Over the last decade, many television shows have explored the intricacies of familial bonds. From the incestuous Targaryen family in “House of the Dragon” to the fracturing relationship between the Roys in “Succession,” modern television has increasingly shown that family on screen is far from the sitcoms of the 1970s and ’80s.
Now comes Hulu’s “Phony,” a series that, from its first episode, permeates dread as it explores the boundaries of the family home. Created by Nick Paley, the series follows Sonny Cooke (Sam Nivola) and his mother, Ellen (Connie Britton), whose relationship shapes how each moves through the world.
The two are so close it seems they’re conjoined, spending nearly every waking moment together at home and at Sonny’s high school, where Ellen works as principal. On the cusp of adulthood, Sonny tries to carve out his place in the world, thinking about what he wants to do as he gets older and how he wants to move forward with his relationship with his girlfriend, Chloe (Mahaela Park).
GRACE BRENNAN, COLTER LEE, SAM NIVOLA
But on the night that he’s supposed to lose his virginity, Sonny’s car derails and crashes into the woods. When he wakes up in the hospital, his mother is, of course, at his bedside. Yet, there’s something off about Ellen, who Sonny notices looks slightly different and begins to behave even more smothering than usual.
Sonny begins to believe the woman nursing him back to health isn’t his mother at all, but a doppelgänger standing in for the woman he once knew and loved. As Ellen grows stranger, Sonny enlists old friends and private investigator Sharla (Meera Syal), who each teeter on the edge of believing his claims and thinking the car accident caused him to lose his sanity. As this conspiracy begins to occupy his mind at all times, Sonny’s life quickly fractures and becomes more tethered to his mother, or the idea of her, than it ever has been.
From here on, “Phony” quickly turns itself inside out, blending comedy and mystery to become one of the most interesting new series released this year, and one of the most unsettling. The show employs a hypnotizing original score from Christopher Bear to showcase how the codependent relationship Sonny once reveled in begins to splinter, and how his newfound independence may also be his undoing.
As plucky synths grow somber and intensify, the series shifts into a strange, thrilling examination of how modern parenting has become a world where codependency is weaponized, and helicopter parents have slowly molded a new generation of children wholly dependent on their elders.
SAM NIVOLA
Unlike recent shows like “Carrie,” Sonny and his fellow high schoolers feel like today’s children. They’re not vapid figures solely addicted to social media; they are instead complex individuals whose anxieties stem not only from the broken world they were born into, but also from parents who desperately attempt to control their lives. From Sonny’s apprehensive best friend Vogel (Maliq Johnson), whose recent injury has forced him to question if sports are truly his calling, to the previously homeschooled Mallory (Grace Brennan), who’s trying to come to terms with the beliefs of her religious parents, each of these characters feels not only lived in, but like actual teenagers.
The series really soars in its uncomfortable moments, where Sonny and Ellen’s relationship is shown as driven by physical touch and secrets that grow increasingly eerie as the episode goes on.
It’s impossible not to cringe at times, and Paley never takes his foot off the gas. Instead, he forces you to confront whether everything you’re watching is not only morally correct, but even happening. Dead bodies are discovered by high school students, private investigators see figures talking to sketchy men at dive bars, and homes that have otherwise fostered close relationships begin to house a darkness in them unlike the perfect picture these families have painted.
Sonny stands in for every child whose most precious years were lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, and who are now reaching the cusp of adulthood in a world that has since been set aflame. Equally thrilling and darkly funny, the show examines how young people today have been forced to get comfortable living in a world where their parents and peers can, and are often encouraged to, surveil their every move. While “Phony” may not break new ground, this coming-of-age series is shaping up to be one of the year’s biggest and best surprises.
Four episodes were screened for review. Premieres October 20th on Hulu and Disney+.
