Review: Sunny Is a Techno-Satire About Violent Robots

Technology is neither inherently good or bad. Our friendbots—and our murderbots—are what we make of them.

The first of Isaac Asimov's three laws of robotics held that robots cannot harm a person or allow a person to be harmed through inaction. Sunny, a twisted techno-satire on Apple TV+, asks: What if they could?

Set in an alternate present Japan in which roving friendbots that resemble chest-high iMacs are common companions, the show follows a woman who believes her son and engineer husband died in a plane crash. She learns that her husband was working on a hush-hush project involving those robots—and that it's possible to override their safeguards in order to make them violent.

Along with a cocktail bartender and friendbot named Sunny, who was programmed especially for her, the protagonist follows a series of clues to find out what really happened to her family. She discovers that the smiling friendbots may not be so friendly, but that a murderbot can sometimes be useful.

Sunny's idiosyncratic humor and violence won't be for everyone. But the show takes seriously the idea that technology is neither inherently good or bad: Our friendbots, and our murderbots, are what we make of them.