Mrs. Davis: Here’s Why Critics Are Loving the Certified Fresh New Show

Critics? They’re answering the call for Mrs. Davis.  

The new Original series premiered Apr 20 on Peacock to wide acclaim and earned Certified Fresh status on Rotten Tomatoes as effortlessly as a nun riding a motorcycle. (As effortlessly as our protagonist Simone, anyway.) 

Mrs. Davis comes from Tara Hernandez (The Big Bang Theory) and Emmy® Award-Winner Damon Lindelof (Lost, Watchmen) and features Betty Gilpin as Simone, a nun who goes to battle against the namesake Artificial Intelligence “Mrs. Davis.” 

Take a look at what critics from a handful of publications had to say about this Original series below:  

“Ostensibly, our TV and movie entertainment is still being crafted by humans. Yet so much of it already has the vibe of something generated by AI — made not because its creators had anything fresh to offer but because some graph somewhere calculated that the best way to attract viewers would be to pacify them with more of the same. Mrs. Davis could never be mistaken for something engineered by computers, or even by committee. No, this feels like the work of people determined to show what they can do that algorithms still can’t: take all those storytelling tropes we’ve heard a hundred times before, and find a way to refashion them into something daring, ambitious and entirely new.” — Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter  

“Mrs. Davis is a rollicking, absurd, moving extravaganza about the power of cliches and the pleasure of smashing them. It’s about magicians and God and computers, the fun of predicting how a story will go, the joy we feel when those predictions go haywire and the compulsive appeal of structuring living through ‘quests.’” — Lili Loofbourow, Washington Post 

“[Mrs. Davis] is the rare show that feels inscrutable at first and eventually seduces you to such an intense degree that you would eagerly die on the nearest available hill defending it. For much of my first viewing of the premiere episode, I was confused; during the opening moments, in which a gruesome fight sequence plays out inside a 14th-century Paris convent, I thought I had accidentally clicked on the wrong screener. By the eighth and final installment of season one, I was ready to race through the streets with a sparkler in each hand shouting, town-crier-style, ‘Watch Mrs. Davis, you magnificent cowards!!’” — Jen Chaney, Vulture  

“There are impressive performances all around, but Gilpin’s is something beyond that; she’s utterly natural and present in every moment of a role that asks much of her. It’s an encyclopedia of acting, encompassing comedy, drama, broadness, subtlety, joy and grief, whose brilliance is partially masked by the genre setting and the daffiness of the action, but rewards attention. She dignifies the series.” — Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times 

“Mrs. Davis earns your attention, and if it occasionally floods the zone with an abundance of imagination, a surfeit sure beats a deficit when it comes to new ideas in today’s TV. Even better, the limited series offers answers and closure. By the time the finale rolls around, a rewarding conclusion seems nearly impossible, and yet whether you’re enjoying the show as an intellectual exercise or pure, blissful entertainment, the closing moments are exceptional.” — Ben Travers, Indiewire (Critic’s Pick)  

“There's a joyfulness in Mrs. Davis' storytelling, and an urgency, too — as if it can't wait to sit you down and start reeling off its tale. But there's also an overarching comedic sense that lends the whole thing the kind of structure it needs to reach its weird — and weirdly satisfying — conclusion.” — Glen Weldon, NPR 

“Gilpin, a seamless comedic actress with vast emotional range, is exceptional. Whether Simone is sniping at Wiley (‘Dummy, focus!’), sharing a quiet moment of reflection with Jay, or arguing with an Italian baker over a cake she needs to bring to the Pope, the actress commands our devotion. Gilpin doesn't even need dialogue to dazzle. When Simone finally allows Mrs. Davis to speak to her directly through an earpiece, the camera holds on her face as she listens to the AI, whose voice we never hear. In those 30 seconds, Gilpin delivers a silent monologue with her eyes, which flutter with confusion briefly before welling up with tears of poignant understanding. ‘Thank you,’ she whispers at last.” — Kristen Baldwin, Entertainment Weekly  

Stream Mrs. Davis on Peacock now. The first four episodes were made available at launch, while the remaining episodes will premiere weekly on Thursdays.