Thoughts on Devs

I watched Devs in April, an FX show streamed on Hulu that Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation) created.

If you like those movies, this show is like that combined. Long, slow scenes where everyone talks in a monotone about science, backdrops of shady science tech corporations full of secrets, being way out in nature and far from general civilization, heavy synth scores, bright green trees, and neon use of color.

I was mixed on it. I wasn’t into the monotone delivery and slow scenes, but once it got more into a detective plot (the plot is that a engineer’s boyfriend died shortly after he was promoted to work on a secret development project, and his death was ruled a suicide, but she suspects it was murder) and the backstory of the development project (a prediction software where people can see the past and future on a giant grainy screen), it picked up a lot more for me. I started to care more once it got into the moral ethics of the software and how it affects people’s choices in life, and whether everything is predetermined or can be changed.

I thought it was decent, with some really good acting from Nick Offerman, Alison Pill, and Jin Ha. The lead, Sonoya Mizuno, was a rough watch. She has a background as a dancer, so she’s a good physical actress to watch in her silent reactions to people or in the slow, mannered way she moves, but her delivery was often flat in comparison to the more veteran actors, and since she was the heroine, it was a long sit to watch the star being outshone by the supporting cast.

It feels like a one-shot miniseries, I wouldn’t expect a second season of it. I watched it on recommendation from the sci-fi podcast Our Opinions Are Correct, in which they also recommended a lot of older Canadian sci-fi TV shows I’d like to check out.