Of all the countless Hollywood titles that have taken a crack on this fascinating sub-genre of sci-fi, Apple TV+’s latest series Sunny might just come on top as one with the most remarkable look at the complexities between humanity and its most feared creation: robots, a.k.a artificial intelligence.
Quite plot-heavy, Sunny boasts one too many ideas crammed into ten 40-minute episodes, though impressively managing to leave no stone unturned. When it begins, however, it poses a no-frills premise that you might hesitate to give in — it’s Hollywood’s run-a-mill set-up, quite reminiscent of I, Robot (which followed a robot named Sonny): There’s a grief-stricken protagonist, living in a world they’ve given up on, and a goody-two-shoes robot that is advanced beyond measure rises. But just with its incredible pilot episode, Katie Robbins’ series sets up a riveting storyline and an addictive atmosphere, breaks conventions, and lends many inferences for a deeper study later on.
We are first told of all that goes through the mind of Suzie Sakamoto (Rashida Jones), a perpetually irritated, robot-phobic, grief-stricken American woman in Kyoto, Japan, whose life was upended when she lost her husband, Masa (Hidetoshi Nishijima), and son, Zen, in a tragic plane crash. She navigates crushing grief, infuriating pity parties, continuing anxieties of being an outsider, her dyslexia requiring an ear device to live-translate Japanese, and her nagging, control freak of a mother-in-law, Noriko (Judy Ongg).
As if her plate couldn’t get any fuller, in an eerie turn of events, a colleague of her husband brings her a home-bot, Sunny (voiced by Joanna Sotomura), whom he says her late husband — who had claimed to work at the refrigerators department — “built and left for her.” This sets Suzie on a mission of no return, in which she understands her loved one posthumously, strikes the unlikeliest of bonds with a robot, and unravels a bigger conspiracy fronted by the yakuza themselves.
Sunny (English and Japanese)
A mark of a good sci-fi story, Sunny has terrific writing of the human characters — we have Mixxy (Annie the Clumsy), an intriguing sidekick who may or may not have a crush on Suzie; Noriko, who deals with her grief in a peculiar way; and the terrifying Hime (You), a blonde-haired, sweet-voiced yakuza heir who puppets Suzie and Sunny in a game of deceit. However, what stands out is how the titular robot gets humanized. Sunny, as a character puts it, is not a story about robots learning humanity, but one about humans learning humanity from robots.
And so, the robots are designed as less dangerous domestic machines with a big round head and adorable eyes. The writing humanises these robots to the extent you begin to care for Sunny deeply, especially with innumerable threats lurking around the corner. In a stroke of brilliance in writing, the first few episodes are peppered with moments where Sunny expresses alarmingly real emotions, like when she throws a packet of crispers at Mixxy. We also anticipate an eerily advanced and seemingly sentient robot like her to be the killer robot, which was glimpsed in the opening scene of the series. Treading on this thin grey line ensures we look beyond Sunny’s metal exterior.
A still from ‘Sunny’ | Photo Credit: Apple TV+
As the story grows, the sequences that most leave an imprint on you are the ones featuring Suzie, Masa and Sunny that juxtapose timelines and memories; here, flashbacks become dreams become nightmares, often making you question fact from fiction, as you witness Suzie descend an inch lower into paranoia and the deeper pits of grief.
But make no mistake, this isn’t a through-and-through unsettling dark sci-fi thriller by any means. Sunny is also that rare hit that juggles multiple tones, with dark humour opening a window of levity now and then. With a saturated, high-contrast colour palette and Japanese aesthetics, the visual tone of Sunny also adds to a certain mood, far removed from the dim shades that Hollywood usually goes for such titles. Add to the mix the flashy, retro-styled intro credits, and its funky soundtrack, and you think of a field of sunflowers crookedly grown through metal at a scrapyard.
Of course, there are blimps on the road, like how it seems as if the series didn’t have a lot to say in a couple of filler episodes in the middle. Or how vaguely the yakuza storyline is written. But in retrospect, these niggles disappear. With futuristic robots, outstanding performances, pristine set designs, and Hollywood’s big production sensibilities meeting stunning Japanese locales, Sunny is truly top-tier television that calls for a sequel.
Sunny is currently streaming on Apple TV+ with its first two episodes; subsequent episodes release weekly every Wednesday
