Years & Years

[unique1986]

Starts tonight 9pm
Family drama that flashes forward into the future.

The sci fi stuff was incongruous. They hadn't sorted out a regular energy supply but could apparently download people's memory in to particles of water.

Except here it was never questioned or really mentioned which was the point I think.
Absolutely, it was a long time coming but not a new idea. It took centuries for women to be able to wear trousers (I worked in an office in the 1970s were it still wasn't allowed) and much longer for men to be able to wear what they want.

It took centuries for women to be able to wear trousers (I worked in an office in the 1970s were it still wasn't allowed) and much longer for men to be able to wear what they want.

It's interesting that women now have far more freedom in that respect.

More freedom than men that is.

Bethany's phone hand was bizarre. People use their phones for texting, internet etc much more than for actually calling people.

In the time period covered the tech progressed to the point where she could do all the texting and internet too.

In the time period covered the tech progressed to the point where she could do all the texting and internet too.

Yes I know, but initially she was so excited by it and kept ringing people. I don't know any young people who actually use their phones for talking! But I suppose she could see the potential.

I still don't think it's realistic to suppose people would want that sort of technology implanted in them - even supposing it was possible!

I think that I’d have found the ending more acceptable if it was set in a realistic setting. It was all a bit like that Blackadder programme set in the future.

Episode, not programme.

Yes I know, but initially she was so excited by it and kept ringing people.

She was excited about not using a phone. The whole family used phone calls via Señor to communicate and she didn't need a "thing to do that.

DD uses FaceTime a lot. She's on it all the time when playing games and doing HW etc.

I see people walking along talking to invisible people all the time- youngsters text when they are in company, but talk when they are on their own. Bizarrely some of them talk to each other more when they are not in the same physical space.

Implanted tech is not that far in the future. It's already used medically- cochlear implants, lens replacements, valves and pacemakers, and the experimental stuff to help people walk.

When you think how quickly the internet and mobiles came into existence- twenty year can bring unrecognisable change.

Twenty years ago, I could not easily stay in touch with my family while we worked abroad. No emails, no skype, phone was a landline and expensive to use.

I dont think the population would have rushed out to support a revolution that started by liberating refugees from camps. I suspect most would shrug their shoulders and want their favourite tv programme back on screen. Or say camps are the best place for them. sad

It wasn't just refugees, was it? When Viv was making her pitch about concentration camps there seemed to be a plan that they would be shunting in all those people who were inconveniently homeless as a result of floods or radiation and, basically, what they perceived to be surplus population. If people realised that it could happen to any of them it would cause much more of a head of steam against the government.

So much to love in this programme i'm going to focus on that:

Lincoln settling the ridiculous 'trans kids' debate once and for all by being a beautiful boy in a pretty dress.

Edith's speech as she lay dying.

The way that her voice, when it came out of Signor, after all the anticipation was her and yet not her: an extremely formal "Good Afternoon" like she was reading the weather report on R4. The real Edith - her actual soul - would have been overcome with excitement about being able to talk to her family 'from the other side'. So subtle, but so clever.

Rosie was an overlooked character in all this but I think it's still so rare to see a woman with a disability being portrayed with such strength and determination.

Loved the way the same sex relationships were potrayed throughout the show. Beautiful. More important than ever given the current trans-justified homophobia we're currently battling.

Even something as simple as the family being mixed race and that in itself not being an issue is still all too rare on tv.

Thought Emma Thompson was wonderfully awful and must have really relished taking off her 'national treasure' halo in order to give Trump and Farage a thorough pasting!

This felt like groundbreaking TV for me and I don't think the overly optimistic revolution changed that.

Oh, and Celeste. Loved Celeste - not a people-pleasing bone in her body.

I would have loved her and the wonderful Muriel to have been friends but it was much more true to life that they weren't. But they came through for each other when it mattered.

The way that her voice, when it came out of Signor, after all the anticipation was her and yet not her: an extremely formal "Good Afternoon" like she was reading the weather report on R4.

See, I didn't think the voice sounded like her-or even female-at all!

Someone said upthread that the subtitled version indicated that it was both a male and a female voice.

Really? I'm surprised. To me it sounded like JH being very formal. Her voice is naturally quite low. I thought that was why Muriel startled and said 'Edith?!'

Just got up to the Boer war speech

From the interview with RTD linked to earlier:

Did Edith survive? “I will never answer that question,” says Davies. “That’s the end. That’s the last episode […] you’ll be kept in suspense forever.”

He also says there's no definitive answer for whether Rook was in prison or if she escaped.

So, anything we come up with and argue for is going to just be guesses and personal opinion!

I thought the insinuation was that Viv had been killed?

She said in ep5 - 'they'll
Have me killed'

As an aside I am gutted he said that's it. I've watched it with my 12 year old and it started some great discussions on politics/morals etc. I've never found anything like that before to watch with her

I'm gutted that's it too but it actually makes sense. I do think a second series would ruin it.

Isatis re camps being not just for refugees.

Agreed. In my mind there would have been lots of media propaganda about benefit scroungers and bed blockers (not doubt fed by C4 & C5 doing supposed documentaries).

Which funnilly did make me think would the camps have been that efficient when you think how awful the private companies have been providing previous state services like probabtion and so on.

That was all rather magnificent!

theartsdesk.com said ‘It felt like one of his old Doctor Who scripts rescued from the shredder’ - which the reviewer clearly didn’t intend as a compliment - but why would anyone sit through six episodes if they weren’t already a fan of RTD era Dr Who?

"I thought the insinuation was that Viv had been killed?

She said in ep5 - 'they'll
Have me killed'"

I thought she got away. In Edith's imagination, which might have been the truth, we see her running through some kind of tunnel to escape.

I definitely had the impression that her shady overlords (at least one review assumed Russia) had offed her.

And then 3D printed the spinning bow tie fool.

Must say, there are some truly worrying comments following the Telegraph review. Sometimes I forget just how poisonous some elements of English society can be.