On paper, “Sunny” looks like a perfect example of the kind of subpar content often dumped into summer schedules. The assumption seems to be that we’re all outside enjoying the sunshine, rather than desperately searching for something entertaining to watch. What are these people thinking? They might be the same ones who serve “a hearty salad” at summer dinner parties, as if we don’t need proper meals between June and August. But I digress.
The synopsis of “Sunny” doesn’t inspire much confidence: a grief-stricken woman in near-future Japan teams up with a robot to unravel the mystery of her son and husband’s disappearance in an apparently fatal plane crash. Oh God.
Fortunately, sometimes the gods of entertainment smile upon us, and “Sunny” is one such blessing. It opens with a dramatic scene: blood splatters across an orange wall as a robot wreaks havoc on the humans in the room. We then cut to Rashida Jones as Suzie Sakamoto, an American expat who moved to Japan to heal and live a quiet life. Instead, she met the charming and gentle Masa (Hidetoshi Nishijima), married him, and had a son, Zen.
In a flashback, we see the couple’s meet-cute in one of Japan’s silent restaurants, a quirky and credible setting that exemplifies the show’s gently unpredictable and genre-spanning nature. It’s enough to keep you on your toes without making you roll your eyes.
After Masa and Zen disappear, Yuki, a senior colleague from the giant tech firm where Masa worked as a refrigeration engineer, delivers a “homebot” named Sunny (voiced by Joanna Sotomura) as a condolence gift. This is no ordinary homebot, Yuki explains; it’s one Masa programmed especially for Suzie. Suzie begins to suspect that her husband may not have been a simple refrigeration engineer after all.
Suzie is a technophobe who only gradually warms up to Sunny. “A robot killed my mother,” she tells an official. “It was a self-driving car,” corrects her mother-in-law, Noriko (Judy Ongg). “Human error was named as the cause.” Noriko’s role in the story goes beyond dropping poisonous bon mots, but they are her specialty.
The show blends comedy, sci-fi, and an odd-couple premise with a conspiracy thriller. Suzie uncovers details about her husband’s life and disappearance that don’t add up. At an office party she reluctantly attends as Masa’s widow, she meets one of his underlings, who speaks of her mild-mannered husband with frightened awe. Escaping down a back stairwell, she finds a series of rooms called the “Sakamoto Incubator.” One of them contains blood stains and the orange wall we saw earlier.
“Sunny” is a profoundly confident show. It moves at a leisurely pace—perhaps a touch too leisurely for some—and treads all manner of boundaries without a misstep. It explores the apparent impossibility of truly knowing another person, as well as themes of grief and loneliness. Masa, as a younger man, lived as a hikikomori, one of the estimated 1 million people, mostly men, who have withdrawn from Japanese society. He and Suzie bond over their shared understanding of the need for solitude.
The show also delves into modern concerns, such as the potential of AI for good and ill, alongside all the twisty plotting and clues required for a conspiracy thriller. A chance meeting in a cocktail bar with a waitress named Mixxy (played by the songwriter and YouTube personality Annie the Clumsy, who performs admirably) provides a bridge to the dangerous world of bot-hacking. This draws Suzie and Sunny deeper into the mystery of the plane crash and other deaths. They are also secretly surveilled by mysterious men and attract the attention of the criminal underworld, led by a terrifying platinum blond psychopath named Hime (played by the actor You), who also seems to have known Masa well enough to attend his funeral.
It sounds like a lot, but “Sunny” stays firmly in control of itself and never sprawls. It seems designed to scratch the “Severance” itch while we wait for the new series, and it probably will. But it is undoubtedly its own thing—and a very good one, too.
“Sunny” is available on Apple TV+ now.
Source: The Guardian
