China Doll Not A Sci-Fi Show, Says HBO Despite The Frackin Robot!
None
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
The cable channel behind True Blood and Game Of Thrones suddenly seems all coy about telefantasy
This week’s Margaret Atwood award would have gone to Margaret Atwood for her bizarre argument that HG Wells is sci-fi while Jules Verne is “speculative fiction” (God, can a phrase be any more tautological?) except that HBO have managed to trump her. Mightily.
Because, according to Deadline (via Blastr ), the US cable channel’s new drama, China Doll , about, “a successful California construction subcontractor, his Asian American wife who is a university professor, and a robot as they straddle both sides of the Pacific with extended families on two continents” is not a sci-fi show.
Hang on. Rewind. “And a robot.”
Okay. Well, maybe it’s one of those “robots” the piece together cars on production lines in factories. Maybe the guy has one in the garage. Yeah, that makes sense. That wouldn’t be science fiction.
But hang on – the Deadline article definitely says, “a mixed-race family and their humanoid robot.”
Okay. Maybe it’s one of those toy robots that…
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
Oh, who are we kidding? It’ll be a robot. A goddamned sci-fi, sentient, “what are these things called emotions?” robot. And it’ll be sci fi. Sure, it might have lofty ideals about being about, “China, Chinese Americans, robots, the effect of technology on our lives and the China moment in American consciousness,” as series co-creator Mark V Olsen ( Big Love ) put it. But being intelligent, relevant and allegorical and being sci-fi aren’t mutually exclusive.
Could be a good show, though. Sounds interesting…

Dave is a TV and film journalist who specializes in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He's written books about film posters and post-apocalypses, alongside writing for SFX Magazine for many years.


