Eight Days
Sky Atlantic/now TV
What would happen if the world were to end in eight days time? That’s a killer premise if ever I heard one. And it’s the simple concept behind this entirely extraordinary new drama mini-series, which is German and hence has subtitles – but don’t let that put you off.
Of course, there have been plenty of films and TV shows based on a the same kind of idea, from the movie double whammy of Armageddon and Deep Impact back in 1998, to Sky One’s comedic spin in You, Me And The Apocalypse in 2015. But this eight-part series (available in full as a SKY/NOW TV box set) is something completely different. Think of it as the anti-armageddon. Where that blockbuster was a slick, glossy and preposterous account of a bunch of macho Americans saving the planet from a giant asteroid collision, Eight Days is a relentlessly realistic, entirely believable and bleak study of how humans would behave if a meteor was due to hit Earth.
The densely woven story follows a group of interconnected characters driven to extreme behaviour through sheer desperation to survive, or else to simply have as good a time as possible before their seemingly inevitable demise. The writers also plant the cunning idea that the main impact zone for this huge lump of rock is western Europe, so half the characters decide to flee to the east, in a reversal of recent refugee crises, while the privileged VIPS try to get seats on a flight to (possible) safety in the US. In among the ensuing binge drinking, looting, sexual assault and all-round criminal behavior, a Messiah-like figure arises. It all rings scarily true.