Why is there such a buzz about..?

Devs (BBC iPlayer)

Thinkers have been arguing about free will versus determinism for two-and-a-half millennia, and the ancient philosophical debate is given a futuristic upgrade in Alex Garland’s haunting sci-fi thriller, prompting online discussion and a host of think pieces.

Forest (Nick Offerman), the messianic founder of a Silicon Valley tech giant called Amaya, doesn’t believe in free will and thinks all human behaviour is, theoretically, predictable. ‘The sense that you were participating in life was only ever an illusion,’ he says. ‘Life is just something you watch unfold. Like pictures on a screen.’ His company is the sort of place where genius-level employees sit around discussing encryption algorithms and theoretical physics and quoting poets Yeats and Larkin at length.

However, as a general rule of thumb, if a tech outfit has a creepy giant statue of a little girl in its grounds, it’s not a good sign. The Devs division – the development team at the heart of Amaya – is using a powerful quantum computer to work on a secret project. Its lab is in a specially built structure suspended in an electromagnetic field and separated from the outside world by an eight-yard vacuum seal. When a brilliant young coder wins a promotion to Devs but mysteriously goes missing after his first day, his equally gifted girlfriend Lily (Sonoya Mizuno, right) has no choice – or does she? – but to investigate. This eight-part series is a mind-bending mix of the cerebral and the visceral.