Filmsane

Devs. You’ve probably heard of it. The latest passion project of the great Alex Garland is in his 6^th episode now, and I just have to mention the greatness that can be found in it. I know I know… The entire show is fantastic. The entire show is great. And yes, I know that plenty of you are currently confused by the third season of Westworld, but in fact, it’s Devs that you need to be watching. ASAP.

I wrote about Devs here on Filmsane before. Last month, to be exact. I introduced the TV show’s premise and talked about the themes, characters and actors that occupy Devs. And I do hope that you gave it a shot.

But for now (in this post of course) I’m going to take notice of the fantastic things that I discovered in the latest 6^th episode of Devs. Brilliant dialogue and simplistic direction.

In fact, most of the episode is based on dialogue. When Lilly (Sonoya Mizuno) and Jamie (Jin Ha) visit Forrest’s house (played by Nick Offerman) for some answers we’re introduced to two sets of dialogue.

Katie talked with Lilly inside the house (in the kitchen to be exact), while Forrest and Jamie chatted outside of the house (in the patio). And the simultaneous scenes filled with dialogue between the four characters lasted more than 20 fucking minutes. Yes. 23 minutes of fantastic dialogue, divided by 4 different individuals.

I must mention that although the scenes were as basic as they can get, the simplicity was not a set-back. Nor it’s any sort of demotion. They were very simply directed, edited and most importantly written. But they served the purpose in their most basic and simple form. Answer and question. One character sits on the one side of the table, while the other character sits on the opposite side. One character answers the question, the other responds.

They weren’t boring to watch. Like, at all. You’d think that monotonous and lengthily scenes with just people talking would cause the interest to drop among the viewers. No, it hasn’t, and it’s the testament of Alex Garland’s genius. He knows how to grab our attention even with the simplest easiest tools. Killer dialogue and great direction throughout it.

I don’t know about you, but the scenes made me feel like I was there with the characters. Like I was part of their conversation. And the close-ups and side-shots really helped with the intimacy of the whole conversation. It was a well orchestrated chess-game but with words and facial expressions. It was awesome.

I can’t wait for the final two episodes of Devs. I think that Forrest and Katie have met their match, and I think that Kenton (Zach Grenier) will be responsible for Devs’s demise. Time will tell.

But for now, it’s not too late to binge on the first 6 episodes of Devs. They’re all out on Hulu and they’re great source of entertainment during these troubling times. If you have to stay home because of the Coronavirus, then why don’t you indulge in something brilliant? Devs is the perfect choice for that.