Hulu’s ‘New Matrix’ Series Deserves More Than Its 82% Rotten Tomatoes Score

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I really enjoyed Alex Garland’s show, even though it didn’t quite reach the heights of The Matrix franchise. It definitely deserved more than the 82% score it got on Rotten Tomatoes, in my opinion. And with shows like Dune: Prophecy coming out, it feels like we’re in a fantastic new era for science fiction on TV. The Expanse was a standout during the 2010s, one of the few sci-fi shows that could compete with Game of Thrones in terms of critical praise. But now, there are so many shows – at least a dozen, I think – that could genuinely achieve that same level of recognition.

Shows like Silo, Foundation, For All Mankind, Black Mirror, Love, Death & Robots, Netflix’s 3 Body Problem, Fallout, The Last of Us, Station Eleven, and Severance have quickly become sci-fi staples, and that’s not even mentioning excellent limited series like The Peripheral. With exciting new projects on the way – including the Blade Runner spin-off on Prime Video and the Neuromancer adaptation on Apple TV – it’s a fantastic time to be a sci-fi fan watching TV.

It’s surprising and a bit disappointing that Alex Garland’s Devs, a thought-provoking series with echoes of The Matrix, didn’t receive more positive reviews when it came out in 2020. Garland had already established himself as a creative force in science fiction with films like Ex Machina and Annihilation, and Devs was his first venture into a longer-format thriller for television. The show centers on Lily Chan, played by Sonoya Mizuno, an engineer working at the powerful tech company Amaya. When her boyfriend mysteriously dies shortly after joining Amaya’s secretive development team, Lily begins to suspect foul play and starts investigating the company’s hidden activities.

Devs’ Daringly Bold Approach Deserves Points For Originality

Netflix’s 2023 sci-fi thriller, Devs, features a complex plot with twists that viewers familiar with the show Bodies might recognize, particularly once the character Lily understands what’s happening within the development team. The show benefits from a strong cast – including Cailee Spaeny, Alison Pill, and Nick Offerman – and shares a similar, deliberate pacing and slowly building tension with director Alex Garland’s subsequent films, Men and Civil War.

Some reviewers thought the show aimed a bit too high, finding that its slow speed and complicated scientific terms made it hard to follow. However, those who watched the entire series at once, like a long movie – a good way to experience similarly dense shows like Twin Peaks: The Return – found a fascinating story within its complexity.

The show Devs starts with the puzzling death of Lily’s boyfriend, but that’s only the first layer of a much deeper story. Over its eight episodes, the series carefully examines the ideas of free will versus fate. Unlike many science fiction shows that jump between characters, Devs focuses intensely on this central mystery and draws you into the world of the Amaya corporation. Similar to Ex Machina, the show cares just as much about thought-provoking ethical and philosophical questions as it does about what happens next in the plot.

When Devs first came out in 2020, it didn’t impress every critic, though it still received a very good 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Potential viewers shouldn’t be discouraged by its slow pace. Considering Netflix cancelled the complex sci-fi show Sense8 because it was hard for a broad audience to understand, it’s important that Devs – a spiritual successor to The Matrix – doesn’t get overlooked.

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2026-05-12 18:53