Peacock’s Mrs. Davis is about so much more than the nature of AI.
Arthur C. Clarke once said: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” What he didn’t follow up with is this – What if there was an entire show based on that sentence?
If he did, it would be Mrs. Davis. The new Peacock exclusive, which starts airing April 20, is about a lot of things. And when I saw a lot, I mean a lot. Technology and AI, manhood and masculinity, religion, zealotry, blind devotion, faith, commercialism, the joy of quirky non-sequiturs, and how even powerful algorithms can get things very, very wrong are all explored thematically here.
After watching the first few action and in-action-filled episodes, I initially struggled to understand the point of all of it. Eventually, however, the puzzle pieces began slotting into place in fascinating fashion.
I’d like to tell you a lot more about the eight-episode series (which I watched in full), but much of what I want to say will spoil the multitude of surprises (small and very big), secrets, and Easter eggs hidden within the action-fantasy-dramedy. If you don’t want me peeling away the many layers of the onion in front of you, stop reading and check out Mrs. Davis for yourself. Otherwise, here we go.
Potential Mrs. Davis spoilers follow.
The title doesn’t describe the show’s star Betty Gilpin (Glow), who plays Simone, a horse- and motorcycle-riding nun. Instead, that’s the name of what is ostensibly the show’s other main character, an artificial intelligence (AI) that’s often unironically referred to as “her” or, derisively by Simone as “it.” It clearly prefers “Mrs. Davis,” though it does go by other names around the world, including “Madonna.”
Think of the titular AI as the logical conclusion of Siri and Alexa. Or, more accurately, ChatGPT, Bard, or Bing AI. Rather than a handful of people using the chatbot to answer the occasional question or help them finish that KPI report, Mrs. Davis is ubiquitous and streaming to everyone’s ears through a wide variety of Bluetooth earbuds (I noticed AirPods and other brands). Her (its) role though is somewhat different than a dispassionate AI from Google or OpenAI. Instead, Mrs. Davis is deeply involved in people’s happiness quotient, which is measured by gaining their wings.
