really all human struggle effectively creating a utopian society free of any doubt. The few that don’t trust the AI believe it (not she) is robbing humanity of privacy, free will, and faith in the unknown.
Speaking of the few that dislike AI, here we meet our lead. Sister Simone (Betty Gilpin) is a nun living in a shabby convent on the outskirts of Reno, Nevada. She’s dedicated to her sisters but moonlights as a bounty hunter of sorts swooping in to save unsuspecting tourists from Reno’s con artists and magicians looking to use their skills to swindle the out of towners. Simone believes Mrs. Davis is responsible for her father’s death and so avoids modern technology like the plague. However, you can’t avoid something that’s everywhere and soon Mrs. Davis delivers Simone a message through the every day people around her. That message is an offer she can’t refuse: If Simone finds and destroys the Holy Grail the AI will shut itself down for good. Soon after Simone’s adventure takes her to England, Italy, the high seas, you name it.
This kind of unpredictable plot is pretty old hat for a writer like Damon Lindelof. He’s the man behind Lost, HBO’s Watchmen series as well as The Leftovers. What’s lovely though is the basic premise of the series actually comes from the show’s co-creator Tara Hernandez, a major contributor to The Big Bang Theory. Thankfully Mrs. Davis couldn’t be further from that show’s lowest common denominator approach. Quite the opposite in fact. Mrs. Davis reels from wild hilarity to dark complicated reflection, sometimes from minute to minute. Lindelof and Hernandez wear their influences on their sleeves and Mrs. Davis is a series that loves its myriad of influences from westerns to heist films and religious parables.
The series hangs itself on Betty Gilpin’s VERY capable shoulders. Fans of Netflix’s prematurely cancelled GLOW will know her well. She’s an extremely talented actress who’s approach to any given scene or character isn’t the first, second, or maybe even third decision most actors would reach for. Her line readings are always out of left field but work every single time. She can move from sarcasm to real tears in the blink of an eye. Her portrayal of Simone is fun and ballsy and even though she moves through life with a kind of detachment Gilpin fills in the lines with a real sense of faith and purpose.
Simone is joined by two mother figures in the series. Her real mother played by Elizabeth Marvel and Margo Martindale’s mother superior. The two women demonstrate opposing sides of the motherhood coin. One a toxic mother, the other a patient, loving surrogate. Mother-daughter relationships are explored a lot throughout Mrs. Davis and all kinds are welcome whether they be biological, spiritual, or…algorithmic.
Mrs. Davis won’t be for everyone. Most of the time you’re watching it you’ll feel like you just snorted a pixie stick. There’re a million things going on in each episode but thankfully unlike Lost, this series has a plan and the writers are sticking to it. I encourage you to watch the first episode and then see how you feel. Nearly everything on TV is a version of something we’ve seen before. I promise that isn’t the case with Mrs. Davis.
