Robots imagines a world where your robot can do all the boring parts of your work and play.
(Currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video)
The provenance of Robots is a little unclear - it's an adaptation of an old American short story by two writers, one from Denmark, one from Britain. It may have been greenlit because of the building paranoia about Artificial Intelligence.
Goodness knows this is hardly a new idea - machines taking over once they realise they don't need us. Remember HAL in 1968's 2001 a Space Odyssey?
In other words, Charles is that stock male character in American movie comedies over the years - the womanising jerk who needs a wake-up call, and in the end comes right.
For some reason, he's often played by a Brit actor, as he is here - up-and-coming comedian Jack Whitehall, here being horrible to his robot double C2, also Jack Whitehall.
Charles calls in C2 to take Elaine out, to talk to her and give her flowers - all those tedious chores one does before - as he so tastefully puts it - getting horizontal.
The shock switcheroo is that Elaine is equally shallow and has her own robot double, E2, to do the getting horizontal bit, after Elaine has been squired by Charles to all those expensive shops.
In other words, Elaine's that stock female character in American movie comedies, the cynical gold-digger taking wealthy idiots like Charles for a ride.
In this case, she's played by actress Shailene Woodley, best known for looking a bit like Jennifer Lawrence, but until now not particularly known for her comedy chops.
So, crass womaniser meets hard-boiled gold-digger, a comedy set up as old as time, but with added robot doubles.
But, due to a mixup over appointments, the two robots end up together on, to spare your blushes, date night. There's instant electricity - in this case, literally - C2 and E2 fall in love and decide to run away together.
Our unappealing leads Charles and Elaine - the real Charles and Elaine, that is - are horrified, partly because owning such robots is illegal and if they're caught they could end up in jail, or something. This bit doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
They decide to chase after them anyway, though for this the increasingly desperate writers decide to bring in extra characters - like Zach the robot manufacturer.
You can see that Jack Whitehall - by my assessment the one actual, professional comedian on the screen - decided to do what he can to help Robots by deviating as much as possible from the script. But since much of Robots is trick camera work involving various Charleses and Elaines, his options are limited.
Robots was cobbled together by a Danish TV comedian called Casper Christensen, and Borat's English co-writer Anthony Hinds - possibly on different continents.
Their sketch comedy background may explain the episodic storyline, as well as the lack of interest in any likeable characters.
Robots is almost entirely based on a string of jokes on a theme - quick, I need 57 jokes about robots by tomorrow morning - rather than a story resting on some actual people.
I understand that currently, Hollywood writers are nervous that AI could take over their jobs. On the evidence of Robots, they're right to be nervous.
It's currently tucked away on Prime Video, which is frankly where it belongs.
