Mrs. Davis

“Mrs. Davis” is undisciplined, rather beautiful, seedy, surprisingly profound and, above all, fun. I can’t recommend it enough.

“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.

Bizarre, shaggy, funny, and surprisingly profound, Mrs. Davis isn’t a show so much to be described as experienced.

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. ... “Mrs. Davis” is complicated, but neatly organized. And the emotional arc is always intelligible, and very, very satisfying.

Mrs. Davis, an exhilaratingly weird new Peacock series from Tara Hernandez (The Big Bang Theory) and Damon Lindelof (The Leftovers), dares you to doubt it. It dances over the line of acceptable foolishness; a few times in the early episodes, it nearly loses you only so it can win you back. What makes it work is its total commitment, which starts with its lead.

Despite what are, objectively, a lot of weird and wild storytelling decisions, there’s something incredibly compelling—dare I say, miraculous?—about the way that what initially seem like unconnected, disparate pieces ultimately fit together.

A true original that’s completely strange, “Mrs. Davis” is a breath of fresh air in a reboot-happy medium.

A wonderfully wackadoodle work of meta — featuring a spectacular performance by Betty Gilpin — that never stops winking as it unspools a story about mothers and daughters, forgiveness, faith, and free will.

Veterans of Lindelof shows may appreciate the opportunity to tease out meaning from a more abbreviated episode list. The rest of us can enjoy a more surface-level read of the series and its characters. ... “Mrs. Davis” is a show about telling comforting lies and how the impact of those lies can often be long-lasting. Whether the surrounding humor adds or subtracts from the power of that message is a journey every viewer must take for themselves.

Mrs. Davis, refreshingly, isn't operating on the same level as any other show out there. In fact, it's playing in a league all its own. The only potential drawback to that is whether audiences will be able to meet it where it is, because, for better or for worse, it's a series that doesn't readily offer up answers for anything, at least not right away.

Mrs. Davis is big, bold, and loud in both its ideas and its execution, with some pretty stunning set-pieces across its eight-episode run. While there’s a fair bit of chaos in the mix, and maybe a sense that the show could have edited out one or two elements for greater cohesion, there’s a lot of joy to be found in the mess.

It feels too early to tell where the show is really going, especially given its insane twists and reveals so far, but it’s worth joining Simone’s surreal and occasionally profound quest just to see what happens.

While the first episode of Mrs. Davis took a bit of effort to wrap our minds around, we were hooked on it by the end, thanks in no small part to Betty Gilpin’s lead performance.

It often is [bewildering, but] it is delightfully so. The first episode—a riot of plot threads and false starts that is also the best kickoff among recent TV series—will, necessarily, give way to chapters that are less frantic and more enlightening.

While it’s impressive that Mrs. Davis stays as consistently surprising as it does, it’s hard to know precisely what to make of it by the season’s end — or if even the creators know what they meant to say with it. On the other hand, those willing to embrace the ride for what it is are in for a singular experience.

Watching its seemingly mismatched pieces strain to fit together is more appealing in many ways than watching other current series go about their business in more coherent and consistent fashion. ... There is something that feels right and on-topic for this one to be so sprawling and messy and unsure of itself. ... It manages to hit you in the feelings.

In its inventiveness, “Mrs. Davis” acts as an antidote to the programming-by-numbers and algorithm appeasement that’s becoming common in the streaming age — even when such lunacy sometimes outstrips its ability to tell a totally cohesive story.

“Mrs. Davis” the series, on the other hand, cartwheels from the sublime to the goofy. I wish it took itself more seriously (which probably also would have made it funnier). But it has moments of astonishment.

While “Mrs. Davis” sometimes feels like it lacks the teeth or focus to really land, it is never anything less than fascinating, even when it’s frustrating. It helps that Lindelof and Hernandez found a performer as fearless as Gilpin.

Lindelof wants following him to be doable if challenging, and frequently rewarding. Though in that same respect, the mysterious ways in which he works can be just as frustrating.

Mrs. Davis earns points for pushing boundaries and then some, while proving so out-there as to become frustrating and borderline impenetrable. Along the way, it says provocative things about religion, technology and the tensions between them, but keeping track of its intricate connections becomes more laborious as the show marches on.