What is a technology company hiding in the one department nobody is allowed to discuss? Devs, a 2020 science-fiction thriller series directed by Alex Garland, builds its whole mystery around that question, in episodes of about 52 minutes.
What is Devs about?
Lily Chan is a young computer engineer at a cutting-edge tech firm in San Francisco. Her working life is ordinary enough until her boyfriend is killed, and the explanation she is given does not satisfy her. Her suspicion settles on the company's development division, a sealed-off unit whose staff and purpose are kept from everyone else on the payroll. Lily starts asking questions she is not supposed to ask. Each answer draws her closer to the people who run the division and to the work going on behind its doors, and it becomes clear that her employer has a great deal it would prefer to keep quiet. The series stays close to her as a private search for the truth turns into a confrontation with the place she works.
About the cast
Sonoya Mizuno, Nick Offerman, Alison Pill, Jin Ha, Zach Grenier, Stephen Henderson and Cailee Spaeny make up the principal cast. It is a compact ensemble for a compact story, and Alex Garland is the credited director.
Context & significance
Devs is a British-American production from 2020, listed under drama, sci-fi and thriller. Those three labels describe its balance well. The thriller element is the investigation, which keeps the plot moving from episode to episode. The science fiction comes from the setting, a technology company working at the very edge of what computing can do, and from the questions that kind of work raises about secrecy and power. The drama is grief: a young woman trying to understand a loss while the institution around her closes ranks. Because the story is told as a single continuing mystery, it rewards watching from the first episode in sequence. The series has been well received by viewers, particularly those drawn to slow-burning, idea-driven science fiction. Its San Francisco backdrop also places it squarely in the modern tech industry rather than a distant future.
Watching Devs on Ktime
On K-Time, Devs comes with a Persian dub and Persian subtitles, letting you choose between Farsi voices and the original soundtrack. The page you are reading is free to browse; streaming the episodes requires signing in to a K-Time account. Navigation and menus are in Farsi, made for Persian speakers living outside Iran.