Could "Years and Years" Really Happen? Bad News: It’s Already Happening

Emma Thompson stars in the Black Mirror­-esque new series on SBS.

The scariest TV show of the year doesn’t have demogorgons or mind-flayers. It’s not based on a Stephen King novel, or inspired by WW2’s internment camps. And it doesn’t star a teenage witch.

The scariest TV show of the year features Emma Thompson as a plain-speaking politician seemingly modelled on Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, Marine Le Pen and Pauline Hanson.

You will have nightmares for weeks.

The show is Years and Years, and it comes from Russell T. Davies, formerly of Queer as Folk and Doctor Who. It earned raves when it debuted in the UK earlier in the year (and when it moved to HBO for Americans), and finally premiered in Australia on SBS this month. Over six brisk episodes, it explores what’ll happen to the world between 2020 and 2030 if we continue on our current trajectory. And extremely obvious spoiler alert for the future: things definitely don’t get better!

(I hate to give you anxiety about 2020s, but the whole point of Years and Years is to decry the "she’ll be right" apathy and justgowithit-edness that got us to where we are today. It wants you to be stressed to the eyeballs.)

Given the extremely wide scope of Years and Years, Davies smartly focuses in on one family: the Lyons of Manchester. Each of the four adult siblings find their lives rocked by the events of the '20s: Stephen (Rory Kinnear) is a financial advisor who pivots to the gig economy after a financial crisis; Daniel (Russell Tovey) works in immigration and falls for a refugee fleeing Ukraine’s anti-gay laws; Rosie (Ruth Madeley) is a working class canteen lady who starts supporting Thompson’s business woman turned nationalist politician Vivienne Rook; and Edith (Jessica Hynes) is a rabblerousing protester who’s present to witness the next major nuclear attack between nations.

As climate change and political turmoil leads to an increase in asylum seekers, the nations of Europe (and beyond) put up more figurative and literal walls. (Brexit and Trump, we find, were just the tip of the iceberg.) Changes in technology don’t help matters, with deep fake videos, social media platforms and increased surveillance sowing further fear and confusion. Murray Gold’s hysterically frantic choral score keeps viewers in a state of apoplexy, but what’s scariest about this slow descent into an uneasy future is how the Lyons always adjust to the new status quo in small, swallowable increments. They just… let it happen.

Years and Years is a senses-stunning experience at times; like a season-long instalment of Black Mirror, with equal doses of pitch-black humour and self-seriousness. The final ep, in a rare misstep, has the Lyons collectively attempt to solve the ills of the world. If anything, it diminishes the lasting impact of the series, which spends the first five episodes trying to shock the audience into action, or to at least not be as complacent as the Lyons and keep a Viv Rook from taking power. It’s better and more hopeful when it demonstrates how life goes on—for romance, friendship and even laughter—even as everything around the Lyons goes completely mad.

Some of its futuristic horrors will appear familiar: there’s the increasing reliance on "Senor", an Alexa-like home listening device; an extremely gory (and darkly funny) death-by-drone; and even Snapchat filters that can serve as a real-life mask, giving Stephen’s "trans-human" daughter Bethany (Lydia West) her first taste of technological integration.

But it’s Thompson’s Viv Rook who seems most familiar, and most horrific. Her cheekily villainous turn is used sparingly, and for good reason. Whenever Thompson appears, she makes the show feel most alive. Suddenly you realise why people become infatuated with these despots-in-waiting: they make for the most entertaining tele.

We had a giggle recently at how Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, set in November of 2019, didn’t quite manage to predict what the world would look like. But if you’re wondering how accurate Years and Years will prove to be in the decade that follows, you’re missing the point. The world is already like Years and Years. The question the show poses is: Can we save it, and us, from ourselves?

4/5

Years and Years airs on SBS every Wednesday night until 4 December. Episodes are available to stream on SBS on Demand.

Header Image: BBC