Japan Isn't the Robotopia Apple's 'Sunny' Portrays
The ‘robot kingdom’ of Japan seems the ideal place for a new TV show featuring a quirky automaton. Reality’s a bit different.
Actress Rashida Jones, who stars in ‘Sunny” on Apple TV+
Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images AsiaPacSunny, the new Apple TV+ show, invites us to think about what even the most innocuous robots can be. Friends? A crime-solving partner? Or, perhaps, as the show’s opening scene suggests, even killers?
The dark drama-comedy, from Hollywood darling production studio A24 and starring Parks & Recreation’s Rashida Jones, tells the tale of the grieving Suzie Sakamoto, an expat in Kyoto grappling with the mysterious loss of her family in a plane crash. The twist is the eponymous Sunny, an irritatingly accommodative helper robot — designed by Suzie’s husband (who she thought made fridges), and which may be the key to finding the truth.