TV Review: Years And Years Is Heartwarming And Terrifying
Watching Years And Years was terrifying and heart-warming, all at once. With Donald Trump, actually, readying for a war he will not be able to handle and tempted to send nukes that will end the lives of people he would never care about, this HBO show hits hard. Premiering Monday, June 24, at 9pm, Years And Years warps you through the years that lead a family to 2024: when the world/ civil society is disintegrating.
A bank collapses and with it every one of its holder’s money is gone! Climate Change accelerates to the point where growing food, in-access to health, and displacement are daily factors in everyone’s life. Camps are set up where people, from refugees to political dissidents are shuffled to “work,” and kids are looking to the black market to become bionic in organs. These are just a few of the situations that permeate through the Lyons’ family’s life, of which they represent how love keeps you holding on when the world becomes terrifying. It is a truth many people feel today, but television has not quite captured it like in this show.
Years & Years (2019): Official Trailer | HBO
People are, rightfully, scared. Dictatorships are springing across the globe like hot cakes, and the social response seems to be divided between the likes of people/ siblings, Danny (Russell Tovey), Stephen (Rory Kinnear), Edith ( Jessica Hynes), and Rosie (Ruth Madeley). Tovey plays Danny as devoutly loving and loyal to Ukrainian refugee Viktor Goraya (Maxin Baldry). Their love story is so heart-warming, in particular, because Viktor represents the sad truth many refugees face: the world does not want them. In his home of Ukraine, homosexuals are tortured and killed, but every other EU state/ the world denies him entry, of which Danny’s love becomes his “home” and turns Daniel Lyon into a social justice fighter. Similarly, there is Edith, of which Jessica Hynes plays her like the fiercest hypocrite.
I always find it curious when activists vote for wannabe dictators, like Trump, out of discouragement for a world they grew tired of helping. Edith is incredibly intelligent and bitter; preferring the world to end or be further pushed to the brink so that humanity can either “wake up” or pay for its sins. Meanwhile, her sister, Rosie, is right with her in being sweet and hoping for everyone’s best, while feeling like she is the only one, systemically, getting the short-end. Whether for different reasons, both feel drawn to Trump-esque, Fox News’ golden child Vivienne Rook (Emma Thompson).
Years and Years: Trailer – BBC
Emma Thompson has reached Meryl Streep levels of being able to play any role and convince us she is that character. As Rook, she looks as haggard as many “fear-mongerers;” constantly spewing “they are out to getcha” rhetoric that appeal to people. Why? Because they feel “gotten,” and do not know how to handle morality and self-dignity when money becomes scarce and justice an unaffordable commodity. Enter Kinnear’s Stephen as the face of every person that got cruel when life became cruel to them. Frankly, you do not have to become a better person because you suffered, you could become worse. Hence, audiences will gravitate to the stories of matriarch, Muriel (Anne Reid) and Stephen’s spouse, Celeste (T’Nia Miller); two women that work to be better as the world works to get worse.
As the show progresses and you see how society’s movements affect how the Lyons’ moral choices, I promise you will see yourself. It will be both scary and empowering because, if the world collapses, most of us will survive, which the Lyons family represents. Their lives get harder and more heartbreaking, but their love for each other pulls them through, of which the first episode shows in the strangest way. As the family gathers to see “who” Donald Trump has nuked, Muriel makes tea; something I would imagine my grandmother would do during the Apocalypse. After all, if the world crashes and burns, most of us would want to be held by our family during it. Watch Years And Years On HBO At 9PM on June 24.
