Current:Home > MyGet thee to this nunnery: Fun, fast, freewheeling 'Mrs. Davis' is habit-forming-DB Wealth Institute B2 Expert Reviews
Get thee to this nunnery: Fun, fast, freewheeling 'Mrs. Davis' is habit-forming
View Date:2024-12-23 19:35:05
This is the way Mrs. Davis ends: Not with a bang, but a wimple.
It sticks the landing, is my point. I'm stating that upfront because you'll get maybe 30 minutes into the first episode of the new Peacock action-comedy series about a globetrotting nun in a pitched battle against a sentient artificial intelligence and think to yourself: This thing has already flown off the rails.
It's true that Mrs. Davis delights in lots of big swings and even bigger ideas, including but not limited to rogue stage magicians; a fake Pope; a resistance movement made up entirely of muscular, sweet-natured himbos; bronco busting; a Middle-Ages-themed endurance competition, a high-tech heist, some light blasphemy, the occasional exploding head, a particularly belligerent whale and a quest for the Holy Grail.
That's a lot of ideas to cram into eight episodes, and I haven't even mentioned the falafel shop, where things get pretty weird.
But if you need an actor to stand in the center of this whirlwind of fanciful concepts and deeply nay, profoundly silly set pieces, you can't do better than Betty Gilpin.
She plays Simone, a feminist nun with a vendetta against stage magicians and the titular algorithm, which has quietly taken over the world by offering its clients nurturing advice.
Wherever the script takes her — and it takes her to many places — Gilpin grounds herself in the real world; her Simone is tough, smart, sarcastic and flawed. She's also easily flustered by her ex, Wiley, played by Jake McDorman. He exudes a befuddled kind of charm while struggling with the dawning realization that he's not the main character but simply the love interest.
He turns out to be only one of Simone's love interests, in point of fact. There's also Jay (Andy McQueen), who works in the aforementioned falafel shop and represents some pretty tough competition for Simone's attention for reasons that will become clear as the series progresses.
Mrs. Davis was developed by Tara Hernandez, who's written for network comedies The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon, and Damon Lindelof of Lost, The Leftovers and Watchmen. That may help explain why Mrs. Davis manages to stuff so many setups and punchlines into its prestige-TV hourlong format. It's a kind of narrative turducken: an outer layer of sweeping production values and high concepts with deft comic timing at its center.
The chemistry between Gilpin and McDorman is sexual and comedic, as it needs to be. The great Elizabeth Marvel turns up as Simone's aloof, calculating mother and Silicon Valley's Chris Diamantopoulos goes full ham as the resistance leader who is prone to emotional outbursts and arrant shirtlessness.
In interviews, the Mrs. Davis creative team posits the central conflict of the series as one between faith (Simone) and technology (Mrs. Davis). But that gets muddy awfully quick because Mrs. Davis treats Simone's faith not as a belief system but as something as dully, objectively real as her motorcycle. The fact is, Mrs. Davis doesn't have a lot to say about either religion or tech — they're just used as anchors to steady the ship in what quickly become some seriously choppy waters.
Mrs. Davis throws just about everything against the wall and most of it sticks; I kept being reminded of how caught up I got in the Tom Robbins novels I read as a teen. There's a joyfulness in Mrs. Davis' storytelling, and an urgency, too — as if it can't wait to sit you down and start reeling off its tale. But there's also an overarching comedic sense that lends the whole thing the kind of structure it needs to reach its weird — and weirdly satisfying — conclusion.
veryGood! (93878)
Related
- Smithfield agrees to pay $2 million to resolve child labor allegations at Minnesota meat plant
- Climate change may cause crisis amid important insect populations, researchers say
- UAW president Shawn Fain on labor's comeback: This is what happens when workers get power
- Star Trek Actor Kenneth Mitchell Dead at 49
- The Daily Money: All about 'Doge.'
- Trump's civil fraud judgment is officially over $450 million, and climbing over $100,000 per day
- 2024 could be an incredible year for Block stock. Here's why.
- Eric Bieniemy set to become next offensive coordinator at UCLA, per report
- The 10 Best Cashmere Sweaters and Tops That Feel Luxuriously Soft and Are *Most Importantly* Affordable
- Everything you need to know about solar eclipse glasses, including where to get them
Ranking
- 'Cowboy Carter' collaborators to be first country artists to perform at Rolling Loud
- Did Utah mom Kouri Richins poison her husband, then write a children's book on coping with grief?
- Vin Diesel to stay with 'Fast and Furious' franchise after sexual assault lawsuit
- Ayo Edebiri Relatably Butchers 2024 SAG Awards Acceptance Speech
- Get Your Home Holiday-Ready & Decluttered With These Storage Solutions Starting at $14
- Light rail train hits a car in Phoenix, killing a woman and critically injuring another
- Why are we so obsessed with polyamory?
- You're Invited Inside the 2024 SAG Awards After-Party With Jon Hamm, Joey King and More
Recommendation
-
Burt Bacharach, composer of classic songs, will have papers donated to Library of Congress
-
Chemours and DuPont Knew About Risks But Kept Making Toxic PFAS Chemicals, UN Human Rights Advisors Conclude
-
Josh Hartnett Makes Rare Appearance at 2024 SAG Awards After Stepping Away From Hollywood
-
Lithium ion battery caused fatal fire in New York City apartment building, officials say
-
The Latin Grammys are almost here for a 25th anniversary celebration
-
What you didn't see on TV during the SAG Awards, from Barbra Streisand to Pedro Pascal
-
In light of the Alabama court ruling, a look at the science of IVF
-
Everybody Wants to See This Devil Wears Prada Reunion at the 2024 SAG Awards