Mechanical Marie – Episode 1

What’s it about? Constant assassination attempts from his greedy relatives have left young Arthur with a misanthropic streak and a hatred of humans. This makes his new robotic maid, Marie, the perfect companion and bodyguard. Marie has a secret, however: she’s not a robot, but a human martial arts champion with a flat affect and debts to pay off. Can she keep her true identity under wraps, even as she and Arthur start catching feelings for one another?

I have a soft spot for the trope of the loyal, hyper-competent female sidekick/bodyguard/second-in-command, though I recognize that it can often lead to underwritten “badass” women who have no emotions or motivations outside their breathless devotion to a more major, often male character. Life moves in circles, and I was talking about this exact problem in another premiere review almost exactly a year ago, with regards to a battle maid no less! All that’s to say that I was intrigued by Mechanical Marie, which seemed to be approaching this trope from a different perspective. What if the emotionless, devoted servant woman who could kill you with one hand was actually doing a bit and putting on a performance? Maybe this could let the show unpack this cliché a little, or at least play it out in a much funnier, more deliberate way.

Well, there’s still room for Mechanical Marie to get into that, but it hasn’t quite happened yet. The premiere has a lot on its plate, what with introducing our characters—including various members of Arthur’s scheming family—setting the tone with many shenanigans, and kidnapping Arthur so Marie can demonstrate her skills and come rescue him, only to be rescued herself in turn. There’s simply not time to dig into deeper themes or character stuff, so we just scratch the surface of Marie and Arthur’s respective backstories and personal motivations before it’s all over.

The whip-crack pacing isn’t necessarily a bad thing—even if I have a million questions about how on earth Marie got this gig, I’m certainly not going to ask the show to explain every little thing. But it does mean that the episode’s big emotional climax feels a bit unearned, and threatens to play into those “she has no emotions except for her devotion to him!” tropes I mentioned up top. Like… Marie is ride-or-die for Arthur already? She’s going to lie down and perish, reminiscing fondly about their time together, after what, a couple of days for them, and a rushed twenty minutes for us?

Maybe I just prefer slow-burn and feel like it’s way too early for these two to have such life-altering doki-doki feelings for each other, even with the intense emotional bonding that can come from life-or-death situations. Maybe I don’t believe that Marie would fall for Arthur just because he’s the first person to be nice to her and to compliment her stoic demeanor—it’s not a bad place to start, but it feels like a big leap from that to love.

Maybe I just can’t get past my lingering discomfort with how Arthur demands intimacy of Marie so casually, from suddenly grabbing her hand and bringing her to school with him like a toy; to resting his head on her lap and using her as a person-shaped therapy couch to sigh about his issues. It makes sense in context: as far as he knows, she’s a robot, so there’s no reason to consider silly little things like her personal space and boundaries. But I know that Marie’s a person, so watching her personhood get casually disregarded leaves a bad aftertaste.

Arthur’s actions and intentions seem pretty benign, but I can’t shake the power imbalance that comes with the setup. He’s not just her rich, male boss who she must obey unconditionally—something that dehumanizes her from the get-go—but the whole gambit relies on him not treating her like a human. If he ever pushes past her boundaries, she can’t stick up for herself without blowing her cover. Now, I don’t think the plot’s going to go that way, but that anxiety underlines what could otherwise be a pretty fun, silly premise.

There are still some fun elements: for example, Arthur dodging multiple assassination attempts in quick succession and implying that this happens every day is pretty good slapstick, and the casual weirdness of this means that Marie’s robot masquerade fits right in. Are there any other obvious sci-fi trappings or any other indication that android servants exist in this world? No, but there’s enough ridiculous stuff going on that this might as well happen. If the character work can even out, I think this show could find its way to being quite charming. I remain skeptical, but I’m going to give it the old three-episode try to see if and how things settle now that it’s rushed past this first big emotional beat.