Damon Lindelof, the cult screenwriter, is back with Mrs Davis. He so far he has an immaculate reputation built from three titles. With Lost (2004-2010), which he created with J.J. Abrams, he redefined the perception of television fiction and the public’s behavior when faced with enigmas. In The leftovers (2014-2017), which he signed with the writer Tom Perrotta, he unfolded his authorial potential with a story about mourning that plunged the viewer into the desolation and bewilderment of postmodernism, starting from the disappearance of the 2 percent of the population.
And, with Watchmen (2019), he silenced the skeptics who feared a new adaptation of the Alan Moore comic, transforming the imaginary of the work into a reading of the United States in a racial code, and taking the Emmy for best miniseries and best script. With her desire not to repeat herself in stories and in tone, Mrs Davis opens this Tuesday on HBO Max with an idea: to dismantle any expectations around Lindelof.
The footage places the action in France in 1307 with the knights of King Philip IV beginning 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 on a sword, uses the blade that protrudes from her torso to shatter another skull. The gore scene is not the only eccentricity of the presentation.
The viewer soon discovers that, in reality, the main plot takes place in a present without famine, without unemployment and without depression since an artificial intelligence, which speaks in the ear of those who wear headphones, is in control of society. The problem with this entity, which they refer to as Mrs. Davis, is that a nun, played by Betty Gilpin (GLOW), wants to kill her.
Lindelof’s creative movement is reminiscent of that of Alan Ball who, after writing two adult dramas like American Beauty and Six Feet Under, shocked the industry with bloody fun like True Blood. In tone, Mrs Davis is her funniest title, helped by Tara Hernández, who is also listed as a creator and who trained as a screenwriter on The big bang theory; and, in essence, it is consistent with her magnum opus, so prone to bizarre ideas.
For the Catalan public, it also contains another incentive: detecting the Girona locations taking into account that during the filming of the first season the production was installed in Girona, where it was filmed in the Plaza de los Apóstoles and Sant Pere de Galligants, and in the castle of Sant Ferran in Figueres.
