Since making his directorial debut in 2014 with the acclaimed Ex Machina, Alex Garland has delivered some incredible science-fiction hits, and this miniseries that we rated five stars back in 2020 is no exception. Previously known as the screenwriter behind celebrated movies such as 28 Days Later, Sunshine, Never Let Me Go, and Dredd, Alex Garland has since branched out into directing his own mind-bending stories. Ex Machina, Annihilation, Men, Civil War, and Warfare all made a huge impact on audiences, and Garland’s little-watched FX miniseries from 2020 had a similar effect.
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Released on FX on Hulu in March 2020, Devs was an experiment for Alex Garland, but it certainly paid off. The writer and director’s first TV series, Devs explored themes of free will, determinism, the tech industry, the multiverse, and cause and effect. Starring Nick Offerman, Sonoya Mizuno, Jin Ha, Karl Glusman, Alison Pill, and more talented performers, Devs encapsulated Garland’s trademark visual beauty and character-driven storylines – with a sci-fi backbone – but gave audiences even more time to appreciate it all, being told over eight episodes.
Why Devs Is Essential Viewing For All Sci-Fi Fans
Devs follows Lily Chan (Mizuno), a software engineer at the enigmatic Silicon Valley quantum computing company Amaya, led by CEO Forest (Offerman). Lily becomes embroiled in an intense story after her boyfriend, Sergei (Glusman), mysteriously dies on his first day working at Amaya’s top-secret Devs department. Lily suspects Devs has something to do with Sergei’s death, so begins a personal investigation into the secretive department and Forest himself, unearthing a dark conspiracy and a heart-wrenching history, while putting her own life at risk in the process.
As with Alex Garland’s other work, Devs uses its technological and science-fiction elements to deliver commentary on the human condition and our own emotional states. ComicBook’s own review of Devs back in 2020 described the series as an “understated and complex journey” as well as “one of the most intriguing television experiences in recent years,” and this still holds true today. Performances across the board, but most notably from Mizuno and Offerman, are outstanding, and the series delivers hard-hitting and hard-to-understand concepts palatably while sticking to Garland and frequent collaborator Rob Hardy’s beautiful cinematography.
Taking the form of an eight-hour-long movie, Devs could be binge-watched in one day, as long as you don’t have any other plans. The series will keep you hooked from beginning to end, and stay with you long after watching, so you’ll find it hard to take a break anyway. You can catch Devs on Hulu and Disney+ in the United States, and it’s still relevant and significant five years on. In a cinematic environment of multiverse stories that can sometimes feel confusing and overwhelming, Devs delivers one that puts beauty and tenderness at the forefront. It’s worth the watch.
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Courtesy of Crunchyroll
