Devs spins a Silicon Valley murder mystery into something unsettling and strange

Devs is not a show that’s out to confuse you. The miniseries — which is billed as an FX show but airs exclusively on Hulu — bears a lot of the hallmarks of extremely cerebral, puzzle-box television. There is strange imagery: a massive, towering statue of a young girl delighted at the forests around her. Redwoods surrounded by LED halos. Rooms full of pulsing, warm orange lights, as if they were alive. Characters who talk around things and are forthright about little. But as heavy as the atmosphere is, the show isn’t out to lose you. Instead, it wants you on its side. It’s dispassionate but angry. Maybe you should be, too.

Despite its preference for aesthetics over clarity, the plot of Devs is a simple one: Lily Chan (Sonoya Mizuno) is a...

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