Peacock’s Mrs. Davis Is Weird and Wonderful

In a sea of ever-growing streaming services and platforms, NBC’s Peacock has often struggled to distinguish itself from its competitive brethren beyond its vast back catalog of comforting nostalgia properties. Perhaps it’s this need to find an identity—in addition to some genuine hits—that has caused the streamer to be more willing than most to say yes to the unexpected and different. From Poker Face and The Resort to We Are Lady Parts and Killing It, Peacock’s greatest critical and commercial successes have thus far come from its embrace of the offbeat, quirky, and ambitious. And perhaps its biggest swing to date comes in the form of Mrs. Davis, an almost indescribable series from Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof that takes on faith and the idea that there’s still an audience out there for big, messy, audacious storytelling. (And, truly, I hope they’re right.) 

Much of the early promotional material has positioned Mrs. Davis as a sort of commentary on our current AI-fueled moment, a story that wrestles with what allowing algorithms to run our lives might do or mean for humanity. And, it is, obviously—one of the key questions its story asks is whether the titular superpowered AI that knows all and sees all can somehow be a benevolent force in a world where people are all too eager to compete with one another for in-game advantages and bonuses that validate their worth. But it is also something much bigger. A complicated exploration of faith, belief, and the love that passeth understanding all wrapped up in a story that includes everything from jaded magicians, a ship-wrecked scientist, and jam-making nuns to a quest for the Holy Grail and a very literal relationship with Jesus Christ, this show is, no joke, like nothing you’ve ever seen before. 

In a television landscape fully stocked with procedurals and reboots of familiar IPs, it’s rare to find something that’s genuinely ambitious, a show that feels so bonkers you can’t actually believe a network somewhere actually greenlit it, that you know from the jump won’t be for everyone but that will deeply impact the people it connects with in unexpectedly meaningful ways. Mrs. Davis is absolutely that show—its heavy religious themes, non-linear timeline, and genre-defying narrative swerves are the definition of “high concept” and also “extremely extra” depending on who you’re asking. But despite what are, objectively, a lot of weird and wild storytelling decisions, there’s something incredibly compelling—dare I say, miraculous?—about the way that what initially seem like unconnected, disparate pieces ultimately fit together.

Look, it’s almost impossible to explain the plot of this show without spoilers, and you’re truly best served if you go in knowing as little as possible about the connective tissue that makes the series sing. But, here are the basics: Mrs. Davis follows the story of Sister Simone (Betty Gilpin), who has spent the better part of the past decade as a nun at the charmingly rustic convent of Our Lady of the Immaculate Valley. But while she’s been making strawberry jam and embracing her newfound, deeply genuine faith, the rest of the world has essentially become enthralled by Mrs. Davis, a sentient, chatty algorithm who ostensibly seeks to make everyone’s lives easier (and also sets people a variety of quest-like tasks). Simone, for personal reasons of her own, abhors the global AI and has subsequently tried to live a life disconnected from its reach and influence. That determination is tested when Mrs. Davis—who spends most of the series’ first episode trying to force Simone to talk to her using increasingly complicated run-ins with various strangers—sets her a seemingly impossible task: To find the Holy Grail. And if she’s successful, she’ll be given a wish, one that just might allow her to change the world for everyone.