More than yet another sci-fi parable<\/a> about a future plagued by dangerous robots<\/a>, Colin O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s 2018 novel The Dark Manual<\/em> was a lyrical meditation on grieving and the emotions we project onto everyday objects. The book\u2019s premise, prose, and thematic ambivalence about artificially intelligent machines made it feel like the kind of story that could only be adapted as a grim drama. But Apple TV Plus and A24\u2019s Sunny <\/em>brings a new depth and nuance to O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s story by tempering it with healthy doses of whimsy and animatronic puppetry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Similar to The Dark Manual<\/em> (which seems to have been recently retitled in anticipation of Apple\u2019s new show), Sunny <\/em>revolves around Suzie Sakamoto (Rashida Jones), a woman trying to piece her life together following a plane crash that (seemingly) killed her husband Masa (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and their young son Zen (Fares Belkheir).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As an American transplant with a limited ability to pick up languages or make new friends, grieving in a near-future Japan is a disconcerting experience for Suzie. Even with her overbearing mother-in-law Noriko (Judy Ongg) constantly at her door, and everyone being connected by their Devices \u2014 pillow-like smart gadgets that feel inspired by It Follows<\/em>\u2019 shell phone \u2014 Suzie\u2019s loss leaves her spiraling into a profound loneliness. But as painful as it is living in a house full of memories, what unnerves Suzie most is the unexpected arrival of a domestic homecare robot called Sunny (Joanna Sotomura), who insists that Masa programmed her specifically for the mourning widow before the crash.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n There\u2019s a pronounced sense of dread running through O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s novel that makes its homebot-filled world feel like a cold, dark place, where the drumbeat of technological progress has convinced many to embrace machines they don\u2019t entirely understand. Jones brings some of that energy to her witheringly acerbic Suzie who, like her book counterpart, does not initially trust Sunny and lashes out at the homebot as it begins taking care of chores.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But unlike The Dark Manual<\/em>\u2019s mechanical servants with their unblinking sensors that shift from a menacing shade of scarlet to blue as they process information, all of Sunny<\/em>\u2019s robots are presented as smiling, friend-shaped beings whose cartoony designs are reflections of a larger shift toward aesthetically playful technology.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Had Sunny been created entirely out of CGI, the energy between Sotomura and Jones might not play so dynamically as the homebot and her owner snipe at each other in the show\u2019s first few episodes. But because Sunny is an animatronic puppet<\/a> whose animated facial expressions were real-time recreations of Sotomura\u2019s, there\u2019s a realness to their interactions that makes them both feel like weightier (in the narrative sense) characters as a result.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Through Sunny and Suzie\u2019s caregiver \/ caretaker relationship, Sunny<\/em> taps into something very real about how societies turn to technology to deal with personal<\/a> and communal issues<\/a>. And yet the silliness of Sunny being a googly-eyed puppet who we never see (but presumably can) go up stairs is a huge part of how the show also manages to work as a comedy that\u2019s really about its two leads trying to solve a pulpy mystery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n While few of Sunny<\/em>\u2019s twists and turns are entirely novel, the show\u2019s commitment to making its world feel like a plausible vision of a future where people\u2019s gadgets work to address their needs is fantastic. In place of the book\u2019s allusions to tensions with North Korea, Sunny <\/em>puts more emphasis on yakuza boss Hime (You) and the shadowy community of people illegally jailbreaking homebots to perform functions they\u2019re not technically supposed to be able to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Some of Sunny<\/em>\u2019s most fascinating worldbuilding comes by way of its villains and their fixation with the fabled Dark Manual key to turn homebots into murder machines. But as Suzie and Sunny\u2019s intrigue pulls them deeper into Japan\u2019s underworld, you can feel Apple setting Sunny <\/em>up to continue growing beyond its first season in a way that seems like it could lead to too much of a good thing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n