Sunny Is a Solid Dark Comedy About Robots and Loneliness

These days, it’s increasingly difficult to feel optimistic about the future that Big Tech is laying out for us. Whether it’s how ”AI” and large language models have been used to systematically steal people’s work and repurpose it as ugly, soulless garbage, or perhaps most pressingly, the way robotics are being leveraged for military applications, as long as massive, unfettered corporations are the ones providing these “innovations,” someone will almost always end up as collateral damage.

Thankfully, sci-fi is here to help us contemplate and prepare ourselves for what’s on the horizon, as is the case with Sunny, an upcoming dramedy from Apple TV+ and A24. This series largely succeeds at taking a grounded view around the robots and AI, focusing on loss and loneliness amidst a near-future backdrop. All in all, it makes for a twisty tale about machines that mostly passes the quality inspection.

This story, adapted from Colin O’Sullivan’s novel The Dark Manual, follows Suzie Sakamoto (Rashida Jones), an American expat who just received the tragic news that her husband, Masa (Hidetoshi Nishijima), and son, Zen, have gone missing in a plane crash. At first, she’s understandably devastated, making her already prickly demeanor even more unapproachable. But, of course, there’s more to this situation than initially appears. Suzie is eventually greeted by a representative from her husband’s company, ImaTech, who offers a gift to assuage her loss: a top-of-the-line home robot named Sunny that Masa himself designed. There are two issues with this, though: one, Suzie hates bots, and two, her husband had lied about his profession and never told her he was a roboticist. While Suzie is initially disenchanted with her new roommate, she soon finds that the machine is essential in discovering the truth about her husband and what happened to her family.

Despite the seemingly entirely grim premise, Sunny is very much a dark comedy, and these elements are present from the jump—immediately after the crash, Suzie drowns out her sorrows with shitty Christmas cookies as holiday tunes blare in the background, an overly cheery airline employee asking her what her family was wearing before they seemingly disappeared for good. The sequence ends with Suzie in a group crying session where a man tries to get her to weep so he can wash away the tears by hand, Jones’ incredulity selling the absurdity of the situation.

While the tragicomic sensibilities aren’t quite this front and center throughout, the show has a consistently playful tone thanks to snappy editing, clever needle drops, and plentiful banter between the cast, as Katie Robbins and the rest of the writers’ room largely succeed at balancing lighter moments and Suzie’s weighty grief. It’s rarely laugh-out-loud funny, but much of the dialogue is clever, and the script smartly conveys how ridiculous it is that big tech companies have been given this much free reign.

On top of balancing humor and loss, the series also delivers an elaborate cyber conspiracy as Suzie seeks to understand what her husband was really up to at ImaTech. This mystery is gripping from the start, and between the premiere’s violent cold open that invites all sorts of intriguing possibilities, plentiful hints at corporate wrongdoing, and hidden cameras, we’re immersed in a paranoid headspace alongside our protagonist. Perhaps best of all, these implications eventually arrive at compelling conclusions about the costs and benefits of pushing so hard for AI and other groundbreaking tech, leading to fascinating turns I’ll avoid spoiling. And despite questions about large-scale schemes, the biggest question here is more personal: who was Suzie’s husband?

Early on, our protagonist realizes that Masa wasn’t forthright about his true job at ImaTech, prompting her to wonder just how much he withheld. The further she digs, the more confused and guilty she feels that she spent 10 years with a man she may have misjudged, putting her son at risk in the process. It’s a well-explored thread about how we can miss crucial pieces of those closest to us, and it further complicates our protagonist’s feelings of grief in engrossing ways, explaining her desperate and self-destructive tendencies as she tries to get to the bottom of things. Her frustration is cleverly conveyed in a series of flashbacks where she recounts moments that should have roused her suspicion, inter-spliced with Suzie blurting out what she wishes she said.

These pseudo-memories are just one of many interesting aesthetic touches in this stylishly presented series. For instance, there’s also the chic intro, which looks ripped from a ‘60s spy movie, or the vintage Japanese pop music that serenades tongue-in-cheek happenings in a way that fits the comedic tone. The set design places us in this not-so-far-flung Japan, particularly ImaTech’s quietly sinister retro-futuristic HQ, which will likely make you suspicious, if you weren’t already.

And with more than just the sets making it clear that this was filmed on location in Japan, the story eventually digs into deeper questions about why Suzie is here in the first place, getting into how Westerners like our protagonist frequently romanticize the country. In one of the show’s most effective turns, it digs into social issues like hikikomori syndrome, a condition where many young people isolate themselves, tying into Suzie and her husband’s struggles with loneliness.

However, while our protagonist has some compelling moments, overall, this tale is more eager to dig into other characters’ backstories than our heroine’s, and it feels like there is a missing piece around why Suzie is such a combative misanthrope. Although Jones does a good job conveying the character’s brusqueness, her arc is sidelined in the last few episodes and doesn’t fully come together.

As for the rest of the cast, we get a nice ensemble of performances; the ever-excellent Hidetoshi Nishijima gets much-appreciated screen time in flashbacks as he conveys Masa’s tragic upbringing, You is quietly unhinged as the desperate yakuza Hime, and Judy Ongg convincingly plays a traditionalist mother-in-law in Noriko, who butts heads with Suzie at every juncture.

The best of the bunch is Joanna Sotomura as the voice behind Sunny, who combines the perpetually chipper tone of a virtual assistant with increasingly human flourishes that convey the robot’s growth. The burgeoning relationship between this bubbly bot and the machine-distrusting Suzie is the emotional core of this story and helps alleviate issues with our protagonist’s overly static arc. Unfortunately, the vibes aren’t quite as good with the rest of the cast, and there is some perfunctory friction between certain characters, like Sunny and Suzie’s new friend Mixxy (annie the clumsy), which feels artificial.

However, the show’s biggest issue is its ending. Although there are satisfying reveals about what set events in motion, the season finale is fairly anemic, unable to capitalize on the previous buildup as its tension fizzles out. On top of this, it all concludes on a cliffhanger that feels extra dire because it’s so common for Apple sci-fi series to get axed in this oversaturated streaming market.

While Sunny doesn’t entirely come together, it’s still a strikingly presented sci-fi series that hones in on AI anxiety and modern loneliness. Its strong ensemble cast, bolstered by Jones, Sotomura, and Nishijima, grounds us in this setting and helps elevate this techno-conspiracy. These core mysteries have a good build, and although its climax sputters out, it largely provides satisfying answers to its big questions. All things considered, it’s a solid first season that, much like the technology at the center of this story, would greatly benefit from the refinement of a 2.0 release. Hopefully, it gets the chance.

Sunny premieres Wednesday, July 10th on Apple TV+. 

Elijah Gonzalez is an assistant Games and TV Editor for Paste Magazine. In addition to playing and watching the latest on the small screen, he also loves film, creating large lists of media he’ll probably never actually get to, and dreaming of the day he finally gets through all the Like a Dragon games. You can follow him on Twitter @eli_gonzalez11.

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