A great idea with massive ambition, Years and Years ultimately overreaches and suffers from the increasingly broad strokes applied to the story telling as the series progresses. There's still a lot to admire here - especially in the first few episodes, which are genuinely terrifying - but for me, sadly this show never lives up to its lofty ambitions and potential - and really falls off as it progresses.
I saw someone describe it as Black Mirror meets This Is Us - which is a pretty good description - and along with the nightmarish satire on the future there is some genuine heart. I've never been a fan of what little I've seen of Russel T Davies' previous work - I've always found his dialogue a bit clunky and his approximations of realism slightly off. That said, the first couple of episodes of Years and Years were so strong in concept I was willing to overlook the odd clunk - but sadly my grievances with his previous work came back to the fore as the series progressed. The drama often deflates under excessive exposition - and the repeated attempts to hide this within naturalised dialogue start to sound ever more clunky. Murray Gold's score also becomes quickly distracting and overbearing. Uneven performances didn't help things. Russell Tovey, Anne Reid, Emma Thompson and Ruth Madely are all great - but some of the support is uneven - and some of the actors required to do more heavy lifting as the series goes on just aren't up to it. Sadly what starts out as cutting horror-satire - because of its plausibility - quickly descends into uneven sci-fi with some ideas absurd to contemplate within the timeframe the series operates in.
Ultimately it was a little maddening in its unevenness - but I am glad I saw it - though it kind of felt like a glorious failure.
I saw someone describe it as Black Mirror meets This Is Us - which is a pretty good description - and along with the nightmarish satire on the future there is some genuine heart. I've never been a fan of what little I've seen of Russel T Davies' previous work - I've always found his dialogue a bit clunky and his approximations of realism slightly off. That said, the first couple of episodes of Years and Years were so strong in concept I was willing to overlook the odd clunk - but sadly my grievances with his previous work came back to the fore as the series progressed. The drama often deflates under excessive exposition - and the repeated attempts to hide this within naturalised dialogue start to sound ever more clunky. Murray Gold's score also becomes quickly distracting and overbearing. Uneven performances didn't help things. Russell Tovey, Anne Reid, Emma Thompson and Ruth Madely are all great - but some of the support is uneven - and some of the actors required to do more heavy lifting as the series goes on just aren't up to it. Sadly what starts out as cutting horror-satire - because of its plausibility - quickly descends into uneven sci-fi with some ideas absurd to contemplate within the timeframe the series operates in.
Ultimately it was a little maddening in its unevenness - but I am glad I saw it - though it kind of felt like a glorious failure.