“Anti Reset” is the story of Chu Yi Ping (Wu Ping Chen), is an aloof and unsociable history professor who gets into an accident at his college and injures his arm. To take care of him, his uncle, the head of a scientific company which is secretly experimenting with artificially intelligent human-like robots, sends him their latest model, Ever 9 (Huang Li Feng). The two spend time together as Ever 9 helps nurse Yi Ping back to health, and feelings develop.

Despite the scientific premise, if you go into “Anti Reset” expecting it to answer deep philosophical questions about the power dynamics of a romance between a human and an artificially intelligent robot who is designed to serve him, whether artificial intelligence can truly gain the sentience to become fully human, what being ‘human’ even means, you might be disappointed. The show brushes off the scientific explanations as being top secret, and presents Ever 9 as already close to completely sentient. He feels both positive and negative emotions, including jealousy of a robot vacuum and fear of being replaced by another model. At this point, the show would have been virtually the same had Yi Ping’s uncle sent him a human caretaker instead of an AI.

Also, what is less believable than the AI bits is how Yi Ping could dislocate his arm simply because his student accidentally bumped into him on the staircase and he had to grab the banister to stabilise himself, but something has to kick start the plot I guess.

Slightly overreaching setup aside, the relationship between Yi Ping and Ever 9 is blossoming well. But by the third episode, it becomes clear that under the domestic bliss lie deep rooted fear of abandonment in both of them. While Yi Ping is shown from the beginning as emotionally distant, glimpses from his past with his dog reveal that he wasn’t always like this. It is interesting, albeit more tragic, that the loss Yi Ping seems to be grieving is that of his dog, and not a former relationship. It ties in to his need being more for companionship than simply a romantic relationship per se and Ever 9 fits that role in his life. There is even a scene in the beginning, where Yi Ping is reminded of his dog when looking at Ever 9’s boba eyes. Though, that dynamic starts to shift the more they spend time together, especially in scenes of forced proximity that begin to confuse Yi Ping.

Overall, could the first three episodes be more captivating? Sure. “Anti Reset” has a very interesting set up, but so far, most of the scenes have taken place at their home and shown their dynamic as opposed to answering any of the questions the premise presupposes. But it is worth it to wait until the show hopefully starts unpacking them later.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

Streaming on- GagaOOLala/Viki