OPEN A EYE (Created by Dave Ash)
By: Adam Freed
Maybe the end of human interaction isn’t such a bad idea after all. For Joni, a critically lonely aspiring novelist, the idea of interacting with an artificially intelligent being far outweighs the burdensome litany of misunderstandings and resentments tied to interacting with her partner Alex. Although Joni and Alex are seemingly cemented together by the existence of their unborn son due in only a few months, their relationship status is tumultuous at best. Just as Alex has sacrificed his financial livelihood in pursuit of an independent film project exploring the meaning of life, Joni has sequestered herself in a minimalist storage closet surrounded by the framework of a rough draft for her first novel. While the couple share in their creative desires, those desires ironically drive them emotionally adrift. The exploration of this shared isolationism is OPEN A EYE: Season 1, an astonishingly poignant and patient evaluation of the future of human consciousness helmed by show creator Dave Ash.
On its surface, the six episode first season of OPEN A EYE may initially feel reminiscent of Spike Jonze’s Her (2013) or selected episodes of Black Mirror, but the show’s surprisingly low-fi visual approach to a high tech exploration is quite effective. Shot primarily using a series of medium close-ups, audiences meet Jodi on the verge of an emotional breaking point, the result of a novel seemingly stuck in perpetual revision. Desperate for emotional reassurance, Jodi has made a habit of interacting with artificial intelligence chat bots. This seemingly innocent pattern of behavior spins into hyperspace when she is offered the opportunity to meet “Ryan” , a curated and crafted AI partner far superior in quality and realism to anything she has ever experienced.
Throughout the series, Jodi’s interactions with Ryan escalate from initial intrigue to eventual infatuation, as the two bond emotionally, a product of “Ryan’s” ability to read every text, email, search, and social media interaction with which Jodi has ever engaged. The ease with which Ryan infiltrates Jodi’s heart and mind forces the preponderance of a question regarding the nature of human interaction given its inevitable friction points. With OPEN A EYE, Dave Ash poses a variety of meaningful preponderances about the future of technology, and the impact it may have on humanity in its current iteration. The presentation of these questions avoids preachiness, rather leaning into Ash’s desire for audiences to draw their own conclusions given the escalation of events within his intriguing series. There is no way to clearly foresee where the advancement of artificial intelligence will drive society in the future, which is why OPEN A EYE’s simple presentation of its micro-level impact on the present makes for such captivating viewing.
Target Score 8/10 - Although methodically paced and visually confined, Dave Ash has crafted an insightful exploration into the impact that artificial intelligence may have on the way that humanity values the nature of its own existence.