Mrs. Davis Review: An Ambitious, Exhausting Adventure Series With Weird Humor To Spare
"Mrs. Davis," the new Peacock series by Damon Lindelof ("Lost") and Tara Hernandez ("The Big Bang Theory"), starts off like the kind of dream you couldn't explain even if you tried. First, there's an order of nuns in the year 1307, locked in a bloody battle with men on the hunt for the Holy Grail. Then, a man on a desert island is rescued, only to be told a rather maternal-sounding algorithm has taken over the world. Next, another weird and bloody scene plays out on the Nevada freeway, only to be interrupted by Simone (Betty Gilpin), a modern-day nun with a penchant for magic tricks. All of this unfolds in the first few minutes of the pilot episode — before we even know who our protagonist is.
The show eventually finds its own absurd inner logic, but its sweeping, funny, deeply strange story never quite shakes the quality of a vivid and endless dream. The result is an expectation-defying series that's both compelling and exhausting, held together by the ambitiousness of its conceit and its grounded and comedic central performances. "Mrs. Davis" is, in short, a weird one.
A spiritual quest by way of Douglas Adams
While its plot sprawls in every direction like a pot of ivy that's grown halfway across a room, there are some story basics that "Mrs. Davis" eventually establishes: an all-powerful algorithm called Mrs. Davis tasks nun Simone with finding the Holy Grail, after which she can be granted one wish. Simone is the rare holdout against the algorithm in a world that heavily relies on it, and her hesitance is influenced by her fraught family history (Elizabeth Marvel and David Arquette appear, and are great, as her parents). Meanwhile, a former rodeo kid named Wiley (Jake McDorman) reunites with Simone over a shared common goal, while a sexy diner cook named Jay (Andy McQueen) gives her mysterious side quests.
The show is often absurdly funny, shot through with the kind of off-the-wall humor of a Douglas Adams novel. Were "Mrs. Davis" to be wrangled into comparison with anything else, its closest reference points might be "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" and the episode of "The Leftovers" where begrudging hero Kevin, trapped in a bizarre afterlife, has to use genital recognition software and start a nuclear war by cutting out the heart of his twin brother, the President.
Jake McDorman steals the show
McDorman, McQueen, and Gilpin are fantastic in this series, together and apart. Gilpin is at her best when her determined heroine composure is rattled by the ever-shifting fabric of this world, which she reacts to with stubborn anger or, after a certain point, the type of laughter you let out when everything has gone so wrong that there's nothing else to do. "Mrs. Davis" is so high-concept that the team behind the show might have gotten away with casting a lesser actress in the lead role, but it would've been a mistake; Gilpin gives the series a ferocious heart that makes its silly story worth believing in.
McQueen, meanwhile, effortlessly charms in a plot that takes a polarizing yet ultimately effective turn — the less said about it here, the better. But it's actually McDorman who steals the show at every turn as Wiley, an immature roguish hero who's driven by a need to prove himself and re-win Simone's heart. The actor puts in a smartly comedic performance that utilizes his every expression and movement, and Wiley's goofy Everyman reactions often help simplify a lofty plot. McDorman's performance isn't just the type to make you sit up and pay attention, but also the type that makes you wish this guy was in everything.
Mrs. Davis is a lot, for better and worse
There's a lot more going on here, including but definitely not limited to: a magic trick gone wrong, a pope-related side quest, an algorithmically generated human expiration date, a belly-of-the-beast metaphor made literal, and more than one thing that explodes when everyone really wishes it wouldn't. "Mrs. Davis" is often too much, but as with Best Picture winner "Everything Everywhere All At Once," its too-much-ness hides a very ambitious look at the human heart.
Like all of Lindelof's works, "Mrs. Davis" turns out to be unapologetically spiritual, as Simone reconciles her image of a Christian God with a much more active world-shaping force, the algorithm Mrs. Davis. The entire series doubles as a clever wink to our algorithm-driven world, which is ironic given that the show will stream on Peacock, where creativity seems to flourish (for now) even if revenue doesn't. "This is soooo dumb," Simone laments in response to what's probably the tenth big reveal she has to sit through, to which another character responds, "Yeah, algorithms are super dumb."
On one level, that seems to be the point of "Mrs. Davis," and the show takes an overly-circuitous route to get to the conclusion we've understood from the beginning. On another, though, "Mrs. Davis" is a challenging continuation of a conversation Lindelof has been having with audiences for years now. It's an exploration of what we believe and why, and more importantly, how it helps and harms us. On that front, at least, "Mrs. Davis" succeeds. Either way, the funny, absurd, sometimes taxing series tells a story that's unlike any you've ever seen before – that's a Mrs. Davis guarantee.
The first four episodes of "Mrs. Davis" premiere exclusively on Peacock on April 20, 2023 followed by new episodes airing weekly on Thursdays.