The truth about artificial intelligence is that AI has limitations. Human emotions continue to be one of the most significant barriers to AI, despite the advances the tech world intends to take in the coming years. In the new Apple TV+ series Sunny, AI advances slam to a halt in the face of human emotions, opening new tech up to unsavory people with nefarious intentions.
Sunny stars Rasheeda Jones as Suzi and Judy Ongg as Noriko, Suzi’s mother-in-law. Both women are in mourning after Suzi’s husband Masa (played by Hidetoshi Nishijima) and son Zen (Feris Beheir) crashed in a plane to Hokkaido. Suzi’s grief over the event is evident, palpable, and raw. She has an acerbic attitude, cries at the drop of a hat. Suzi’s overall sad demeanor embodies all the characteristics of the grieving widow. Noriko, however, keeps a pleasant face and constantly grates at Suzi to grieve honorably. Noriko means putting away the grieving widow persona at home.
Between scenes of Suzi and Noriko, a side story is shaping up. It’s a violent mystery with some strange players popping up led by Hime, played by Yukiko Ehara. Hime connects the two worlds, while embodying the need for people to explore that space where tech fails the humans it is meant to serve.
The AI in the series is Sunny, the homebot and series namesake, who is voiced by Joanna Sotomura. Sunny enters the series and only makes Suzi’s grief stick out even more. Masa made Sunny and sent it to Suzi to help with her grief. It quickly becomes evident that Sunny does not understand grief and can’t figure out how to help Suzi now. Homebots are designed to be of service. But Sunny finds it nearly impossible to be of service to someone she can’t understand.
Another problem is that Suzi didn’t know Masa was working on bots. As far as Suzi knew, his occupation was building and fixing refrigerators. So, in addition to Sunny’s inability to understand Suzi’s grief, there is a mistrust in the motives behind Sunny’s arrival. There’s also the culture clash where Sunny’s expectations of Japanese grieving meet Suzi’s real human grief.
Suzi and Sunny represent not only the point where cultures clash but also where tech fails. Sunny tries hard to satisfy and fulfill Suzi’s every need. However, the one thing that would sate Suzi is the one that Sunny cannot make or procure—Masa and Zen. The experience creates a disconnect that Sunny tries very hard to overcome. And, in doing so, the bot stumbles upon a glitch that brings chaos into everyone’s world. The glitch is exactly what Hime is looking for.
There are numerous times in the series where Sunny’s programming reacts badly in the face of Suzi’s grief. The first episode shows Sunny trying everything to soothe the often sad and always angry Suzi to no avail. For example, Sunny tries to clean and accidentally disturbs one of Zen’s possessions. The robot cannot understand the woman’s reaction: crying, yelling, and outrage. Sunny sees that the item is not damaged. The bot intended to put the item away for safekeeping. None of that matters or soothes Suzi. Suzi is angry nonetheless and has great difficulty explaining the reason to Sunny.
At this point, Sunny begins to glitch. It starts processing memories of Masa before the flight. There is blood and a body. That’s the other side of the series. Hime and her people are the Yakuza crime syndicate, and they are interested in Suzi, Masa, and Sunny. The disconnect in the homebot programming is one that Hime can use to generate a new and lucrative funding source. Masa knows of the glitch; he made it unintentionally. Sunny’s failure point is the only link Hime has to Masa’s discovery. As Sunny tries to understand Suzi the bot gets closer to unlocking the dangerous but valuable programming that Masa tried hard to conceal. What Hime needs to support her bid for Yakuza leadership.
Sunny takes full advantage of that point in the relationship between humans and bots where the connection fails. Bots are designed to serve, but what happens when they are faced with human emotions that cannot be solved or reasoned with? The series explores the options with often hilarious results. At one point, when Sunny fully unlocks her programming, she and Suzi switch roles. It’s Suzi trying to figure out what’s wrong with the bot, and the bot is angry, sad, and wants to be left alone. Suzi tries to find the problem, leading to a funny exchange where Sunny and Suzi argue about the possibility of a bot having PTSD or PMS.
Sunny takes a deep dive into humans’ ultra-high expectations of AI. The series identifies a glaring failure in the relationship and exploits it for tense, exciting, and sometimes hilarious results. That failure is the complexity of human grief. The series also shows that the only cure is time, and even then, the emotion does not entirely disappear for some. As Sunny explores that failure, the results are violent, funny, mysterious with an exhilarating secondary storyline.
Sunny streams on Apple TV+. New episodes drop on Wednesdays.
