Aside from Simone, there’s a whole cast of eccentric characters who inhabit the beautifully absurd world of “Mrs. Davis.” Among them is Simone’s best friend/ex-lover Wiley (Jake McDorman), who seems especially hell-bent on revolting against Ms. Davis and has an entire black-ops-style undercover team dedicated to this cause. Many of the sillier aspects of the episodes come from scenes that center around this operation, where pranksters, serious in their own right, jump out of planes for a rescue mission or dramatically smash flip phones to maintain anonymity. These running jokes manage to never get stale.
Then there’s the matter of Mrs. Davis herself (or “herself”, depending on who you ask), who seems particularly interested in Simone for reasons that gradually reveal themselves. The rise of chatbots that mimic sensibility and original thinking (“imitate” is the operative word here) is a discussion that warrants complexity and nuance, and “Mrs. Davis” presents the various strands of this discourse in interesting ways.
Can AI be truly benevolent, its purpose being simply the satisfaction of the human race, with wars, conflicts and riots becoming relics of the past? Or is this appearance of holistic harmony just a distraction from the ugliness of reality, where the masses are trapped in an endless cycle of validation? Truth can often be stranger than fiction, a sentiment this show aims to nail.
Finally, there’s an exploration of faith and belief, where characters with different religious views (or lack thereof) experience sudden epiphanies or uncomfortable revelations. The foundation of entire realities is questioned, and all of this is done with equal parts sincerity and irreverence. The results are deeply fascinating and absolutely worth sticking around for.
The first four episodes of “Mrs. Davis” are now airing on Peacock.