DEVS: An Intellectual Science Fiction Feast by Alex Garland

Alex Garland continues to tread the paths of science fiction. He walks the trails carved by the giants of the genre, maintaining originality and a surprising uncompromising attitude. He does not bow to trends or the audience, although he knows that his works will reach only a handful of viewers. It’s good that such people still exist. Devs is an example that there is still space in television for creators weaving metaphysical visions about ultimate matters.

Warning! The text reveals key plot elements!

To see a world in a grain of sand / And heaven in a wildflower / Hold infinity in the palm of your hand / And eternity in an hour. The words of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience could serve as a motto for this production, signed with the FX station’s logo. Over the course of eight episodes, the creator of Ex Machina unceremoniously unveils the hidden needs in the corners of human hearts that we are afraid to admit. After all, who wouldn’t want to revisit past events, who wouldn’t give up the chance to learn about the future? Man’s omnipotent urges have been known since the dawn of time. Cave paintings, studying the architecture of the cosmos, tons of written papers, miles of mathematical calculations, towers soaring into the sky – we leave behind many traces that testify to the need to overcome absurd limitations. We want to free ourselves from the body and melt into the sea of pleasures, outwit death, and submit to the current of the river of time, or perhaps free ourselves from mental shackles to understand the nature of the universe. We want to taste apples not only from the tree of life but also from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

In Devs, the second tree appears indeed, this time in the form of a quantum computer that allows the creation of images of the past and the future. It stands in the very heart of a scientific paradise – a laboratory cube suspended in a vacuum – adored by the employees there. Its fruits may bring a moment of joy, but their taste slowly drives one to madness.

It is because of this that the cause of all the turmoil, Forest (Nick Offerman), wants to familiarize himself with everything that is possible. Although the device can guarantee the discovery of the true identity of the assassin of President Kennedy and serves as a transdimensional telescope to spy on the sex life of Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller, the CEO of Amaya Corporation needs it for the most important goal of his life – to learn the full circumstances of his daughter and wife’s death. Whether the entire mission succeeds depends on whether the protagonist frees himself from the demons of the past or sinks deeper into despair when he realizes he is responsible for the car accident.

The plot is stretched across two key pillars of human existence – determinism and free will. Garland explores both fields, examining the meaning of these terms, their significance, and existence. In other words, observing the actions of the characters serves to uncover the truth about how much the choices people make are dictated by genetics and environmental influences, and how much their roots lie in unrestrained spontaneity.

Although Garland clearly expresses his view on this topic in an interview with GQ, he allows himself to explore paradoxes related to this issue. The artist stands by determinism as a concept describing the situation humans find themselves in. He does this through the creation of Forest, who repeatedly speaks of causes and effects as the only principles governing human actions. He also sides with Katie (Alison Pill) in an academic debate on quantum mechanics when the woman refers to Hugh Everett’s concept. At the same time, when Devs starts to operate, the characters and viewers are shown an image of the crucified Jesus raising prayers to God the Father in Aramaic. At this point, religion, at least in some “documented” aspect through the mentioned image, collides with physics. Science and faith once again square off for minds when it comes to choosing between the concept of free will, in this context granted by the Creator and “sealed” by His sacrifice on the cross, and the achievements of modern science, which takes away any agency from man. “They reduced everything to nothing” – says Lily (Sonoya Mizuno) when she realizes what the company she works for is really doing.

However, what is significant is that Garland does not refer to “primitive” determinism philosophy. This time, the artist’s weapon is armed with an additional bullet – the concept of Everett’s, whose quantum hypothesis of many worlds explains all variations of the characters’ fates presented by the director. According to the physicist, what is supposed to happen, has definitely happened in one of the countless realities. The universe resembles an eternally branching tree, where each twig is a branch of human destiny, one of the possibilities being realized at the moment. But even in this aspect, the creator of Annihilation leaves room for doubt when observing the final moments of one of the Devs employees’ lives. The young man believes that balancing on the edge is not dangerous, because in one of the worlds, he will surely survive, so in the end, nothing will happen to him. He does not know that every version of him will fall dozens of meters down, crashing onto hard concrete.

The FX series is not a homogeneous entity, its plot also branches out into other genres, which, in this case, becomes a curse. Garland does not fully manage to close all storylines. He is clearly interested in philosophical matters, which is why the thriller elements, connected with the espionage activities of Lily’s boyfriend (Karl Glusman), are treated in a cursory manner. The man has contact with Russian agents, one of them even saves the woman at one point, but this does not really have any significance for the plot. The thriller subplot serves to fill screen time. This is one of the reasons why Lily’s story is so rarely discussed at this point. Without taking anything away from this character, it must be stated that the director did not commit to creating a fully fleshed-out person out of her. Her dilemmas are echoes of other characters’ dilemmas, her actions mean a lot to the plot, but not to the themes tackled by the author. Devs is not a series where a lot happens. The action is merely a pretext, as it only serves to create the necessary conditions for important dialogues about the universe, philosophy, and human emotions.

It seems that for the first time in his directing career, Garland does not forget about the emotions depicted in the characters. Although in Ex Machina he showed the drive toward death, and in Annihilation he spoke about the loss of a loved one, he treated the characters like figures on a chessboard, pawns in a game of GO (referenced not without reason in the series), whose fates could be predicted several moves ahead. Meanwhile, Devs, although immersed in science fiction style and constructed as an interpretive labyrinth, is an amalgam of conflicting emotions. Forest, by far the most interesting character of the production, is driven by the mania of regaining his lost daughter, but on the other hand, he fears what he has created. He is a bit of a demonic CEO from Silicon Valley, but in reality, Garland has constructed his psyche in the form of an archetype rooted in the film world since Orson Welles and his Citizen Kane. For Forest, “Rosebud” is the lost little girl. It is in her honor that he named the company, it is in her likeness that he built the powerful corporation.

From the very first episode, Garland does not hide his ambitions. One need only glance at the book Lily is reading (The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath), and then at Amaya transformed into a towering figure over the forests, to decode the main intention driving the artist. It is the need to tell a story about the refusal to accept loss, about the renewed fight with death. Times change, props become modernized, but human traumas remain unchanged. Moreover, in this context, the burning of Lily’s boyfriend’s body takes on a symbolic dimension, as this incident took place in front of a monument. It is a kind of bloody sacrifice that Forest offers on the altar of the idea.

Devs is not only a philosophical debate but also a fantastic visual tale. Garland repeatedly captures with his camera the view of long, endless roads that have no branches, stopping at signs reading “dead end,” trapping characters in tight frames to prove that there is no escape from fate’s judgments. The image constantly “works,” every frame is thought out, as is the wonderful set design, with the golden cube at the forefront. Its hypnotizing glow unrealizes reality. It makes the line between day and night, truth and simulation disappear. It’s also worth paying attention to two very important formal aspects of the entire project – nature photography and music. The soundtrack, based in part on the works of Jan Garbarek using religious songs, as well as female vocalizations, creates an aura of mystery and builds pathos that beautifully corresponds with the meaning of the work. It’s as if the viewers are participating in a pop-culture mass, during which the false prophet Forest performs the ultimate sacrifice (because he knew about the coming death) and waits for deification, in this context related to the transfer of consciousness to the simulation created by Devs. Finally, the sky is close to man.

Nature also occupies a special place in Garland’s work. In Ex Machina, it served as a silent witness to the games of God, in Annihilation, it was a force “repaying” humanity for the devastation it had caused, while in Devs, it sometimes looks like a digital backdrop. Although it serves as a hideout for the corporation’s activities, no one interacts with it in any way. Nature goes unnoticed. Moreover, when the characters are in the center of the frame, the rest of the shot seems blurred, looking like green pixels. The leaves of trees reflect more clearly on the glass surface of the building, while observing them without any “intermediaries” is disappointing when the eye registers patches of color instead of a texture full of details. It is hard to say whether this is a conscious technique of Garland’s, yet the observation of the surroundings introduces an element of unease. Nature is not what it seems.

Devs, Deus, or maybe Devils? The director plays with the title of the series, though unnecessarily explains its meaning in the final episode. He talks about determinism and apparent immortality in the simulated world, but also, through one of the characters, recites Larkin’s Aubade about the inevitability of death. He creates an aura of religious ecstasy, only to quote Yeats’s The Second Coming about the Antichrist being reborn in Bethlehem. Garland multiplies clues, gives opportunities for conflicting interpretations of on-screen events, and above all, seeks understanding for humanity’s desires in the fight to gain divine attributes. And the most wonderful thing in all this is the fact that the creator undermines his work. He presents only a variation on the fates of Forest, Lily, and Katie, a peculiar branch in the inhabited multiverse. Out of an infinite number of attempts, only one could have ended this way, while in another reality, the story took a completely different course.

Devs is one of the boldest productions in a long time. The creator has made a huge thematic fresco about humanity’s pursuit of knowledge of all things, sometimes resorting to unnecessary techniques, yet he managed to keep everything in the right proportions. It is worth intellectually engaging with this proposal. Although the quasi-religious tone may irritate, and the slow narrative may lull, in the end, there is a satisfying punchline that opens up a wide field for discussion. It is definitely worth going on this science-fiction journey with Alex Garland.