A family faces the future on ‘Years’
People who fear they are living in a waking nightmare have only to watch “Years and Years” (9 p.m., HBO, TV-MA). Smart, challenging, terrifying and more than occasionally funny, the six-episode series “Years” follows an extended family from 2019 forward, over 15 years of disruptive technological change, global unrest and the increasing alienation of citizens from a political process that has become grim entertainment.
As speculative and spooky as a good episode of “Black Mirror,” this series is grounded in family dynamics without ever descending into the mawkish melodrama of “This Is Us.”
Emma Thompson stars as a Vivienne Rook, a businesswoman-turned-politician who shocks viewers/ voters with her blunt indifference to complicated issues. When she blurts out that she doesn’t give an (expletive) about Israel and Palestine and only yearns for a simpler past, she becomes a polarizing national sensation.
“Years” advances in fits and starts, from the birth of a new baby in 2019, to the 2020 re-election of Donald Trump, a huge new influx of migrants into a post-Brexit Britain and a U.S. clash with China in the waning days of Trump’s second term. And that’s just in the first hour!
Over that time, children grow, a teenage daughter withdraws completely into virtual reality, a couple grows estranged and a single sibling dates a man with a disturbing use for his child’s robot companion.
“Years” does a remarkable job of contrasting an increasingly bizarre world with the routine of day-to-day living while at the same time exploring those who exploit people’s increasing discomfort and desire to withdraw.
Is this “feel-good” viewing? Hardly. But as an intelligently fashioned reflection of our fractured times, “Years and Years” should not be missed.
› Beautiful and baffling, “Legion” (10 p.m., FX, TV-MA) enters its third season. In a world awash with comic book adaptations and Marvel-based franchises, “Legion” is perhaps the only effort to equal and perhaps surpass the graphic impact of a comic book’s paper and ink.
› Spectrum Originals, available on demand only to Spectrum subscribers, presents “Curfew,” a speculative sci-fi series set in a future world ravaged by a pandemic. Look for Sean Bean (“Game of Thrones”), Adam Brody (“The O.C.”), Adrian Lester (“Trauma”), Miranda Richardson (“Good Omens”) and Billy Zane (“Titanic”).
› “Smithsonian Time Capsule: Beyond Stonewall” (8 p.m., Smithsonian) recalls the moment on June 28, 1969, when patrons at a gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village stood up to a routine police crackdown and declared that they would no longer be exploited as a marginalized group. “Beyond” glances back at 150 years of LGBTQ American history and interviews people affected by the Stonewall uprising.
› The “POV” (10 p.m., PBS, TV-MA, check local listings) documentary “The Gospel of Eureka” explores the culture clash between Evangelical Christians and an LGBTQ community increasingly inclined to assert its rights.
› Acorn begins streaming “Martin Clunes’ Islands of America,” a travelogue hosted by the star of “Doc Martin.”
Contact Kevin McDonough at kevin .tvguy@gmail.com.