I recently blasted through the FX mini-series Devs. The show was created, written, and directed by Alex Garland, who I have been enamored with since his 2014 directorial debut, Ex Machina.
Don’t worry, I’m not interested in giving spoilers but let me just say, Devs is the bomb. You should seek it out immediately if you’re at all interested in sci-fi, thrillers, quantum mechanics, the social consequences of technology, or questions of moral philosophy. That said, you don’t need to have seen it to read this post.
Director Alex Garland and star Nick Offerman on-set of FX’s mini-series, Devs.
On top of being a brilliantly entertaining tech-thriller, Devs centers around the philosophy of determinism. If you aren’t familiar, determinism is the philosophical belief that all events are completely pre-determined by previously existing causes, i.e., everything in life is already meant to be. This includes the good aspects of life as well as the bad. Determinists believe that every avenue of reality is fated to occur precisely as it does. (I encourage you to watch this excellent video from Crash Course if you’d like more context on determinism before you continue reading.)
Since the onset of 2020, the world at large has been a bit, well, rocky. Between the COVID-19 outbreak and various other strokes of misfortune, including my own personal unemployment, Devs presented itself at a curious time in my life. It feels oddly serendipitous that a show about determinism would come at a time when the world faces such medical and economic turmoil. I feel the series arrived at a timely moment because it suggests that even the worst of events are meant to be. And I, for one, am thankful for a show that encourages us to ponder why good and bad things happen.