Sunny (2024)

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

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.

Ultimately, for all of its futuristic trappings, Sunny is most compelling when it swaps robots and AI for human emotions like grief and loneliness – and asks whether we can ever truly know another person.

It sounds like a lot, but Sunny stays firmly in control of itself and never sprawls. I suspect it is intended to scratch the Severance itch while we wait for the new series; it probably will. But it is undoubtedly its own thing – and a very good one, too.

Just two episodes in, Sunny is both stylish and beautiful, with moments of true darkness. What Susie will uncover at Imatech remains to be seen, but the pieces are all in play for this to be a twisty and compelling drama full of humour and heart. Best and most fascinating of all are the questions that Sunny asks of AI and of us – questions that we, as a society, are still nowhere close to answering.

I worry, therefore, given the goofy cliffhanger with which the first season concludes, that the show misunderstands its strengths. These do not include “realistic action sequences” or tight plotting. But I’ll devour that second season if it comes, because I desperately want more of the proud, tetchy, immersive, oddly relatable world it builds around Suzie and Noriko and Mixxy.

Jones is best known for comedic roles, but she’s a potent force of nature here. She makes Suzie’s anger, sadness, isolation, and cynicism tangible, and the portrayl pairs perfectly with Joanna Sotomura’s exuberant voice acting as Sunny.

Overall, Sunny is a hugely captivating series from Apple TV and A24 which will keep you guessing throughout. Part sci-fi, part corporate mystery, part dark comedy and much more besides, this gripping watch has a big ‘ole beating heart at its centre – and it’s all the better for it.

Robbins deserves the credit for taking scripts that could have easily lost their way visually and finding the right designers, cinematographers, and editors to collaborate on what’s a truly complex vision. Most of all, “Sunny” is unpredictably weird in a way that’s rewarding instead of forced.

“Sunny” is not only an engaging thriller, but one of the most intriguing series this year has to offer.

"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 is ostensibly about a robot, but the robot's entire life revolves around it's forced love for the main character, who is a deeply rude and unpleasant person with no friends. Because it's best not to dwell on this, there is a railroaded plot where the Yakuza are involved trying to get Sunny's secrets so they can create murderous robots, but this not only requires you to ignore common sense, but also results in you realizing this was definitely written by a white person who **** Japan without actually understanding it at any level because the Yakuza are a complete caricature and the show insists on them being able to flagrantly ignore the police. But yeah, because Japan is the setting, you get a lot of Japanese flavor, but it's clearly from an external eye **** it. This was embarrassing enough 30 years ago, but in today's world where literally anyone has instant access to millions of hours of Japanese media, it's incredibly lazy. By far the most interesting character is the main character's husband, but not only are we are left wondering why he married the garbage bag that is the protagonist, episode 1 establishes he is very likely dead, and so everything we see about him is through flashback or similar narrative vehicles. The robot character is also just plain too stupid and childlike to really ask hard questions about humans creating intelligent robots, and unfortunately so is the show. It's not terribly bad television in the end, but it sure isn't worth watching with the plethora of better options.

Started off strong but the mystery kind of diluted with so many characters and redundant plot points. Sunny is adorable, though, and I loved the production design.

Will always have a soft spot in my heart for Rashida Jones, but this drivel should come with a health warning. Not funny, not interesting.

I do not understand the hate on this series. It’s incredibly well made, gorgeous cinematography, funny moments and interesting plot.

I'm three episodes in and I enjoy the look and feel, but am still baffled as to the plot. I think that's the point - we're learning as we go with Rashida Jones. And therein lies the problem. I specifically looked forward to this because it was Rashida Jones, but to be honest, and this may just the character, she's a bit annoying. I get she lost her husband and kid and I should be giving her character my sympathy, but she just seems bored and annoyed by the whole thing. Her answer is to get drunk all the time and every once in a while go try and track down what her husband was doing at his refrigeration job. I found the robot off-putting in the beginning, but so far I'd rather hang out with it than any of the other characters. Still interested in seeing where it goes, but style alone won't make it last.

cringey weeb. embarassingly 25 -30 years behing its time.......................