Years and Years

Last episode tonight. Loving and hating this at the same time.

Yes, our children’s future posdibly ... already disquiet about the government’s spying into our privacy online.

It’s a drama....a good one as he is a good writer, but nevertheless a made up bit of drama.
Summer of Rockets was also very good but dealing with real historic events.

It may be a drama but it manages to tap into many of the things that can and do happen already besides the things that might happen. The discussion about concentration camps was fascinating. After all we have no real knowledge about what we did to the Boers in the Boer war, so perhaps our great grandchildren will not know about WW2 concentration camps and as Viv Rooke said concentration just means a lot of something in one place. I think it has its faults and the family is very much a construct used to tell a range of stories but it has some concept of possible reality

If you can enjoy something that frightens you with it's possibilities then yes, I am enjoying it. It is both well written and well acted and plays out possibilities well.

It will be interesting to see where they go with the concentration camps. The "disappeared" is something we have heard of in others countries during our lives so obviously possible if the circumstances are right.

Lemongrove, it is indeed a drama but one based on the premise of our current reality. That's how most people work out what not to do - by using a bit of imagination as to where it may take you.

Or....a lot of imagination.
A drama could be made now of China going to war with near neighbours, the US and Iran showering each other with nuclear missiles, N Korea doing God knows what, ditto Russia ( poisoning the Queen?) but it would be drama still.
In short, anything could happen but that doesn’t mean that it will.

So exactly what does that prove Lemongrove? That we should never look at what scenarios might follow certain actions? Where is this conversation meant to be going?

I was liked the direction of tonight's episode (being careful with the spoilers) but I think the series would have been better if it were spread over more episodes so we could get more feeling of everything changing over time.

It was very well acted, a gripping plot and well drawn characters - particularly Anne Reid I thought. But it was very upsetting and scary too.

Hello Vivienne/Boris. Same hair.

I think the brief shot of the clown-like politician with the spinning bow tie at the very end was an allusion to Boris. The Viv character was obviously Farage.

Had enjoyed this until last night. Technology's creeping takeover was threatening and almost feasible until it took over and became ott science fiction ( a genre I have never appreciated!)

I think Viv was Viv. There are many of them about. The scenario painted could happen here, in the USA, anywhere. It took some of the family right up to it affected them personally before the rebelled. Muriels's speech over dinner was reminiscent of Martin Niemöller's confession "First they came for".

and didn't Anne Reid play the part magnificently?

Thank God its over - very uncomfortable watching but I love Anne Reid and cant imagine why she hasn't been made a Dame.

Last episode was a bit fantastic and so unbelievable, but then it was all a bit of a fantasy wasn't it. In fact at the end when Edith was being downloaded it seemed almost a comedy. I agree Anne Reid was good but just how old was her character by the end?

trisher
Yes, how old was Anne Reid meant to be? I thought it was her 90th birthday first episode. Not sure how many years had passed but she must have been well over 100. And apart from a walking stick and messier hair, looked much the same at the end.

I agree GrandmaKT she was excellent.

It was all fantastical Teetime, surely that is the point. Storytelling is the grown-up version of play where we act out scenarios or tell stories of the past and future and learn from them. Most stories can go in many different directions as we "try them on" like the witches cloak, or the angel wings, for size and to work out where we fit in. Were we the person who voted for Viv and didn't want to accept what was being done in our name until it affected us? Were we the fighter against those who broke our principles, willing to risk our lives? Were we the one whose love came above all else. Were we the weakling who got blown with the wind, often knowing what we were doing was wrong but always with an excuse? Were we the one swept along by visions of the future?

That's why storytelling is so important. It allows us to see both our own strengths and weaknesses and also recognise them in others.

Sorry that should have been Trisher not Teetime.

GracesGranMK3 that's true up to a point and had the whole thing been fantastical it might have worked better. Instead he tried to combine reality with fantasy and it really didn't sit well. The last scene with Edith sitting up dying and downloading being a real example of a failure. It wasn't fantastical enough and it tried too hard so it became comedy (which I don't think was what he wanted).

Not a comedy to me......rather frightening and I do not think it will take ten years to get to much of that showed. Forget the downloading, look at the actual political stuff. We are very nearly there now.
And, how many would actually care when those piccies of the Concentration Camps, etc. were sent out? how many would just shrug and say, 'Not me and mine - so what? - or even worse - it would just be branded as 'fake news'.
We should all be very aware and probably scared as to how accurate sociologically and polticially this drama was.

Oh come on a woman sitting with a pipe coming out of the back of her head supposedly downloading herself, then lying down quietly because she knew it was time to die. It has to be farce.

...or it is showing us how the future will be a blend of things that are already everyday and familiar, and things that we can't possibly even imagine yet.

It has always been that way, but now it is happening at lightning speed and we have very little time (or take little time) to reflect on the potential impact of the changes.

Well, finally watched all of it but because I skim watched a lot of it I'm going to watch it properly. Did the last episode remind anyone of Dennis Potter's 'Cold Lazarus'; a series that both enthralled and chilled us many years ago?

Our daughter enjoyed this so I have watched it after the release. I think my husband and I must have been watching a different drama to most of you (and our daughter)!

We both felt it lacked drive, imagination, and true drama. It was superficial and most action came from nowhere. Characters did and said things that appeared “out of character “ and the monologues were tedious and expository.

It seems to me to have barely shifted the news forward from today and was altogether rather thin. The family was a group of “types” or cyphers employed by the writer to give life to various ideas.

I wasn’t impressed with the writing and found some of it really irritating e.g. - “why are you selling the house” “to pay for help to find Viktor” - and 5 minutes later they can share the proceeds of the sale 4 ways (no more mention of Viktor).

Wanted to like it but was glad it was soon over!