In what has the distinctively zoned-out vibe of another lockdown-born project, Natalie Kennedy’s sci-fi psychological thriller sees Clare Rivers (Rachel Shelley), an author with writer’s block, sign up for a deluxe writing retreat operated entirely by AI. Sealed hermetically into her unit by a virus that corrupts the system, she can’t leave until she has produced a book, making Blank play out like Misery and Ex Machina spliced.
Taking place in a near future where writing is all holographic word processors and genial AI assistants rather than tattered notebooks and half-eaten Twixes, the profession seems to have moved on. Or perhaps not: Clare’s blockage is aggravated by being locked in with only a malfunctioning amnesiac android called Rita (Heida Reed) for company. Reset every day and refusing to open the external doors until Clare has delivered the goods, in the face of the writer’s exasperation Rita can only passive-aggressively reel off: “You seem distressed. Maybe you should have a lie down.”
