Roush Review: AI Goes to Court in ‘Cupertino,’ Fall TV’s Best New Show

Cupertino

Matt's Rating:

ChatGPT did not write this review.

There, I just felt that needed to be said. But I don’t know how to prove it.

That sort of existential uncertainty and anxiety grows the more you watch Cupertino, a rollicking romp through the minefields of AI and new tech. It’s the best and most entertaining new show this fall on any platform — and when’s the last time you heard that said about a show on a broadcast network?

Bless the Kings — that would be co-creators Robert and Michelle King (The Good Wife, The Good Fight, Evil, Elsbeth, the too-short-lived BrainDead of 10 summers ago) — for not abandoning the old-school network system. They continue to raise the bar for high-end mainstream entertainment in a depleted environment of procedural spinoffs, game shows, and other empty-calorie unscripted diversions.

Elizabeth Fisher / CBS

Cupertino operates within the framework of a legal dramedy, but the series is unusually of-the-moment in its topical wrestling with one of the most pressing issues of the day: the encroachment of Artificial (if not Super) Intelligence on a society that may not be prepared for the consequences. It’s serious, yet also wonderfully playful, frightening in its implications yet so much fun to watch. (I devoured the first 10 episodes like they were popcorn but am glad most people will get to experience the show weekly, like TV was meant to be consumed.)

The heroes in what’s being billed as a modern David-vs-Goliath caper are Michael Price (Evil‘s quietly commanding Mike Colter) and Olivia Siffre (the disarming Rachel Keller), lawyers done wrong by one of Silicon Valley’s many start-ups. They learn early on that the odds are stacked against anyone who tries to take on any of the “Magnificent Seven” tech giants. Law firms won’t take their wrongful termination and sexual harassment cases for a simple reason. As a smarmy associate (Steven Pasquale) tells Michael, “During the gold rush, don’t sue the gold mine.”

These become fighting words once Michael and Olivia set up shop as scrappy crusaders going to battle against the billionaire overlords and their crafty minions. They both have chips on their shoulder, with Michael rebelling against his famous father (Scandal‘s great Joe Morton), a smug entertainment lawyer, and Midwesterner Olivia holding fast to her Christian faith while exceeding expectations of those who’d underestimate her for her youth and gender. “Playing dumb is one of my specialties,” she quips.

They quickly move from doing business in a booth at the local IHOP into an abandoned luxury office which continues to be built around them as the season progresses. It’s a great running gag that underscores how precarious is their place in this ruthless industry’s food chain. Along the way, they receive invaluable support from their well-connected receptionist/investigator Christy (wry, spunky Ella Stiller) and Vic (Nik Dodani), an early client and skilled coder who helps them navigate the mystifying world of metadata and its ilk. Because the bottom line is the bottom line, they bring in a colorful financier to keep them afloat: funny and feisty Natalia (hilarious Busy Philipps), the discarded wife of the third-richest man in America. She’s the opposite of an airhead and soon puts her own law degree to good use.

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Their cases are never less than provocative and timely, dealing with everything from murderously seductive chatbots and copyright infringement by AI slop to the dangers of allowing algorithms to make critical decisions about health care or provide imperfect shortcuts to law enforcement. Whoever wins or loses, the arguments are fascinating, and their adversaries memorable, most especially the glamorous Renée Elise Goldsberry as Nicole, a shark who’d like to take a bite out of Michael in or out of court. (The judges are also a treat, played by a variety of scene-stealers including Jackie Earle Haley, Jackie Hoffman, Danny Burstein, Katie Finneran, and Peter Riegert.)

Cupertino also bucks the network norm by demanding attention be paid with a twisty season-long storyline involving Bo (stage star Rob McClure), a most unusual whistleblower who has good reason to be concerned that developers aren’t providing strong enough guardrails for their emerging AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) models. We’ve seen doomsday scenarios before in many sci-fi movies, but Bo insists that future is almost now.

Scary stuff, but Cupertino delivers this alarming news in a delightful package that reminds us that network TV and intelligence need not be mutually exclusive concepts.

Cupertino, Series Premiere, Thursday, October 8, 10/9, CBS