Good morning.
As I wrote in January, there are a lot of signs that media’s decline or further contraction may not be exaggerated.
Well, February came and went, and there were even more signs if you can believe it. I’m not sure where this is all going. I’m certainly not smart enough to really understand. But I have some thoughts on what the narratives are going to be this year and how they might unfold.
But, I’ll get into those a little later this month. Right now, I want to talk about Mrs. Davis, Peacock’s criminally underwatched show from last year.
Let’s get something out of the way: I love Damon Lindelof TV shows. Did I watch all of Lost? You know it. Did I enjoy explaining the ridiculousness of the plot and the many, many, many characters that came and went on that show to people who mildly cared? Yes, yes I did. Was it a bit or did I really enjoy it? Hard to say. But, I will say that shouting the phrase “we have to go back” in anguish never gets old to me.
The Leftovers is probably my second-favorite TV show of all time. I think Season 2 is pretty much a masterclass in storytelling. Honestly, you could probably use that season as a syllabus in a creative writing course to teach people how to write a story from multiple points of view. And ya know what? I think Season 3 is even better. It’s a little shaggier, but it’s more emotional, it feels epic. I think about moments from that season all the time.
I liked Watchmen a lot too. It didn’t resonate with me the same way as The Leftovers and I didn’t find it messily endearing like Lost. But it was obviously great. Even though it was weird and sprawling, something about it felt, I don’t know, efficient. It was, again, truly stellar storytelling from multiple points of view—but it just felt a little less compelling.
Last year, when I heard Damon Lindelof was coming out with a new show (along with Tara Hernandez, who wrote for The Big Bang Theory) called Mrs. Davis last about a nun fighting AI, I was all the way in. But then I heard it was on Peacock and I was like, “Dang, that’s the one streaming service I don’t have even though they have all the ECW Hardcore TV episodes and PPVs and I’m like this close to paying for it just for those. I mean I’d also watch some random episodes of RAW from 1997 or 1998 to kill time so it’d be worth it. But I really shouldn’t pay for another streaming service right now.”
If you’ve never watched professional wrestling, what that means is that I let it pass me by like a lot of other people. I mean, nobody was running up to me and asking if I’d seen Mrs. Davis. I didn’t really see anyone covering it online. A show by a major TV showrunner kind of came and went. Kind of a sign of the times: too much content, not enough marketing, not enough time, not enough access.
My fiance and I fell into a Peacock subscription and binged Mrs. Davis in a week earlier this year. This is a show that lasts a tight eight episodes, but thinking back on everything that happens feels like a fever dream.
As I said, the premise of the show is about a nun that has a grudge with an AI app that basically serves as the tie that binds humanity together. But, this is also a show that features multiple beheadings and one head exploding; a show that perhaps rivals the Indiana Jones series for the best use of the Holy Grail; a show where the development of a Super Bowl ad is a major plot point; a show that has a character named JQ who is shirtless for pretty much every scene he is in; a show that cast David Arquette as a somewhat pathetic magician and perfectly uses him, which makes you think about what paths his career could have taken; a show where a whale plays a pivotal role; a show with an episode about a contest in Scotland that involves touching a giant sword for as long as possible; a show where Jesus runs a diner in the protagonist’s mind (or is it?) and serves the best falafel you’ve ever eaten.
Mrs. Davis is not better than The Leftovers. It’s too different from Lost. Its closest comparison would be Watchmen and I think I might like Mrs.Davis more than Watchmen. I compare it to Watchmen because they are both (most likely) only one season and both are really the story of a female protagonist looking for some kind of closure. (Technically this is what The Leftovers is about but the workload is so distributed on that show its a little bit different.) And the levels of weirdness are, I’d say, just about the same.
What Regina King does in Watchmen is quite different than what Betty Gilpin does in Mrs. Davis, but they are both tasked with a lot. Each one carries the show and carries it through multiple tones. Mrs. Davis leans a bit more cartoony and sitcomish than Watchmen. (But not that much, I mean the Jeremy Irons parts of Watchmen were pretty cartoony.) I only watched some of GLOW, so I kind of knew what Gilpin was capable of, but she was phenomenal in Mrs. Davis. I mean, when a big part of your role involves praying and you sell it for all its worth, then you’re doing something right.
As good as Gilpin is, the revelation for me was Jake McDornan as her childhood best friend and ex-boyfriend Wiley. McDornan brings the same kind of energy to the screen that has catapulted Glen Powell to stardom: He’s overconfident, somewhat brash, but always charming in his comeuppance. I don’t know how much of Wiley’s success in the show was the way the role was written or what McDornan brought to the role, but as I watched Mrs. Davis I found myself wondering what McDornan was going to do next.
And of course Mrs. Davis features all the hallmarks of a Lindelof show: the philosophical differences between science and faith; characters that are bound together across the globe, across time, and across dimensions; a far flung island; characters named after prominent scientists or philosophers; and two characters who belong together despite how hard they (or the fates they believe they are resigned to) try to convince themselves otherwise.
What may set Mrs. Davis up for further appreciation in the years to come is the way AI features into the story. The show came out in April and May of 2023. If you recall, that was just when the larger conversations about AI were starting to tip from “Do I need to know what ChatGPT is?” to “Is AI going to take my job, my family, and then murder me?” So in a strange way Mrs. Davis was just slightly ahead of its time. Pair that with it only being available on Peacock and you get a show that people just weren’t going to find or really feel ready for.
But watching it almost a year later, the way it handled the themes of AI’s presence in the world and how humanity lives with and incorporates technology into our lives was truly impressive and led to an ending that was surprisingly poignant and even heartwarming.
If you are looking aimlessly for a show to watch, I’d suggest making Mrs. Davis the next one you queue up. I’ll even give you my Peacock password. Just DM. You can do that on Substack now.