Y.U.N.A review

The setup

A wife heads out with a parting jab about not setting the place on fire, and her husband is left with the new arrival: Yuna, a domestic android who announces she has come to assist and recites cleaning prompts like a factory setting. When his wife comes up, Yuna apologizes and blames her calibration. Most of the episode is wordless, built on looks and housework. Then the wife walks back in for a forgotten laptop charger, finds the place strangely dark, and asks what, exactly, Yuna is.

Episode 2

Episode 2 is even quieter. For most of its length the dialogue is a single urging line, and the story plays out in what we see rather than what anyone says. The talk arrives at the very end, when the wife checks in to remind her husband they have a doubles match in twenty minutes with two Brazilian men she clearly finds cute. Someone needs two more minutes, and that is the cliffhanger: a scheduling conflict.

Who's who

• Yuna: a domestic android with cleaning protocols, polite apologies and settings nobody has explained
• The husband: home alone with the new household help and not asking enough questions
• The wife: sharp-tongued, forgetful about chargers, and busy planning tennis with two charming strangers

Verdict: 5.0 out of 10

Here is a sci-fi concept with almost no script attached. Yuna talks in system prompts, the husband stays nearly mute, and the liveliest lines belong to the wife, who is mostly out of the house. Her return to a darkened house is a decent first cliffhanger; episode 2 spends its ending on a tennis reminder. The android premise could support a smarter show. As it stands, the paid episodes are a bet on visuals and on curiosity about what Yuna really is.

Episode guide