Life and death and robots

Rashida Jones dives into grief, loneliness and living with AI in Sunny’

- BRIONY SMITH

In “Sunny,” Rashida Jones is overwhelmed by grief after the death of her husband, played by Hidetoshi Nishijima, left.

Food. Culture. Dragon Ball. Suzie had many reasons for moving to Japan. She was also intrigued by an article that said that one per cent of the population are hermits. The hikikomori, who have disengaged from society to just be.

“It sounded … perfect,” she says. She also shares this slightly morose nugget on a first date.

This sets the tone for “Sunny,” the new “darkly comedic drama” produced by powerhouse of the moment A24 and airing on Apple TV Plus. Rashida Jones (“Parks and Recreation,” “The Office”) produces and also stars as its melancholic heroine.

As the show opens, she’s dealing with the aftermath of a terrible tragedy: her husband and son have died in a plane crash. Grief overwhelms her, renders everything and everyone silly and annoying. (Especially her mother-in-law.)

In an effort to cheer her up, her husband’s employers drop off Sunny, an advanced robot her husband designed. The only problem? Suzie had no idea that her husband designed robots. Apparently, he didn’t work in the refrigerator division after all.

The show criss-crosses between Suzie’s raw, real work to overcome her grief and her mission to find out what the hell her husband was really up to. Joining her in her quest is a hot bartender (played by Annie the Clumsy) and, of course, the infuriatingly perky titular robot, Sunny (voiced by Joanna Sotomura).

We chatted with Jones about grief, loneliness — and what it’s like working with robots.

The show deals with grief, something that has often been seen as taboo or hard to talk about, but is becoming less so in recent years. What excited you as a performer and as a producer in tackling grief?