The show is about a nun. He’s a bit of an action hero. Raised by mid-level wizards in Reno. With the intent to destroy an artificial intelligence system he thinks is responsible for all the evil in the world, he embarks on a mission to find the real Holy Grail and battles the Nazis along the way. Also, her boyfriend is Jesus – just like … Jesus – and the lovemaking sessions are really hot.
peacock series Miss DavisThe finale, which premiered on Thursday, is so gonzo-crazy-wild-unique to its bizarre smorgasbord of themes and plot that it seems as if a computer had randomly generated TV concepts and compiled them into a series. (It’s also unintentionally airing on time, amid a controversial discourse about artificial intelligence and its potential role in screenwriting and its potential role in replacing TV writers in the future.) But it’s also so clever, fresh, and different that only warped human minds can emerge. In the case of Miss Davisthose minds will be Damon Lindelof and Tara Hernandez, who co-created the show.
“It’s a bit like a game like ‘crossing the blunt,’ or ‘I’m going to write a page and then you’re going to write a page,'” Hernandez tells The Daily Beast’s Obsessed. “And you get it back and you’re like, ‘Who added the Nazis? Who did this? Now I have to solve these guys?’”
Lindelof compares it to “buffet on a cruise ship” and adds: “There is everything you could want. For example, do you want waffles? You want the omelet station? How about some sushi?
The entire eight-episode season Miss Davis Now available to watch, it’s time to ask Lindelof and Hernandez the most pressing question about the show: What the hell?
Emmy nominee Betty Gilpin plays Simone, who is forced to leave the convent where she enjoys snuggling with her sisters between various crime-fighting assignments. the long lost Holy Grail. Ms. Davis has replaced religion in society in many ways, people are now looking for answers from their faith. Simone is skeptical of everything: Ms. Davis, the magic that traumatized her growing up as a magician’s child, and the whole Holy Grail thing. But she accepts this task, because if she completes it, she can destroy Miss Davis forever.
“We had a list in the writers room that we call ‘Grail expectations,’ so what do you expect when you make these kinds of adventure stories?” says Hernandez. “I am waiting Indiana Jones adventure often involving Nazis. There will be aggression. It will be a sword. The question is how to hit these signs that are familiar to people. It was, yes, this Indiana Jones-y, or this The Da Vinci Code-y and we embraced. It’s okay to feel like these are metaphors. We’re dealing with an algorithm.”
“As long as there’s a character in the show – and they don’t look at the camera and wink – but as long as they say, ‘I’m disappointed with this nutcase,’ I came to believe it worked. ”says Lindelof. “When all the characters are ready to board the train to Absurdville, that’s when you start to lose yourself. So you find an audience surrogate, preferably your main protagonist. And given what a nun’s belief systems are, having a nun the most down-to-earth character in the show felt like a very unique challenge.”
Lindelof is best known for co-creating the series. LOSS, leftovers, And guard. Hernandez spent nine years as a writer. big bang theory and its by-product, Young Sheldon. Relevant resumes seemed tonely discordant, which is exactly why Lindelof knew Hernandez would be the perfect partner for a disruptive project. Miss Davis.
exit from work guard— and a traumatic epidemic — Lindelof asked for a break from the punishing schedule of making dark TV and showing off alone. He wanted to work on something lighter for his next show. He also wanted to partner with someone who had TV writing experience and was willing to take on series directing responsibilities. Lindelof estimates that roughly 150 scripts were sent from potential writers to consider. House of Mercy from Hernandez.
Inside House of Mercy The story is, everyone is born with an expiration date and the knowledge of exactly when they will die. Children with an earlier expiration date are often left in an orphanage run by nuns. “It was really about these women and how they found some light and humor in it. [it] asked whether [outlook] It made sense in a very dark world,” says Hernandez.
“He lifted it,” Lindelof says of the script. “When I told my wife that that’s the point of this business, but also that it’s fun, she said, ‘You’re so weird.
“When [Lindelof] I found it funny, I was like, that says more about you…” Hernandez laughs.
Lindelof broke his teeth while working on broadcast series like. Nash Bridges And Jordan Passand liked that Hernandez had such an extensive background in working on a multi-camera network comedy. “I’ll be an old man talking ‘When I’m young…’ but with the broadcast model you really learn the formula,” Lindelof says. “There are so many people who go on TV they say, ‘I want to break the formula.’ And that’s fine. But all they do is watch. They never made it to the lab. It would be like saying ‘I’m going to change the way chicken cacciatore is prepared’ but I just ate it. Actually, I never did.
Miss Davis It developed through extensive meetings and conversations between Lindelof and Hernandez. Two topics with key starting points: nuns and artificial intelligence.
“My love for nuns, especially because I love passionate characters,” says Hernandez. Nuns also tend to be a canvas for extremism in pop culture: strict and punishing, lamb and naive, or a fetish. “They’re a costume for us, really. When creating a reference submission, we came across as many legitimate photos of sexualized nuns or Halloween nuns. They are far removed from our society. They are just an image. They are a habit. They are something.”
Simone and she and Lindelof wanted to break those stereotypes.
The AI aspect of the show was driven by the ubiquity of the field bubbling up all over the news, and also unexpectedly by the pandemic. As Lindelof pondered the ethics of AI—like how cowardly technology can become—she saw a world where it could be useful, even comforting. Inside Miss DavisThe tool is so useful and meaningful that it essentially replaces religion.
Deadline via Randy Shropshire/Getty
This premise was born, in part, from a simple thought Lindelof had during the pandemic lockdown. With so much uncertainty about what is safe and what precautions are really necessary, wouldn’t it be nice to ask an AI these questions and get a definitive answer? But even this possibility brings complications. Miss Davis explored throughout the season.
“Algorithms don’t understand what it means to be human because they’re not human,” Lindelof says. “If you ask an algorithm, ‘Do I need to disinfect my markets?’ and he had all the data he needed to know that COVID didn’t live in the fomites and that you were safe, what he didn’t count on was that in those early days of the pandemic, disinfecting our food is actually an emotional effect. It was a ritual that made us feel safe while we all felt powerless and in total and utter danger.
The series, then, marks another instance where a show Lindelof was involved in creating proved to be remarkably prescient on issues that captured the spirit of the times. 2019s watchmen, Imagined as a sequel to Alan Moore’s influential 1986 comic, the issue of systemic police violence, especially against people of color, this book has become a pressing, national conversation. The show’s portrayal of corrupt policing, white supremacy, and the institutions that make it possible was incredibly timely.
Now, AI services like ChatGPT are both fascinating and engaging, and the Writers Guild of America sees the potential role of AI in screenwriting as a major issue in contract negotiations. Miss Davis equally resonant.
“When guard “Reparations or systemic injustice in policing weren’t what everybody knew,” Lindelof says. “Everything was bubbling under the surface. I wish we didn’t live in a monitored country. guard seemed forward-thinking. All the Black writers on the show are basically ‘guard 40 years is too late.’
“With artificial intelligence, the conversation has now become much sharper, centered on ChatGPT,” he continues. “I’ll be honest with you. If I could pay $25 an hour and get good therapy from a robot instead of a human—which I could afford—if it makes me feel better, I’m okay. Did he take my therapist’s job? Yes. Now, my therapist should get $25 or more. Still, it makes me think, ‘Oh, it’s coming for me now’ as a writer.
Note: Only humans were involved in writing and reporting this story.
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