Sunny

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.

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.

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.

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.

This could have been outstanding. But fumbled it. And they'll probably never put their finger on the why of it.

Whereas Severance (which seems to be the gauge against which this is being measured) turned dull, inexplicable and slow into something exquisite and satisfying, this is just dull, inexplicable and slow.

It is hard to create a convincing and likeable 'weird' on purpose. I sense a lot of borrowing from other sources. Maybe there is no formula for the magic? It just happens sometimes.

I just don't warm to Rashida Jones' character. And it's hard when you take against the central character. She plays it a mixture of flat, indulged and whiny. You just want to give here rigid botoxed face a slap. And I don't know enough about her to tell if this is deliberate and she is a genius, or she just can't act.

The rest of the Japanese cast are brilliant in a Quentin Tarantino homage kind of way. The supporting characters are way more interesting and you'd rather spend your time with them. But three episodes in and I can contemplate not watching until the end.

It's tolerable, not groundbreaking.