Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Mrs. Davis’ On Peacock, About A Nun Who Is Sent On An Epic Adventure By An All-Knowing AI

Take Damon Lindelof, writer and producer of some of the most conversation-generating series of the past 20 years, and pair him with Tara Hernandez, a writer for two of the most successful sitcoms of the past 20 years, and what do you get? A new Peacock series that’s a little bonkers, a little dramatic, but definitely entertaining.

MRS. DAVIS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A man with metal shoes climbs stairs; he has a prisoner in tow, bringing him up to a platform where he and his fellow heretics will be burned at the stake. “FRANCE. 1307.”

The Gist: In a basement room, a group of nuns is overrun by soldiers looking for the Holy Grail; the soldiers claim they’re hiding it for the Templar. One of the women starts to attack, saying they are the Templar. After a massive sword battle, the young woman escapes with the Grail, which looks like a humble bowl.

“PRESENT DAY. NOT PARIS. OBVIOUSLY.” On a deserted island, a man who has been gone for years finally is able to launch a flare; eventually, a container ship finds him and rescues him and his cat. Arthur Schroedinger (Ben Chaplin) not only finds out he’s been gone for a decade, but the captain starts to talk for “her”, who is speaking to the captain through an earpiece. Because of “her,” there has been no war, and all the problems of the world have been solved.

“MEANWHILE IN RENO…” A man who thinks that a prostitute who is driving him to a rendezvous just got decapitated when the car runs under a billboard is saved by a woman riding a horse. Sister Simone (Betty Gilpin), a nun at a local convent, saves people from marauding magicians; she’s given the assignments by Jay (Andy McQueen), a local chef.

Simone is very happy at the convent, and as she celebrates her birthday, she foregoes a wish, saying “Wishes are for little girls,” and saying all she wants is there. But her annual birthday drink with the Mother Superior (Margo Martindale) worries her. Then, as the nuns take the jam they produce to market, a side distraction tells Simone that someone is trying to get in touch with her — it’s the thing that most people call “her,” but she calls “it.”

When the nuns return after a failed jam run, Mother Superior tells them that the convent has been sold and that they’re being reassigned around the world. Simone knows that “it” is instrumental in this sale, mainly to flush her out. “It” follows her everywhere, including to a buffet restaurant, where a little girl wearing the earpiece says they should meet at a local elementary school.

Then she’s kidnapped by a group of German thugs, who threaten to blow up her horse. She’s rescued from that by Wiley (Jake McDorman), a former boyfriend who keeps calling her “Lizzie.” He’s part of a resistance movement against “her/it”, and they want Simone to be a part of it.

Simone starts to realize that she can’t avoid “it,” with whom she has a personal beef, any longer. But when they finally meet, the AI, named “Mrs. Davis,” makes an almost impossible request: Find the Holy Grail and Mrs. Davis will shut herself down.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Damon Lindelof and Tara Hernandez wrote Mrs. Davis (Hernandez is the showrunner), and while the weirdness of the show tends towards Lindelof’s history (Lost, The Leftovers, Watchmen) — there’s even a HATCH in the middle of the desert — the winks and nods are reminiscent of Hernandez’s previous work (The Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon).

Our Take: Mrs. Davis is certainly a strange show, but just strange enough to be intriguing instead of off-putting. With Lindelof involved so heavily, there’s little chance that the show would have been anything but intriguing, even if it takes a bit of an effort to get into the story in the first half of the first episode. Once we’re introduced to Simone, the convent, and the events that start her first interactions with Mrs. Davis, there’s a bit more of a focus that gets our attention.

Much of that is due to Gilpin, who has been impressing us since we first saw her in Nurse Jackie. Every time she embodies a character, she forces the viewer to root for her, because she plays that character with equal parts determination, toughness and vulnerability. Simone had a life before the convent, one that will be brought out as she rides around with Wiley trying to fulfill Mrs. Davis’ mission. It seems like that life wasn’t a happy one, as she was content with her fellow nuns and upset when the AI intervened in that happiness. We see all of that in the first hour, and Gilpin manages to integrate all of those emotions into a well-rounded whole.

Are we going to find out just who created Mrs. Davis and how she so thoroughly took over the planet? We doubt it; Lindelof has has never been one to spoon-feed backstories to viewers. It may not even matter; the AI is in charge, and it’s something we should just accept. We’re more intrigued by the push and pull between Simone and Wiley, and between both of them and Mrs. Davis, as they travel all over on their quest.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: After the AI, speaking through a kindergarten teacher, gives Simone her mission, Simone asks, “What should I call you?”

Sleeper Star: We sincerely hope we see more of Margo Martindale after the first episode, because we always want to see more of Margo Martindale.

Most Pilot-y Line: “DO YOU TAKE US FOR FOOLS?” yells one of Simone’s captors to her. She answers, “Sorry… do you really want me to answer that?”

Our Call: STREAM IT. While the first episode of Mrs. Davis took a bit of effort to wrap our minds around, we were hooked on it by the end, thanks in no small part to Betty Gilpin’s lead performance.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.