Director: Katie Robbins
In Sunny, an American expatriate confronts an unsettling mystery inside her adopted home of Japan, where grief and quietly advancing technology collide in equal measure. Katie Robbins directs this 2024 series, blending dark comedy with slow-building dread as it unfolds across a compact first season.
What is Sunny about?
Suzie has built a life in Japan alongside her husband and young son, until a plane vanishes with both of them aboard. Grieving and adrift, she is handed Sunny, a household robot her husband's company designed for her — a gift she never asked for and initially resents. As Suzie reluctantly lets the machine into her daily routine, small inconsistencies in her husband's account of his work begin to surface. What starts as a portrait of loss slowly turns into an amateur investigation, with Sunny proving to be an unpredictable, occasionally unsettling companion for chasing answers Suzie isn't fully sure she wants.
Cast & crew
Rashida Jones anchors the series as Suzie, carrying much of its emotional weight opposite a robotic scene partner voiced with sly comic timing. Hidetoshi Nishijima and Joanna Sotomura round out a cast that moves fluidly between Osaka's expatriate community and its domestic interiors, while Jun Kunimura and Judy Ongg add texture to the wider ensemble around them. The rapport between Jones and her mechanical co-star is arguably the show's most distinctive asset.
Context & significance
Adapted from Colin O'Sullivan's novel The Dark Manual, Sunny arrived on streaming in 2024 as part of a broader wave of genre-blending series set outside the usual American backdrop, using Osaka's neon-lit streets as more than scenery. Its mix of comedy, grief, and speculative technology places it alongside other shows exploring how artificial companions reshape ordinary domestic life, though its tone remains distinctly its own — wry rather than sentimental, unsettling rather than cozy.
Where & how to watch
Sunny streams on K-Time with Farsi subtitles and a Persian dub available, letting Iranian diaspora viewers follow Suzie's search for the truth in their own language. This page is free to read without logging in; watching the episodes themselves requires a K-Time account, and the surrounding interface is built with a Farsi-first viewing experience in mind.