Years and Years - Review TV - Scale 08/10

This 2019 is definitely the year of the miniseries. After the formidable Chernobyl and the highly anticipated and adorable, Good Omens, HBO premieres Years and Years, co-produced with the BBC. On the cover of the 08/10 scale.

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The first impression that causes this story is dread. Many have become angry with Years and Years (YaY), many have kicked in social networks. My opinion: it's because of fear. YaY is more terrifying than Hereditary, than It Follows and than Midsommer. It scares more than all modern terror. And it is a melodrama. Fear is a powerful engine, especially to get angry, to generate anger. Russell T. Davies, one of the great scriptwriters emerged from the BBC quarries, exploits it to the limit. Many times compared to Black Mirror, I find it an ineffective way to describe it. The black mirror distills hatred for humanity; Years and Years is empathic with its characters.

YaY is a kind of family saga, which follows the evolution of the Lyons, grandmother, grandchildren, their partners and great grandchildren, for approximately fifteen years. Think of Tell me how it happened, the original Spanish series that has been on the air for 18 years, with remakes in Italy, Chile and Argentina (Tell me how it happened), but in a dystopian future format. The series begins today and is projected past 2030. The keyword may be dystopia, but even more important is the term "convincing."

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The axis is set in family relationships. Grandma Muriel (Anne Reid) is the matriarch of the family. She lives alone in a mansion in Manchester. His grandchildren are the brothers Stephen (Rory Kinnear), financial advisor, married to the accountant Celeste (T´Nia Miller), Edith (Jessica Hynes), activist and political essayist, Daniel (Russell Tovey), municipal employee, in couple with the teacher Ralph (Dino Fetscher), and Rosie (Ruth Madeley), who works as head chef in a school food service, and was born with spina bifida.

Stephen and Celeste have two daughters Bethany and Ruby. Rosie on the other hand is mother of Lincoln and Lee. The story begins with the birth of Lee, Rosie's second son. Bethany, meanwhile, is about 15 years old and will be the protagonist of one of the central plots.

This family lives in the United Kingdom, which is separating from Europe, and cannot be politically consolidated. In parallel to the future of the Lyons family, we are experiencing the rise to power of Vivienne Rook (Emma Thompson), a business woman who decided to pursue politics. His strategy is polarizing, disguising fascism with the old story of "what interests Doña Rosa." Meanwhile, USA UU. and China are experiencing an escalation in their trade war and the world economy collapses.

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I do not know if it is any use to mention the reactions in the networks caused by the character of Vivienne Rook, since it is not usual in an analysis to get out of the story. But I think that is precisely what Russell Davies wanted. At the beginning of YaY, Rook is in a televised debate. The Lyons are watching TV, each in their home. Rook leaves the speech, of the famous cassette that politicians and sportsmen put, at the time of declaring. His speech is empty and inflammatory. Own a neighbor in warehouse, taxi driver or office partner. Lyons have different reactions. Some find it a bit of fresh air among so much stupid, others find it frightening. But nothing from the other world. Nothing that really causes a huge crack. He is a minor character, fighting for a deputy bench.

There, just in the first scene, Davies planted. All these things happen in front of our eyes. We allow them. This is something that will recover in the future. The reaction against YaY is what we usually have against stories, whether fiction or documentary, that challenge us (read with Homer's song: I am intellectual, very intelligent). In this case it is done from the already famous Popper paradox:

If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant; if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the stumbling blocks of the intolerant, the result will be the destruction of the tolerant and, together with them, tolerance.

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Now, Russell T. Davies says that this is not happening to us because of a principle that we are carrying out in spite of ourselves: it does not pass us as tolerant at all costs. It happens to us by abúlicos. Where do guys like Deputy Olmedo or Amalia Granata come from? Do they come out of our conscious thinking that in a democratic society we must listen and tolerate everything? Or is it rather that we don't want to be disturbed. We just want to get home, open a beer and put on a series. And even more: is this so bad? Well, it's not bad, and it can be an idea that, given the very system we have undergone, in which we work 12 hours a day, can be understandable. But that is the snake's egg. From there the Bolsonaros, the Trumps, the Boris Johnsons, the Mateo Salvinis are born.

Edith, the political activist, says it at a family lunch, at the question about global warming and incessant storms, she smiles at her family's surprise at the weather, storms and floods: who can say today that Do you know that this is happening? What did we do to avoid it?

Years and Years does not stay here. China and USA UU. They lead the world to financial collapse. Banks will keep people's savings. A few years ago, in Argentina, a kind of “ghost house” or “house of terror”, typical of Yankee fairs, was installed in the shopping centers. They did not work. At the door they put a fake half beef, bleeding. Apparently, in many parts of the world that was scary. Here we were wondering how much the void was in that weird carnage they had put next to Frávega. The part of the banks is very 2001. We know it. It gives a little impression, but we have seen it again and again, here on the southern cross.

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On the other hand, it is very remarkable how it accounts for other transformations. According to Davies, in a few years, there will be no more room for financial advisors and accountants. They will be replaced by artificial intelligence. Also, the service industry will experience dramatic changes. We are going to a multi-employment world, in which we will replace a killer job of 12 hours, with 4 terrible jobs of 4 hours each. The triumph of the "Amazon way of life": we will be all delivery people, whether by bicycle, motorcycle or van.

The terraplanistas and antivacunas will be even more present among us, in our families and friends. We have tolerated people who say that the human being did not reach the Moon, that Kubrick filmed it, which is imperialist propaganda. We have become conspiracy and stupid. Is it worth discussing or is it worth fighting? Should we explain the law of gravity again? We tolerate so much that science is screwed that in the end we screwed ourselves.

In the West, we probably have no problems with issues of gender, sexual identity and sexual preference. But Davies says: they will explain it to Putin, who maintains a policy of persecution that, added to the closing of borders, will cause a genocide. And there is another axis of YaY: the refugees. How much we need here in our pampas to think that Venezuelans do not have to give their opinion on our internal policy? We are on a survey that some side of the crack says so.

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A personal review

Again, the terror of Years and Years is the terror of the convincing. Something like that said Michael Moore of The Handmaid’s Tale: “The best part of The Handmaid’s Tale is the flashbacks, in which Offred tries to figure out what the point was that it was too late. What was the limit to take action and stop it. Because everything happens little by little, the escalation is gradual. This is how fascism works. ”

The same can be said exactly about Years and Years. It is almost inevitable to think that this will happen like this. We are all two minutes away from being bike deliverymen, for literally two mangos with twenty, working rotating shifts, 50 hours per week. We are 2 minutes from midnight. Of war and hunger. And we saw it coming, and we did nothing.

Well, it wouldn't be fair to say that: Russell T. Davies fulfilled his role as an artist and did it. Kudos, Russell.

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