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Mrs Davis - Her or It?
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US Network Peacock have released the trailer for as wacky as it sounds upcoming nun fighting an A.I. apocalypse series Mrs. Davis which in Australia is headed for Binge.

Comedically we wouldn't say its hitting every joke out of the park but on the whole we like what see, with two notes. One of those is potentially problematic.

At the trailer beginning we see nun hero Simone quibbling over the A.I. named Mrs. Davis referring to herself with the feminine pronoun, "her".

Repeatedly and presumably with intent to demean, referring to the A.I. as an "it."

Especially as we follow gaming we are aware of how topical the issue of gender is right now.

Though it failed, great effort was made to boycott last month's Harry Potter action roleplaying game Hogwarts Legacy because of author J.K. Rowling's unpopular views on gender.

Should it matter at all what pronoun an A.I. refers to herself as?

We had to correct ourselves here - thinking of A.I. as genderless which it might broadly be we initially wrote that as "refers to itself", but realised it wasn't right speaking in relation to Mrs. Davis.

Oops and also sorry.

Should anyone consider "it" an insult?

We know the answer to both to be "no" so that immediately puts this series on shaky ground.

Possibly showrunners and writers have innocently written this with a yesteryear mindset.

Perhaps it's just verbal kung-fu. This is a vastly powerful and dangerous artificial intelligence and maybe the mere mortal nun is resorting to nasty language to nettle it.

Coinciding with the Rowling controversy and failed boycott, it might have been timed to push back towards traditional gender norms.

Or in the best spirit of sci-fi it could put gender / labels under a spotlight to be viewed from an enlightening new perspective and encourage healthy rethinking and discussion.

Less controversially this line is a bit of a brow-raiser.

Don't give it a name. No-one calls Facebook Doug.

Again it's an issue of identity and arguably equally fallacious but Facebook isn't Facebook anymore.

They changed their name to Meta which might have happened after this was scene was written and shot.

We wonder if they joke about that or if it will be an unspoken and ironic commentary on the fact that entities can and do change their labels.

Or is this a deliberate reference to the fact that not everyone accepts the new name, for a variety of reasons?

Despite our concerns we haven't written this series off but will now be watching with a more critical eye.

The first four episodes of Mrs. Davis will premiere on Binge on April 21 with the remaining four releasing weekly.

[ Main Image: Mrs. Davis trailer. Credit: Peacock via YouTube. ]

References

Peacock (March 15, 2023). Mrs. Davis | Official Trailer | Peacock Original. YouTube.