Damon Lindelof, the cult screenwriter, returns. He has an immaculate reputation built on three titles. With Perdidos (2004-2010), which he created with J.J. Abrams, redefined the perception of television fiction and the behavior of the public in the face of enigmas; in The leftovers (2014-2017), which he signed with the writer Tom Perrotta, he unfolded his authorial potential with a story about grief that plunged the viewer into the desolation and bewilderment of postmodernity, from the disappearance of 2% of the population; and with Watchmen (2019) he silenced the skeptics who feared a new adaptation of Alan Moore's comic, transforming the imaginary of the work into a racially charged reading of the United States, and took home the Emmy for best miniseries and best screenplay, among others.
With its desire not to repeat itself either in story or in tone, Mrs Davis premieres today on HBO Max with one idea: to dismantle any expectations about Lindelof. The footage places the action in France in 1307 with the knights of King Philip IV starting the persecution of the members of the Order of the Temple, whom they suspect of possessing the Holy Grail. The nuns who belong to the order do not tremble at the possibility of death: one cuts off the head of a knight while another, impaled with a sword, uses the blade that comes out of her torso to smash another skull.
The gore scene is not the only eccentricity of the presentation. The viewer soon discovers that, in reality, the main plot is set in a present without hunger, without unemployment and without depression since an artificial intelligence, which speaks in the ear of those who wear headphones, controls the society . The problem with this entity, referred to as Mrs. Davis, is that a nun, played by Betty Gilpin ( GLOW ), wants to eliminate her.
The creative movement on the part of Lindelof recalls that of Alan Ball who, after writing two adult dramas like American beauty and A dos metros bajo tierra, dislocated the industry with a bloody entertainment like True blood. In tone, Mrs Davis is his most comical title, helped by Tara Hernández, who is also listed as creator and trained as a screenwriter on The Big Bang Theory; and, in essence, it is consistent with his magnum opus, so prone to outlandish ideas. For the Catalan public, it also contains another incentive: to detect the Girona locations bearing in mind that during the filming of the first season, the production was installed in Girona, where it was shot in Plaça dels Apòstols and Sant Pere de Galligants, and the castle of Sant Ferran in Figueres.
