Sunny

First of all I would like the creators of this show to acknowledge their love of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, because they named a character Boss Tanaka and he's even the same actor as Boss Tanaka in Kill Bill 1. THEN they name another character Boss Matsumoto. Oh, c'mon! And there are no mentions of this obvious influence in any interviews, but it's so obvious.

That said, I've really been enjoying the show. The writing is fairly clever with enough witty lines to balance out Rashida's dry and unlikeable character. The robot is really impressive to look at but also grows more human all the time. Actually I see a lot of my parrot in the robot, which is sometimes creepy but shows you that everything has emotions. Except robots right now, but we're probably headed there. The story isn't really as gripping as I'd like and it's definitely a slow series, but still very entertaining. I love subtitles so to me the languages blend seamlessly, but I can see how that might bother some whiny Americans. I like that it's set in Japan and seems true to other Japanese made movies and shows with how it's made, the acting, and how over the top the Japanese actors are. It gets better with each episode and I'm glad they made something different that isn't superhero related. It's refreshing that it's at least somewhat original, and definitely weird.

I love Sci fi and I love Rashida Jones but I can't figure this show out. I'm not sure what it's about after 3 episodes. The fact that 70% of it is in Japanese makes it even harder. Rashida Jones' job seems to be to stand there half slumped and speak in English to people speaking to her in Japanese. She doesn't have any drive or maybe it's the way she portrays it I get no sense of urgency or even fear or trepidation from her as she's trying to figure out what happened to her husband and son. The writing is really uneven. This makes me sad. I wanted to like it, it's just too obscure for me I guess.

I guess Apple's strategy of releasing multiple episodes at the start of the season is a good one since it was the first couple of episodes that got me hooked. In the first 2-3 episodes, the tone was darkly funny, the mystery engaging, and the development of the relationship between Rashida Jones's character and the robot was interesting. After that, though, the show pretty much fell off of a cliff, devolving into inane subplots involving the Yakuza and spinning its wheels for several episodes with the plot going nowhere, the relationships taking a backseat, and the central mystery suddenly being ignored. It's too bad because there was a good show in here somewhere, but it seems to have gotten lost in effort to stretch things out over 10 episodes.

Apple have done it again. Their content is often quirky and unusual and Sunny is no exception.

Rashida Jones's Suzie is a great character, spiky and sarcastic. As her relationship develops with Sunny her robot it becomes normal watching them interact.

Having Japan and Japanese culture, mixed with an American protagonist, and the difficulties this brings when a tragedy happens is interesting.

The futuristic elements are also really well conceived as they are believable, and not too unlike our present world.

I love to watch foreign films and series as subtitles don't bother me. Don't let it put you off.

Ok, seen a lot of negative reviews which I don't get. I like this show, it works for me and I look forward to the next week's episode. It's not predictable, doesn't follow the usual recipe and explores a stranger in a strange land with unfamiliar customs, at least where a loved one is lost in mysterious circumstances as an American wife coming to grips not knowing her Japanese husband's secret work life. And yakuza thrown in to make it interesting.

It has a fair bit of quirkiness, which I like. Yes a lot of it is in Japanese, but it's got subs, so that's okay. I'm giving 7 for now, maybe give it more at the end of the season.