Rating
8.5
INFO
Plot
British science-fiction television drama series by BBC (2019)
Review
Another gem of short television mini-series! A great achievement in this format.
Like many classics, the show opens slowly. I almost stopped watching after 30 minutes, but I was lucky to keep going. Those slow moments provided important context for the story.
Music at the end of each episode are outstanding and suited to the genre. It reminds me of a scene from the Japanese sci-fi anime film Paprika (2006) but music is closer to the style in Ghost in the Shell (1995).
The show was released back in 2019, before the pandemic. Six years later, it predicted many events: war, anti-immigration sentiment, the rise of extreme conservatism, AI, massive government scandal, and even concentration camps. Only the immediately following event, the pandemic, was not in the show. This is understandable. Likewise, nobody can really predict the stock market of the next hour, but many can tell the trend over the next decade.
What I didn’t like is the story of the big brother Stephen Lyons. He turns rogue and sends his brother-in-law, Viktor, to one of the camps. That is close to a death sentence. I could not believe the other characters would forgave him and even hail him as a hero.
Regarding the ending, people’s opinions are divided. I belong to the camp that finds it satisfying. I think the writer pointed out an ultimate check and balance on the powerful, that is the judgement in the afterlife. People have believed in similar concepts for centuries, and formed ideas like heaven and hell, karma, and reincarnation. As science has gradually replaced religions in our lives, those beliefs have faded and it seems that bad people have become more blatant. This ending tells us that a scientific version of heaven and hell could exist and it will be truly bad if you fall into the wrong world. I think it is a good idea, as long as it can make people do more good, even if the motivation is fear of punishment.
Notes
- 看这个片子的起因是看了看 trailer 和介绍，觉得可能承接 the newsroom ，继续政治讽刺。另外还有一个重大看点是，为什么这片会在豆瓣上消失。