''Devs'' is an American
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
thriller television
miniseries
A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...
created, written, and directed by
Alex Garland
Alexander Medawar Garland (born 26 May 1970) is an English writer and filmmaker. He rose to prominence as a novelist in the late 1990s with his novel '' The Beach'', which led some critics to call Garland a key voice of Generation X. He subsequ ...
. It premiered on March 5, 2020, on
FX on Hulu
FX Networks, LLC, is a company consisting of a network of cable channels plus a production company and a subsidiary of the Disney General Entertainment Content segment of The Walt Disney Company. Originally a part of 21st Century Fox, the comp ...
.
Lily Chan (
Sonoya Mizuno
Sonoya Mizuno (born 1 July 1986) is a Japanese-British actress, model, and ballet dancer.
She notably starred in the miniseries '' Maniac'' and the '' Game of Thrones'' prequel series ''House of the Dragon'', and appeared in all the works direc ...
) is a software engineer for Amaya, a
quantum computing
Quantum computing is a type of computation whose operations can harness the phenomena of quantum mechanics, such as superposition, interference, and entanglement. Devices that perform quantum computations are known as quantum computers. Though ...
company run by Forest (
Nick Offerman
Nicholas David Offerman (born June 26, 1970) is an American actor, writer, comedian, producer, and carpenter. He is best known for his role as Ron Swanson in the NBC sitcom ''Parks and Recreation'', for which he received the Television Critics A ...
). Lily soon becomes embroiled in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, who died on the first day of his new job at Devs.
The series explores themes related to
free will
Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded.
Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to actio ...
and
determinism
Determinism is a philosophical view, where all events are determined completely by previously existing causes. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes overlapping motives and consi ...
, as well as
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...
. It received generally positive reviews, with critics praising its imagination, cinematography, acting, and soundtrack.
Cast and characters
Main
*
Sonoya Mizuno
Sonoya Mizuno (born 1 July 1986) is a Japanese-British actress, model, and ballet dancer.
She notably starred in the miniseries '' Maniac'' and the '' Game of Thrones'' prequel series ''House of the Dragon'', and appeared in all the works direc ...
as Lily Chan, a software engineer at Amaya
*
Nick Offerman
Nicholas David Offerman (born June 26, 1970) is an American actor, writer, comedian, producer, and carpenter. He is best known for his role as Ron Swanson in the NBC sitcom ''Parks and Recreation'', for which he received the Television Critics A ...
as Forest, CEO of Amaya
*
Jin Ha
Jin Ha is a South Korean-born American actor known for his roles in the TV series ''Devs'', '' Love Life'', and ''Pachinko'' in addition to the musical ''Hamilton''.
Early life and education
Ha was born in Seoul, South Korea, before moving to ...
as Jamie, a cybersecurity specialist and Lily's ex-boyfriend
*
Zach Grenier
Zach Grenier is an American character actor of film, television and stage. He is best known for his roles in films such as '' Fight Club'', ''Tommy Boy'', and '' Twister'' and for his roles in television such as David Lee in '' The Good Wife'' a ...
as Kenton, head of security at Amaya
*
Stephen McKinley Henderson
Stephen McKinley Henderson (born August 31, 1949) is an American actor and director. Henderson trained at Juilliard School for acting and later became a resident member of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis from 1976 to 1981. He came to prominen ...
as Stewart, a member of the Devs team at Amaya
*
Cailee Spaeny
Cailee Spaeny (; born July 24, 1998) is an American actress. Her first major role was in the science fiction action film ''Pacific Rim Uprising'' (2018), which was followed by appearances in ''Bad Times at the El Royale'', ''On the Basis of Sex' ...
as Lyndon, a member of the Devs team specializing in work on sound waves.
*
Karl Glusman
Karl Glusman (born January 3, 1988) is an American actor. He had a lead role in Gaspar Noé’s controversial pornographical drama ''Love'' (2015) and appeared in '' The Neon Demon'' (2016) and '' Nocturnal Animals'' (2016).
Early life
Glusman ...
as Sergei Pavlov, Lily's boyfriend and co-worker at Amaya
*
Alison Pill
Alison Pill (born November 27, 1985) is a Canadian actress. A former child actress, Pill began her career at age 12, appearing in numerous films and television series. She transitioned to adult roles and her breakthrough came with the television ...
as Katie, the chief designer of the Devs system
Recurring
*
Linnea Berthelsen as Jen, Lily's coworker and good friend
*
Aimee Mullins
Aimee Mullins is an American athlete, actress, and public speaker. She was born with a medical condition that resulted in the amputation of both of her legs beneath the knee. She is the first amputee to compete against able-bodied athletes in Na ...
as Anya, Lily's coworker
*
Jefferson Hall as Pete, a homeless man who sleeps outside Lily's apartment
*
Janet Mock
Janet Mock (born March 10, 1983) is an American writer, television host, director, producer and transgender rights activist. Her debut book, the memoir '' Redefining Realness'', became a ''New York Times'' bestseller. She is a contributing edit ...
as Senator Laine
*
Georgia King
Georgia May King (born 18 November 1986) is a Scottish actress.
Early life
Born in Edinburgh, King is the daughter of actor Jonathan Hyde and opera singer Isobel Buchanan.
Career
Although King grew up dreaming of being a director, she got her ...
as Lianne, Forest's wife
* Amaya Mizuno-André as Amaya, Forest's daughter
Guest
*
Brian d'Arcy James as Anton
* David Tse as Lily's father
*
Liz Carr
Liz Carr is an English actress, comedian, broadcaster and international disability rights activist.
Early life and education
Carr was born 21 April 1972 in Port Sunlight and grew up in Bebington, Merseyside. She attended Upton Hall School FCJ i ...
as a university lecturer
*
Corey Johnson as a psychiatrist
Episodes
Production
Development
On March 13, 2018, it was announced that
FX had given the production a pilot order. The pilot was written by
Alex Garland
Alexander Medawar Garland (born 26 May 1970) is an English writer and filmmaker. He rose to prominence as a novelist in the late 1990s with his novel '' The Beach'', which led some critics to call Garland a key voice of Generation X. He subsequ ...
, who also directed and executive produced the episode.
On July 23, 2018,
Rob Hardy
Robert Hardy, Jr. is a film director, film producer, screenwriter, and television director. With partner Will Packer, he founded the production company Rainforest Films in 1994. Hardy's film credits include ''The Gospel'', ''Trois'', and '' ...
mentioned in an interview that he would serve as the cinematographer for the series.
On August 3, 2018, it was announced during the
Television Critics Association
The Television Critics Association (TCA) is a group of approximately 200 United States and Canadian television critics, journalists and columnists who cover television programming for newspapers, magazines and web publications. The TCA accepts app ...
's annual summer press tour that FX had decided to bypass the pilot process and instead were giving the production a straight-to-series order consisting of eight episodes. Additional executive producers include
Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich,
Eli Bush
Eli Bush is an American film and theatre producer and former executive at Scott Rudin Productions. He is best known for producing the film '' Lady Bird'', for which he co-won the 2018 Golden Globe Award for Best Picture - Musical or Comedy and w ...
, and
Scott Rudin
Scott Rudin (born July 14, 1958) is an American film, television, and theatre producer. His films include the Academy Award-winning Best Picture ''No Country for Old Men,'' as well as ''Uncut Gems'', '' Lady Bird, Fences, The Girl with the Dragon ...
.
Garland appeared at the
New York Comic Con
The New York Comic Con is an annual New York City fan convention dedicated to Western comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, cosplay, toys, movies, and television. It was first held in 2006.
History
The New York Comic Con is a f ...
and explained his reasoning behind the creation of the series: "I read more about science than anything else, and it started with two things. One was getting my head around this principle of
determinism
Determinism is a philosophical view, where all events are determined completely by previously existing causes. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes overlapping motives and consi ...
, which basically says that everything that happens in the world is based on cause and effect...That has all sorts of implications for us. One is that it takes away free will, but the other is that if you are at a computer powerful enough, you could use determinism to predict the future and understand the past. If you unravel everything about you, about the specifics of you why you prefer a cup of coffee to tea...then five seconds before you said you'd like to have a cup of coffee one would be able to predict you'd ask for it." In November 2019, it was announced the show would premiere on
Hulu
Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...
instead of FX, as part of "FX on Hulu". On January 9, 2020, it was announced that the series would premiere on March 5, 2020.
Casting
Alongside the series order announcement, it was confirmed that
Sonoya Mizuno
Sonoya Mizuno (born 1 July 1986) is a Japanese-British actress, model, and ballet dancer.
She notably starred in the miniseries '' Maniac'' and the '' Game of Thrones'' prequel series ''House of the Dragon'', and appeared in all the works direc ...
,
Nick Offerman
Nicholas David Offerman (born June 26, 1970) is an American actor, writer, comedian, producer, and carpenter. He is best known for his role as Ron Swanson in the NBC sitcom ''Parks and Recreation'', for which he received the Television Critics A ...
, Jin Ha,
Zach Grenier
Zach Grenier is an American character actor of film, television and stage. He is best known for his roles in films such as '' Fight Club'', ''Tommy Boy'', and '' Twister'' and for his roles in television such as David Lee in '' The Good Wife'' a ...
,
Stephen McKinley Henderson
Stephen McKinley Henderson (born August 31, 1949) is an American actor and director. Henderson trained at Juilliard School for acting and later became a resident member of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis from 1976 to 1981. He came to prominen ...
,
Cailee Spaeny
Cailee Spaeny (; born July 24, 1998) is an American actress. Her first major role was in the science fiction action film ''Pacific Rim Uprising'' (2018), which was followed by appearances in ''Bad Times at the El Royale'', ''On the Basis of Sex' ...
, and
Alison Pill
Alison Pill (born November 27, 1985) is a Canadian actress. A former child actress, Pill began her career at age 12, appearing in numerous films and television series. She transitioned to adult roles and her breakthrough came with the television ...
had been cast in the series' main roles.
Amaya Mizuno-André, who plays Forest's daughter Amaya, is Sonoya Mizuno's niece.
Filming
Filming on the series had begun by August 2018, with scenes shot at
UC Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the edge of ...
.
Release
The first teaser for the series was released October 5, 2019. The first two episodes of the series were released on March 5, 2020, with the rest debuting weekly on Hulu under the label "FX on Hulu".
In
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, the series premiered on
Hotstar
Disney+ Hotstar (also known as Hotstar) is an Indian brand of subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Novi Digital Entertainment of Disney Star and operated by Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, both di ...
on March 6, 2020. The series premiered on
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
in the UK on April 15, 2020, with the whole series available on
iPlayer
BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...
at the same time. On September 23, 2020,
Fox Greece picked up the series and began airing it on September 28, 2020.
Reception
Audience viewership
According to
Whip Media
Whip Media Group is a private American company selling enterprise software for content distribution, as well as TV- and film-related user data. It operates physical offices in the US, the UK, and the EU.
Background
Whip Media Group is the result ...
's
TV Time
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, e ...
, ''Devs'' was the second most anticipated new television series of March 2020, and the tenth rising show, based on the week-over-week growth in episodes watched for a specific program, during the week of March 15, 2020. In January 2021, it was reported that ''Devs'' was one of FX on Hulu’s most-watched series to date, surpassed by ''
A Teacher
''A Teacher'' is a 2013 American drama film written and directed by Hannah Fidell, in her feature directorial debut. It revolves around a female high school teacher's illicit sexual relationship with a male student that turns from infatuation in ...
''.
Critical response
The series has an 82% rating with an average score of 7.7 out of 10 based on 90 reviews on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
. The site's critical consensus reads: "A hauntingly beautiful meditation on humanity, ''Devs'' slow unfurling may test some viewers' patience, but fans of Alex Garland's singular talents will find much to chew on." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, it has a score of 71 out of 100 based on 32 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews."
Brian Tallerico of ''
RogerEbert.com'' found ''Devs'' to be a highly philosophical and intellectual sci-fi and called it "stunningly ambitious," stated, "It's ultimately an unforgettable and rewarding experience." Tallerico praised Garland's work and concluded by writing, "one of the best new shows in a long time." Brian Lowry of ''
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
'' called the series audacious, summarizing that it is "a mind-blowing concept that doesn't entirely come together at the close, but which remains unsettling and provocative throughout." Alan Sepinwall of ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' rated the series 4 out of 5 stars, praised the performances of the actors, and complimented writing and the score, saying, "Alex Garland's new sci-fi series is a confounding and mesmerizing trip into a scary near-future." Martin Brown of ''
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media (CSM) is an organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children. '' rated the series 3 out of 5 stars, praised the depiction of positive messages and role models, writing, "''Devs'' poses ethical and moral questions about the nature of technology. Characters don't always act for the greater good, but some are driven by a sense of what is right," and complimented the diversity of the cast members.
In a more mixed review from ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', James Poniewozik wrote that "It showcases what Garland does well—ideas and atmosphere—while amplifying his weaknesses in character and plot. As the techies say, it scales—for better and for worse." In a more negative review, Sophie Gilbert of ''
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'' wrote that "''Devs'' is only the latest in a series of puzzle-box shows more preoccupied with their own cleverness and their labyrinthine twists than with the burden of watchability."
''The New York Times'' interviewed
theoretical physicist
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experimen ...
Sean Carroll about sweeping statements about humanity and determinism made by the creators of ''Devs'' and ''
Westworld
''Westworld'' is an American science fiction-thriller media franchise that began with the 1973 film ''Westworld'', written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film depicts a technologically advanced Wild-West-themed amusement park populate ...
''. When asked which show he preferred, Carroll responded, "I was very impressed with how
'Devs'' creatorswere doing something very, very different. I thought it was a very well done show. It was slow and contemplative, but that's a perfectly good change of pace from what we ordinarily see in action movies".
Accolades
See also
*
Laplace's demon
In the history of science, Laplace's demon was a notable published articulation of causal determinism on a scientific basis by Pierre-Simon Laplace in 1814. According to determinism, if someone (the demon) knows the precise location and momentu ...
References
External links
* on
Hulu
Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...
* on
FX
*
*
{{Hulu
2020 American television series debuts
2020 American television series endings
2020s American drama television miniseries
2020s American science fiction television series
Techno-thrillers
English-language television shows
FX on Hulu original programming
Television series about computing
Television shows set in San Francisco
Works by Alex Garland