TV

Devs Episodes 1 and 2 Review


When Sergei and his team manage to create an algorithm that can predict the movement of an organism ten seconds into the future, he secures a spot at Devs. His work is as unconventional as his new colleagues: wunderkind Lyndon (Cailee Spaeny) and smooth-talking Boomer Stewart (Stephen McKinley Henderson). But even though Forest’s second-in-command Katie (Alison Pill) tells Sergei to take his time in discovering Devs’ purpose, he seems to quickly stumble upon a revelation that has him vomiting and shaking… and capturing on his “James Bond wristwatch” to share with Russian intelligence.

Because what initially seems like xenophobic paranoia from head of security Kenton (Zach Grenier) turns out to be rooted in truth: Sergei is a spy, and he’s been made. Devs treats Sergei’s death the way that Forest and Katie do: as something unpleasant that nonetheless needed to happen–in this case, at the hands of the stoic Kenton. What’s interesting, however, is the lengths to which they go to to hide this from Lily: presenting her with CCTV footage of Sergei supposedly lighting himself on fire, and a charred corpse sprawled beneath the statue of Amaya.

But this brilliant cryptologist isn’t ready to just believe what her eyes see, and hacks into Sergei’s Sudoku app that hides a password-protected messaging service with his Russian handler. Of course, she can’t do this without bringing in her poor ex-boyfriend Jamie (Jin Ha), who she split with shortly after starting at Amaya. While Lily leans on him for support, pragmatically promising that they can sort through their baggage after she finds out what really happened to her partner, it is Lily alone who meets with handler Anton (Brian d’Arcy James) and ultimately refuses to go undercover to continue Sergei’s mission. Fortunately/unfortunately for her, Kenton gets to Anton before he can see her answer.

Already a quarter through its eight-episode miniseries, Devs throws out and rejects potential directions this story can go. This will not be a contemporary The Americans, nor will it be The Office replacing paper with an impossible machine. Though the device, protected through layers of Faraday machine and electromagnetic vacuum seal, is the heart of the story.

At this point we don’t know much about what the machine can do, but the one utterly shocking visual provided will feed many a guess. Under Katie’s watch, Stewart and Lyndon access a projection of sorts: Jesus Christ on the cross, blurry yet unmistakable. Jesus. Fucking. Christ. Alex Garland, you cheeky bastard, I never expected you to take on religion (and possibly history?) in so audacious a manner, but I have to know more. Is this a manifestation of cultural belief? An objective window into the past that unequivocally proves his existence? Can it be reached, or only observed? Katie and Forest seem to know more than their handsomely-compensated employees, but they won’t say.



READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.