{"id":5186,"date":"2020-04-20T09:06:15","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T13:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/?p=5186"},"modified":"2020-05-03T11:48:53","modified_gmt":"2020-05-03T15:48:53","slug":"the-miniseries-devs-delivers-a-delicious-dose-of-heroism-and-villainy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/2020\/04\/20\/the-miniseries-devs-delivers-a-delicious-dose-of-heroism-and-villainy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Miniseries ‘Devs’ Delivers a Delicious Dose of Heroism and Villainy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Scott T. Allison<\/strong><\/p>\n

Devs<\/em><\/a> is the ideal TV mini-series for people to sink their teeth into, for many reasons: (1) It\u2019s both science and science-fiction; (2) it’s brilliant mix of psychology, philosophy, religion, and technology; (3) it tantalizes us with the mysteries of love, life, death, time, and space; and (4) it features a creepy 200-foot tall statue of a pre-school girl, which ordinarily would be cause for alarm until we realize that the girl symbolizes Devs’<\/em> paradox of our choices changing everything \u2013 and nothing at all.<\/p>\n

I have to give writer Alex Garland tremendous credit for creating a universe, or rather a multiverse, that succeeds on many different levels. There are fabulous characters, specifically Lily and Jamie, whom we care about and who rise to the heroic challenge. Jamie hits the nail on the head in characterizing Lily as someone who doesn\u2019t merely think about boldly taking actions \u2013 she takes bold action in situations where 99.9% of humans would not. That approach to life, dear readers, is the central essence of heroism<\/em>. As her sidekick, Jamie is loyal to the core and uses his gifts to assist Lily on her hero\u2019s journey.<\/p>\n

But Devs<\/em><\/a> is much more than a couple of heroes venturing on the mythic journey. It bestows us with an outstanding ensemble cast featuring generationally diverging Amaya coworkers Lyndon and Stewart; a charismatic, psychopathic villain in head-of-security Kenton; a pair of ethically shady billionaire tech giants in Forest and Katie; and a homeless dude named Pete who somehow worms his way into these people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

I was captivated by Devs<\/em> from the get-go. We meet Sergei, and we like him. He\u2019s got a lot of heroic potential \u2013 he\u2019s young, smart, loving, loyal. \"\"<\/a>His girlfriend Lily has these same qualities and the two appear to have a close relationship. Amaya\u2019s top secret Devs operation is shrouded in mystery. This element of mystery is a vastly underrated aspect of heroism and villainy.\u00a0<\/em>What role does mystery play? It inflames our heroic imagination. It especially ignites our imagination for the presence of potential evil.<\/p>\n

Shameless plug time – in our last book, The Romance of Heroism<\/em>, my co-author George Goethals and I discuss how the ways in which human beings resolve mystery can lead to extreme and biased conclusions about heroism, and especially about villainy. Here’s a brief overview of how this can happen.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Devs unit at Amaya is mysterious and spawns rumor and speculation, even among government oversight committees. Forest\u2019s instructions to Sergei on this first day at Devs are mysterious \u2013 he\u2019s told to just look at code and he\u2019ll know what to do, eventually. The mystery and the potential darkness of Amaya is heightened when we witness Sergei lose his lunch in shock after seeing some of the code. Sergei says, \u201cThis changes everything\u201d to which Katie replies, \u201cThis changes nothing” — an exchange that offer only the slightest of hints about Devs’ true purpose. At this point, I was hooked and pretty much binge-watched all eight episodes of Devs<\/em> in two days.<\/p>\n

Devs<\/em> features outrageously high production value. The music, in particular, lends a stylish note during key scenes such as Episode 2\u2019s slow-motion fight between Kenton and Anton in the parking garage. Nick Offerman as Forest strikes just the right balance between brilliance and eccentricity, and between good and evil. I also enjoyed Alison Pill\u2019s striking performance. She shows off her range here, portraying a brilliant scientist named Katie whose emotional control contrasts starkly to her portrayal of a similar scientist in Star Trek: Picard.<\/a> I love that Katie’s intelligence exceeds that of Forest and that she calls the shots at Amaya as much as, and even more than, Forest himself.<\/p>\n

Devs<\/em> is to be commended for having three very strong female lead characters who drive the story forward. The series takes a big chance in casting Sonoya Mizuno as Lily, our primary hero of the story. Mizuno isn\u2019t the most charismatic actor — yet, I\u2019m going out on a limb by saying that she is the perfect person for this part. Let\u2019s face it, Lily is a tech nerd, and I suspect that few tech nerds have the magnetism of a Meryl Streep or a Kate McKinnon. Her low-key approach is matched by that of Jamie, her sidekick and former lover. The inability of these two characters to communicate their thoughts and feelings was sometimes torture for me to watch, but their dialogue was also realistic in a less-is-sometimes-more<\/em> kind of way.<\/p>\n

Most of all, Devs<\/em> succeeds in a sublimeway at the level of storytelling, weaving together a tapestry of mathematics, the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. I enjoyed witnessing the unfolding success of the Devs\u2019 mission, which begins with the development of brief temporal simulations that can accurately expose both past and future. Soon it becomes more than just an exercise in simulations and evolves into an \"\"<\/a>actual portal into our true past and into what seems<\/em> to be our exact future. I love how Devs<\/em> invites us into the philosophical argument about free will versus determinism and gives us data supporting both positions. Mustn\u2019t the true reconciliation of the free will vs. determinism duality reside in its nonduality?<\/a> Lily\u2019s final actions in the last episode demonstrate the fallibility of taking an all-or-nothing position on this issue.<\/p>\n

Episode eight’s Devs\/Deus reveal is fabulous, building on the notion that Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and others are self-anointed Messiahs. I should have discerned the connection to Deus coming, as references to the god-like self-images of silicon valley executives are peppered throughout the entire series. But I didn\u2019t see it coming and I credit Alex Garland for giving us enough clues without sledgehammering us.<\/p>\n

So we\u2019re left wondering whether we\u2019re all living a \u201creal\u201c life versus existing as computer simulations of ourselves. And as Stuart says, we could be a simulation existing within countless simulations because the Devs supercomputer exists in every multiverse. And as Forest says, what difference does it make whether our existence is real or a simulation? The laws of the universe work the same either way.<\/p>\n

The Devs<\/em> miniseries<\/a> is a masterpiece and is a must-see for anyone who enjoys science, science fiction, psychology, philosophy, religion, and ethics. Alex Garland throws a lot of complex, interconnected human issues at us to disentangle. Lily is\u00a0 pegged as “the chosen one”, the special someone around whom the fate of the entire universe resides, the person whose choices somehow break the prognostic ability of the Devs supermachine, the women whose “death” is visually reminiscent of that of Christ on the cross.\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To be fair, Devs<\/em> isn\u2019t perfect. One could be critical of Pete\u2019s identity as a Russian agent being a little too obvious. We know that Pete isn\u2019t really a homeless man, and so the \u201cbig reveal\u201d at the end is hardly a big reveal. A second criticism centers on why Lily and Jamie returned to her apartment after her escape from the mental institution. They had to know that Kenton would likely hunt them down and kill them. Jamie in particular, who was terrorized and tortured earlier by Kenton, should have been extremely reluctant to sit in Lily\u2019s apartment waiting to be Kentonized — unless, of course, Lily and Jamie’s inability to alter their fate is the very point here.<\/p>\n

Finally, I\u2019m still not sure why Forest was so adamantly opposed to the multiverse idea. Surely Forest had to know that the multiverse theory, championed correctly by Lyndon, was the surest path toward achieving a reunion with his daughter. <\/em>Perhaps Forest could not bear any universe or existence in which his daughter dies. The vindication of Lyndon is Forest’s salvation, all made possible by Lily’s “original sin” of disobeying Deus, an act that ultimately leads to Resurrection. None of these pieces fit together perfectly but they blend together just well enough to give us much to ponder.<\/p>\n

Overall, our hero Lily traverses the hero\u2019s journey in exemplary fashion. Unaware of her true identity as the key to the resurrection of the universe, she has to undergo enormous suffering to come to an understanding of her central role in everyone’s fate. Her ability to exercise her freedom of choice, at a pivotal time, makes her a hero in the very best sense of the word. She enlists the aid of a sidekick and uses an avalanche of adversity to transform herself into a courageous, resilient, resourceful hero who saves the world.<\/p>\n

Here you can check out our full Reel Heroes review of Devs<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott T. Allison Devs is the ideal TV mini-series for people to sink their teeth into, for many reasons: (1) It\u2019s both science and science-fiction; (2) it’s brilliant mix of psychology, philosophy, religion, and technology; (3) it tantalizes us with the mysteries of love, life, death, time, and space; and (4) it features a … Continue reading The Miniseries ‘Devs’ Delivers a Delicious Dose of Heroism and Villainy<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5444],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary-and-analysis"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phawtM-1lE","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}