Review- Sunny Ep. 1: He’s in Refrigerators

Image: Apple TV

Apple TV latest offering Sunny takes place in a near-future Kyoto, Japan, where Suzie Sakamoto (Rashida Jones) struggles with profound grief and is given a domestic robot to assist her.

The episode begins in an ImaTech facility where we witness a robot killing a man before it is deactivated by ImaTech personnel. We then meet Suzie, a lady who is grieving the death of her husband Masa and son Zen after a mysterious plane crash.

One night Suzie gets a visit from an ImaTech employee named Yuki Tanaka. He presents her with a domestic assistance robot (homebot) named Sunny. We learn that Suzie hates robots because her mother was killed by a self-driving car. Susie does not want Sunny in the house but then Yuki reveals that Masa designed Sunny at ImaTech. This shocks Suzie as she believed her husband worked in the refrigerator division.

Later at ImaTech’s Christmas party, Suzie discovers the room where the engineer was killed by a robot, with bloodstains on the wall and carpet. She later chats to Mixxy, a bartender, who talks about a local politician who is rumoured to have been killed by his domestic robot. As Suzie returns home, she is being monitored by a man viewing surveillance footage.

Once home she discovers red wine tracks on her floor, resembling blood. As a result she drives out with Sunny and leaves her on a bridge, only to find Sunny back in her house in the morning. Suzie prepares to destroy Sunny, until the robot mimics a hand gesture that Masa made before boarding the flight…

Verdict: 6/10. A good start to the series but is very slow in places. I am willing to watch on to see what happens next though. Jones is great in the role and I look forward to seeing how she lets Suzie unleash.

Brett Summers

Brett founded CultFaction.com in 2014 a website and podcast that deals with cult film and tv. He also has a strong interest in grappling martial arts both as a practitioner and as a historian.