Having already brought us the likes of Sugar, The Afterparty, Bad Sisters, and the imminently dropping Presumed Innocent, Apple TV has gained itself quite the reputation for original, compelling mystery series. And if the set-up for Katie Robbins' upcoming ten-episode darkly comic mystery series Sunny is anything to go by, then the streamer's hot streak won't be ending anytime soon. Set in Kyoto, Japan, the show — an A24 production based on Irish author Colin O’Sullivan's The Dark Manual — sees Rashida Jones' Suzie teaming up with the titular domestic droid to investigate her family's inexplicable disappearance. Check out the intriguing new trailer for the series below;
Okay, first thing's first, where do we get a Sunny? Seriously, between this and the new The Wild Robot trailer, it's been a great week to be a bot lover. But also, this just looks great, both in terms of Apple's customarily eye-catching production values, but also in the low-key Lost In Translation vibes we're picking up from Robbins' story of an American woman who finds herself both geographically and emotionally displaced in Japan. Only here, instead of ScarJo indulging in an anti-romance with Bill Murray as she toils with existential ennui, we're getting Rashida Jones sleuthing with a bot who may or may not be hiding something from her as she desperately tries to get her missing husband and child back. Okay, so it's not that similar narratively, but Jones did star alongside Bill Murray in Sofia Coppola's On The Rocks for Apple TV a little while back, so it's close enough, right?
Anyway, here's the series' official synopsis: "Sunny stars Jones as Suzie, an American woman living in Kyoto, Japan, whose life is upended when her husband and son disappear in a mysterious plane crash. As “consolation” she’s given Sunny, one of a new class of domestic robots made by her husband’s electronics company. Though at first Suzie resents Sunny’s attempts to fill the void in her life, they gradually develop an unexpected friendship, and together they uncover the dark truth of what really happened to Suzie’s family, becoming dangerously enmeshed in a world Suzie never knew existed."
Populating that world Suzie never knew existed is a starry international ensemble including Hidetoshi Nishijima as Suzie's missing roboticist husband, Joanna Sotomura as the voice of Sunny, Judy Ongg, YOU, annie the clumsy, and Jun Kunimura. And we can look forward to finding out whodunit — and why — when Sunny makes its two-episode premiere on Apple TV on 10 July. Until then, we're going to go see a roboticist about a, well, robot. WE WANT A SUNNY!