The bonkers Mrs. Davis needs to be seen to be believed
Damon Lindelof's Mrs. Davis took its time getting here: it's worth the wait. Plus, the Past Lives film fest buzz, and everything else you need to plan your weekend viewing.
Kia ora and welcome to your Friday entertainment delivery service! I recently complained about delays getting Blackberry, the film about the defunct keyboard phone, to Aotearoa. I got my wish: flicks.co.nz reports it’s due in theatres on August 17, just in time for Barbieheimer mania to die down. Look, I get it, these things happen: we’re at the arse end of the world so we’re an afterthought when it comes to global release schedules. It happens so often that this week we’re going to be dealing with an entire TV series that’s taken months to get here. Yes, you can finally watch the Damon Lindelof-directed Mrs. Davis, so let’s talk about whether or not you should.
-Chris Schulz, Rec Room editor
You can finally watch Mrs. Davis, the butt-kicking nun show
It opens like a new season of Game of Thrones. Bodies are burnt on a bonfire. Heads roll in an epic sword fight. A battle is being fought over the Holy Grail, and the Knights Templar is revealed to be a group of nuns who’ll decapitate anyone who threatens to steal their prized possession. In a quiet nunnery filled with tables and wine barrels, that’s exactly what they do, engaging a group of grail-questing knights in a vicious fight to the death. After several grisly decapitations, the nuns win.
Five minutes later, we’re on a remote island. A marooned scientist sets off a homemade firework made out of phosphate and cat poo. After 10 years stranded like Castaway’s Tom Hanks, he’s rescued – only to be told an artificial intelligence known as “Mrs. Davis” has taken over the world. She’s solved the world’s problems. There is no famine, no war, just a know-it-all algorithm connecting everyone through an earpiece. “She has given purpose to the purpose-less,” his devoted rescuer says.
Then things really get crazy. A Reno man is a passenger in a car being driven by a woman he’s just met. A cow in the middle of the road forces her to drive into a billboard. He thinks he’s having a sneaky hook-up; she loses her head in yet another decapitation (yes, losing your head is a recurring theme here). The police show up, then a nun arrives on horseback. She reveals it’s all a ruse: the woman is safely in the boot and that corpse, the cops and all that blood is fake. It’s a scam. “You, sir, have been hoodwinked,” she tells the man, nodding and winking before trotting away.
Hold up. Hang on a second. What in the actual hell is happening? There may not be a better question to ask about a TV show this year. All of that madness – there is no better word for it – unfolds in the opening 15 minutes of Mrs. Davis, a dizzying blitz that might be the most madcap introduction to a TV show since Jackass first hit the airwaves. You’ll have so many questions you’ll need a notebook. None of it will make a lick of sense. You won’t understand a thing. But holy wow will you be entertained.
We shouldn’t expect anything less from Damon Lindelof. The co-creator of Lost, and the mastermind behind The Leftovers and The Watchmen, has returned with a bewildering rollercoaster of a show, a globe-trotting, eight-part odyssey about a nun trying to take on AI. It’s taken its sweet time getting here: Mrs. Davis first debuted in America to rave reviews back in April. It’s sitting at 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, where one critic calls the show “a testament to human originality”. This week, it finally landed on Neon.
Should you watch it? That depends on your ability to cope with chaos. Co-created with newcomer Tara Hernandez, Mrs. Davis is even more of a bonkers blitzkrieg than that opening 15 minutes suggests. Soon, Betty Gilpin’s Sister Simone has teamed up with underground renegades masquerading as pest exterminators to take down that AI everyone’s become addicted to. By the end of the first episode, Gilpin’s butt-kicking nun is on a mission. All she needs to do is destroy the holy grail and she’ll get her wish: Mrs. Davis will implode. AI will be gone forever.
At this point, no one would blame you if you’re thinking all of this sounds like a TV show made by someone on very heavy medication. The vibe is Monty Python and Sister Act plonking themselves down on a couch with a bowl of popcorn to watch Blade Runner 2049. It’s as if the new Mission: Impossible movie dropped acid. It’s weird. It’s ridiculous. It’s all over the place. There are Western vibes in the mix. God appears to be operating out of a felafel shop. When a team of German gangsters shows up and threatens to use dynamite on Sister Simone’s horse, I felt like I might be watching a reboot of The Big Lebowski. Like, duuude.
It is completely and utterly cooked, and I couldn’t be more into it. There’s never been a more fitting show for the times we live in. Life is strange. ChatGPT was introduced to the world a little more than six months ago and has quickly become a part of our everyday lives. Twitter, one of the world’s most recognisable brands, is owned by a megalomaniac billionaire determined to take it apart like a kid holding their first screwdriver. Don’t get me started on cryptocurrency, NFTs, and Donald Trump making another run for presidency while facing criminal indictments. Shit is weird out there.
It deserves to be made fun of. So, look behind the kook and there are bigger themes at play in Mrs. Davis: the role of religion in a tech-obsessed world, our devotion to the algorithm, and the meaning of life. As far-fetched as it may sound, many of the leaps of faith the show takes work. We’re all chatting to AI through an earpiece? OK. We’re taking advice on how to solve the world’s problems from a bot? That seems feasible. Sure, the chaos cloak covering Mrs. Davis may put you off it. I hope it doesn’t. But before you decide if you’re going to tune in or not, I implore you to read this Google review. It sums up the show better than I possibly could…
First 3 episodes, meh. It was like a train wreck I couldn't look away from. 4th episode: Ok, I'm intrigued. Now on the 7th episode and holy balls this is flipping incredible.
Youth Wings is back and Spinoff Members are invited
Join the next generation of Aotearoa politicians on the campaign trail, and watch them debate – a second series of Youth Wings is coming soon. Spinoff Members are also invited to the filming of the Youth Wings debate in Auckland. Contact us for more info. RSVPs close on August 16.
Not a member yet? Join up to gain access to exciting events like this, whilst also helping us bring you more of the content you love – it's a win/win!
Why you need to see Past Lives at the Film Festival
“That was brutal”, declared the person sitting behind me on Wednesday night. They weren’t wrong. At the sold out Film Festival screening of Past Lives, the South Korean film from debutant Celine Song, everyone felt all of the feelings. It’s such a simple story: childhood friends reconnect later in life and wonder what could have been. But Song wrings so much tension out of the simplest things: a look, a smile, a small lean forward, a hug. It’s an examination of the past and how it affects the present, but it’s also a heart-wrenching love story. Past Lives hurts. It turned me inside out and I don’t think I’ll stop thinking about it for a long time to come. (For screening dates: NZIFF)
Why you need to see Wham! on Netflix
When I think about George Michael, the image that comes to mind is from Extras: the pop star sitting on a park bench, eating a kebab, asking Ricky Gervais where the toilets are. Wham!, a must-see documentary about the 80s boy band that kicked off Michael’s career, doesn’t deal with his drug-addled downfall. Instead, it’s wholly concerned with the neon clothes, co-ordinated dance moves, and gloriously G-rated pop hits that made him one of the world’s biggest pop stars. It is a pure celebration of Wham!’s good times – writing hits on a whim, conquering America, that Live Aid show, some very tight shorts – and ends just as George Michael’s solo career really takes off. Narrated by the group themselves, Wham! is a good time, all of the time. (Streaming via Netflix now.)
All the new stuff you can watch this weekend…
Local star Frankie Adams has notched up another major role in The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, an Australian drama series based on a novel of the same name. Alongside Sigourney flippin’ Weaver, Adams helps tell the story of a young girl whose parents die in a mysterious house fire. Yes, there are secrets that need unravelling. This Prime Video mini-series will take seven parts to do that, and advance buzz is promising. “It’s an atmospheric and beautifully shot journey through trauma towards redemption,” says The Guardian.
Elsewhere, Neon has the bonkers new show from Lost’s Damon Lindelof, Mrs. Davis, as well as the well-reviewed HBO serial killer documentary Last Call (“True crime done right,” says Mashable). If you need some laughs in your life, the new Sarah Silverman stand-up comedy special Someone You Love is on Neon too. Netflix drops second seasons for The Lincoln Lawyer and Heartstopper, and Apple TV+ has the third and final season of Rose Byrne’s Physical. AMC+ has the second season of Dark Winds, a compelling cop drama that should be high on your must-see list. And don’t forget about the new local version of reality TV phenomenon The Traitors, debuting on Three on Monday night.
If you’re heading out to the movies, Barbieheimer mania remains at a critical level, but there are several new films attempting to attract some of the limelight. Jason Statham returns to battle another Megalodon in Meg 2: The Trench, and one looks even more farcical than the first. Elsewhere, Samara Weaving plays Marie-Joseph Antoinette in Chevalier. On streaming, you can rent Bank of Dave and When You Finish Saving the World on Neon now.
For more try our weekly New to Streaming guide.
Everything you need to know…
Angus Cloud was nabbed off the streets for his breakthrough performance as Fez in the HBO hit Euphoria. Variety leads the tributes after his death at the age of 25.
Wellington actor Chris Alosio is one of the stars of Talk to Me, the year’s scariest film. “When I told my mates I was going to do this horror movie, they all laughed,” he tells Alex Casey. “In my circles, people don’t really jam with that.”
“If all discussion of a film’s merits before release is left to influencers … what can we expect the film landscape to look like?” The Guardian lashes out at those who get free tickets to films before their critics do (they have a good point to make).
After eight weeks of hopeful viewing, Mad Chapman reviews Double Parked and finds it’s a show about a double pregnancy with half the fun.
The New Yorker has a slightly depressing (paywalled) piece on how television is becoming “visual muzak” – something to have on in the background while you sit on your phone. Some producers say they’re getting notes telling them to make their shows less engaging to suit those viewers.
Spend your weekend working your way through Vulture’s list of the best podcasts of the year so far. There are plenty of goodies here so maybe podcasting isn’t doing as bad as everyone says it is?
Why do celebs lose their minds, and their inhibitions, at Hobbiton? Alex Casey charts the history of celebrities being massive nerds at the Lord of the Rings tourist destination.
Let’s end with some trailers: the Safdie brothers doco Telemarketers looks awesome, so too does the documentary following a CEO-turned-fugitive Wanted: The Escape of Carlos Ghosn, Netflix is going there with Depp v. Heard, cancelled Aussie soap Neighbours is getting A New Chapter, here’s the second season of Invasion, and finally, can Loki’s second season right the sinking Marvel ship? After the dire Secret Invasion, it looks damned good.
That’s it for Rec Room for this week. If you liked what you read, why not share Rec Room with your friends and whānau.
Mrs Davis is an action series, if you prefer an acting series and have Apple TV then there's High Desert with Patricia Arquette as the grieving drug addict getting a PI licence despite estranged son, dead-mom-lookalike-lady-from the-bus-stop Bernadette Peters, ex-hubby ex-con Matt Dillon, long suffering sister Christine Taylor, new boss on the brink of bankruptcy Brad Garrett, etc etc. It's a refined pleasure and a short lived one, cancelled after this one series when it was already good