YEARS AND YEARS
HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET
MINISERIES PREMIERE: This six-part miniseries comes from Russell T. Davies, who put the Why back into Doctor Who. So you know Years and Years will be smart, about its characters and plots as well as its technology. And it is. It’s the first TV show that plays like Black Mirror since… well, since Black Mirror. And its premise is brilliantly simple, as well as simply brilliant: It takes an extended, This Is Us-type family (based, in this case, in Manchester, England), and follows them for years and years, as a baby is born and grows up. Russell’s inspired twist, which turns Years and Years from nostalgic drama to dystopian nightmare, is that he isn’t looking backward. He’s looking ahead. Years and Years starts now – now, as in 2019 – and moves startlingly, inexorably forward. Politically, that means the rise of a British politician, played coldly yet playfully by Emma Thompson. Her character is full of vitriol and shocking proposals, such as demanding that British citizens pass a certain level on an IQ test before being allowed to vote. And while that may sound almost comic, what happens in the first installment alone of Years and Years is much more tragic – closer to The Day After or a biblical apocalypse than a sci-fi romp. And while your personal politics may determine whether you see Years and Years as a playful hypothetical or an outright horror story, some of the details Davies slips intoYears and Years are unforgettably disturbing. I’m already haunted by the images and idea of a sullen teenager who shuts out her parents conversationally, and emotionally, by wearing, displaying and hiding behind a 3-D version of a Snapchat cartoon face (pictured). It’s so instantly annoying, I’m afraid that it, like the things Paddy Chayefsky imagined in Network, soon will come to pass in real life.