Quick Links
Few directors can pull off heightened sci-fi like Alex Garland, except for the times he cannot. But this isn’t about the movieMen, which, by the way, is somehow too complicated and dumb at the same time. In between the heights ofEx MachinaandAnnihilationexists a little show calledDevs, which is just the right amount of over-complicated and dumb.Devsworks so well because it is Garland at his most Garland, leaning into the sleek aesthetic and detached performances of its cast. It’s highbrow television, not necessarily because of what it has to say, but more because of how it says it.
Aside from its science-fiction style,Devsis also an exploration of violenceand its links to technology, which Garland has found great success with. Once you get pastNick Offermanwith a full beard and blonde hair, it opens up into an intriguing mystery that retains its ambiguity to the point where the feeling of awe is more important than the neatness of the result. It’s the kind of show that hides its espionage intrigue under layers of profound questions and a uniquely unsettling serenity, which is very similar toSeverance’sclaustrophobic trippy premise.
For those looking for a brain-bending series that tries to answer big questions and mostly gets there,Devsis a highly underrated showthat is something to check out if you like getting your mind bent inSeverance.Why isDevsa show worth your time? How does it present its concepts? How does it subvert expectations? Here’s what you need to know.
‘Devs’ Is a Great Show Because of Its Ambition
Alex Garland is an ambitious creativewho is more concerned with evoking a feeling than giving answers, which, for modern sci-fi, isn’t that common anymore.Devsweaponizes technological uncertainties and social constructs of death and wraps them in a feeling of uncanny relief that shouldn’t work as well as it does. It follows a software engineer for a mysterious company whose boyfriend is murdered. The leaders are playing God, and technology is being taken too far. Much like inSeverance, the workplace becomes a sinister web of lies and deceit that traps hero Lily Chan in hierarchy and bureaucracy. Both shows force the hero into a world of order where danger lurks below the surface, givingDevsa sci-fi twist toSeverance’sequally disturbing calmness.
Alex Garland’s Civil War Is a Political Failure but a Success on Max
Alex Garland’s Civil War fails to give a strong political message in response to violence but is still successful on the streaming service Max.
Devsis ambitious because it doesn’t meet the lofty questions it raises, but instead, it finds a workaround that provides equal catharsis and unease. It shouldn’t feel so disconcerting to find a ‘happy’ ending, but that’s exactly whatDevsachieves. As withSeverance, the inciting incident feels so far away from where we end up, which is a testament to the weightDevspacks into each episode. Lily’s boyfriend’s murder feels like a small event compared to the larger stakes that develop.
The journey begins as a personal one for Lily, but as technology takes over her world,Devsentangles the viewer in a web of philosophical weight and an unsettling atmosphere. It can be a demanding watch, asSeverancecan be, and that’s exactly the kind of space Garland should be in. Unafraid to challenge and equally happy to force a viewer into discomfort for the sake of finality.
Devs Gives Its Audience Nothing to Latch Onto
Garland’s previous works,likeEx MachinaandAnnihilation, suck emotion out of the experience, only to deliver one crushing blow to the audience. He taps into primal fears of rejected emotion and mirrored versions of yourself right at the end, when the viewer has been conditioned to live in the absent world he created.Devsdoes the same thing, often tying its social themes into the bigger sci-fi questionsto create oddly personal stakes that only become more personal the deeperDevsgoes down the rabbit hole.
In this way,Devssubverts the expectations it created. The episodes only include bursts of violence to get the blood pumping. So, as the mystery grows and the leaps in sci-fi logic get bigger, the implications get a lot more personal in terms of what this means for the world in the eyes of Garland and the show.Devsis trying to mirror ourcurrent tech dystopia, and as it refuses to give simple answers or even realistic ones, the social subtext is the thing that generates the emotion for the audience. It creates a more active viewing experience that contrasts with the detached style of the show.
‘Devs’ Is a Sci-fi Show for Our Time
Taking all of this into account, it leavesDevsin an ambiguous place, and maybe that’s why it’s been forgotten among the more digestible shows in the genre. It presents several impossible hurdles and has fun with the viewer by barely leaping over them, scraping their knees with every passing question with real-life implications. This doesn’t mean it gives us no answers, but it’s a more interesting experience when it is brave enough to similarly hold up its hands and say, “I don’t know what this means for us.” Sci-fi doesn’t always have to be about presenting answers.
Annihilation and The Hollywoodization of Book-to-Film Adaptations
Here’s deep-dive into Alex Garland’s 2018 weird sci-fi book adaptation, Annihilation, and its roots in the Hollywood machine.
Devsis arguably the most daringproject of Garland’s career, asking us to invest our social fears in an intentionally isolating experience and find what happens as that space grows. The more serious things get for the characters and the technological meaning behind everything, the more we want to fill in the gaps or ask the show to tell us everything is going to be OK. The show doesn’t always do that, and that’s why it’s modern sci-fi for our times because it’s as lost as we are. It can crush you with its distanced characters, all while forcing you to sit still as it throws social issues at you that aren’t neatly solved.
LikeSeverance, which came after it,Devsis a workplace thriller that knows how to make horror out of the ordinary. The relaxed way that the characters react to the increasingly sinister moments makes it feel like this is all normal. When placing this with the confinement of the workplace,bothDevsandSeveranceforce the viewer to go up against an enemy that they have been conditioned to trust. Suddenly, the workplace that you visit every day is actually hiding secrets underneath your nose. That’s what makes it all the scarier.Devsis available to watch onHulu.
