Sunny2024

The most original and tonally arresting show of the week was Sunny, a slightly futuristic Apple TV+ tale set in Japan.

"Sunny" (Sep 2024, 10 eps, 35+ mins, Apple) You know and love Rashida Jones from The Office, Parks & Recreation and even Angie Tribeca - all comedy roles in comedy shows. However, she doesn't want to bank on that anymore, she wants to go all drama on us now. And in this show, she's not an ensemble player like those other shows, this show is laser-focused on her character, "Suzie", though the show gets its title from secondary character, "Sunny", a very colloquial sounding helper bot whose all-white presentation looks like a style-aesthetic Apple would promote. Guys, I forced myself through four boring episodes before jumping to the finale. The presentation is very dry and boring. Much of the dialogue is in Japanese (filmed in Kyoto), so you're going to be reading a lot of subtitles. In fact, Rashida is the only westerner in the cast. Look, I tried to be interested, I tried to follow her story, her concerns, but I was simply bored. The pacing is glacial and there's very little action so this is going to appeal to very few people regardless of the wild shilling you see in this forum. The only way this show gets renewed is if Rashida, as an EP, forced Apple to do so in their contract, because in any other situation, this series is already cancelled like "Time Bandits" (Apple) and "Kaos" (Netflix).

Sunny presents an interesting near-future scenario where a woman questions everything she knew about her marriage and life. The mystery she investigates may end up being mundane, but the performances of Jones and Sotomura — and the relatively brief episode run times — make it a fun ride to go on.