Science writer Philip Ball joins Kate Gardner and Tushna Commissariat from Physics World to discuss the TV thriller Devs. Listen to the full conversation in the Physics World Weekly podcast.

To understand quantum physics – as far as anyone does – requires a lot of imagination, and a fair bit of philosophy. If you examine whether, say, the Many Worlds interpretation is correct, that opens up discussions of determinism versus free choice. Indeed, proving which quantum physics interpretation is true could have huge implications for humanity, and for how we live our lives. While we may not quite be there in real life, that is what the characters in new TV show Devs are attempting to unravel.

This sci-fi thriller from writer-director Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Ex-Machina) has quantum physics at its heart and truly embraces all the complexity that entails. The screen is often packed with smart people debating the nature of reality – and yet all eight episodes are also action-packed and thrilling. In the opening scene of Devs, a young couple sit in their kitchen having a conversation about quantum cryptography over breakfast. What I really appreciated was that this dialogue is neither plot explanation, nor mere technobabble. It’s establishing two scientists having a realistic technical discussion – a friendly disagreement – about their work.

The woman in this cosy set-up is Lily (played by Sonoya Mizuno), a quantum-communications expert. Her boyfriend is Sergei (Karl Glusman), an AI developer. They both work at Amaya – a quantum tech company on the outskirts of San Francisco run by its enigmatic founder Forest (Nick Offerman). Amaya is a large company with a beautiful campus – including a small woodland that disguises the location of the super-secret Devs building. Everyone at Amaya knows this department exists, but only those who work in Devs know what it does.

To reveal exactly what this clandestine department does – and how – would certainly constitute a spoiler, but the building itself is worthy of comment. From the outside it is a giant concrete bunker. Inside it is the one thing in this series that I could find fault with. A glass and steel computing lab is suspended magnetically at its centre, surrounded by a vacuum moat, several metres wide, separating it from the outer walls, floor and ceiling. The only access is via a horizontal lift that traverses the vacuum. No electronic devices – or cleaners – are allowed in, but there is somehow a fully functioning bathroom inside. I couldn’t help but wonder how exactly the plumbing functions.

Google’s Quantum AI Lab was a major inspiration in this show’s design

Nitpicking aside, this piece of futuristic architecture is built around a quantum computer – not the black box of press releases from D-Wave Systems, but a device made of tubes and copper coils resembling more than anything else an old carriage clock, with not a circuit board in sight. It’s not a million miles from press images of Google’s quantum computers – not the only time Google was a major inspiration in this show’s design.

Lily is our hero, a practical and capable woman whose life is thrown into disarray when Sergei is transferred to Devs. Through him we meet the rest of Devs team, led by the severe chief designer Katie (Alison Pill). They are all odd in their way, but these are not cardboard mockeries. The only “type” under fire here is Forest as the tech CEO, whose financial success has given him power and control over people.

Mizuno, a Japanese-British ballet dancer and actor, has worked with Garland twice before (you may remember her as Kyoko, the attendant in Ex-Machina). She is utterly convincing as Lily, even while – like almost all characters in this drama – keeping the audience guessing as to what side she is on and how much of what she says is true. She is shown a little more often than is necessary in her underwear, but in that outfit, she reminded me of Ripley in Aliens, which is a strong point of reference.

Offerman is similarly an inspired choice to play Forest. He is best known for playing gruff but loveable Ron Swanson in the TV show Parks and Recreation. As Forest, there are moments of that same leadership figure: affable and brusque in a charming way, but he can turn on a pin to something much more sinister. Which makes Devs, his pet project, equally menacing.

It should come as no surprise that a project from Garland is well acted and beautifully shot, but I will say that the science component of his fiction has come a long way from the dubious physics of Sunshine, his 2007 film about reigniting the Sun, which is prematurely dying. That film boasted one Brian Cox as its scientific adviser, while Devs was developed in conversation with a whole raft of people knowledgeable about quantum – including Google’s Quantum AI Lab.

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Turning science to movie magic

Garland and Mizuno personally visited the Google lab, and this visit – along with several others to a host of Silicon Valley companies – is evident in the set design and the way people move around it. Aside from the supremely unnerving giant statue at its centre, the architecture at Amaya is wonderful. A friend described the architecture as “realistic and tech-bro”, but I think that is misleading, because there is nothing “bro” about this series. Perhaps that’s a little idealism on Garland’s part, or perhaps that’s the Silicon Valley he saw during his research.

If you’re looking for an entertaining 360 minutes that explores cause and effect, or the true meaning of determinism, but is also an absorbing thrill ride, Devs is just the ticket.

• Devs is available to watch on Hulu in the US, on BBC iPlayer in the UK
• 2020 FX/BBC