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Years and Years (Russell T Davies)

Started by VelourSpirit, April 21, 2019, 11:46:14 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

olliebean

Quote from: A Hat Like That on May 28, 2019, 10:13:28 PM
Not sure it was quite as good as previous 2, but a lot to like.

"steven"
"stephen"

Surely it was:

"Stephen"
"Steven"

<edit> New page Stevenage

Vitalstatistix

Why did cool gay brother vote Tory? Seemed a bit out of character.

lipsink

Quote from: Vitalstatistix on May 31, 2019, 04:32:23 PM
Why did cool gay brother vote Tory? Seemed a bit out of character.

He even got called 'Left Wing Hippy' by his brother after he came out of the voting booth.

I saw it as kind of a comment on how a lot of people like to think of themselves as more liberal than they actually are.

Blinder Data

"The government have deported my asylum seeker lover, better vote them in!" Sadly too plausible.

After episode 3 I realised I don't care for most of the characters, except the transhuman daughter. I find them all a bit unpleasant tbh, especially at the funeral and afterwards running over the poor sod's bike. Perhaps it's deliberate from RTD to add a bit of darkness but the on-the-noseness of the satirical concepts, the harshness of the dialogue, etc. all is putting me off. It is quite a fun watch and eerily plausible though.

I hope Emma Thompson's character is going to have more to do beyond from act as a Farage-type in the background.

phes

It's fun this but tbh it just made me want to rewatch the documentary Children of Men

Blue Jam

Fuuuuuck... I felt sick throughout most of that, even more than during previous weeks' episodes. I don't think I'll be able to handle episode 5 if it gets any bleaker than that.

Next week I would like to see more of transhuman daughter, and also Viv Rook just being herself, away from the cameras and scripted media appearances.

I got more and more wound up the longer Danny and Viktor's story went on because it became obvious that even a faintly happy resolution was receeding into the distance. Even so I didn't see the ending coming.

Years and Years keeps leaving me too knotted up to go to sleep when it finishes. I don't know what state I'll be in next Tuesday at 10.

Blue Jam

The name of the fictional man-made island, Hong Sha Dao, keeps reminding me of Hengsha, the real-life island which is the setting for part of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a game all about... transhumanism. An influence on RTD or just a bit of a coincidence?

Blue Jam

I didn't quite buy the family being more angry with Stephen than they were with Daniel (and I'm glad Rosie pointed out that inconsistency). Esme is fantastically horrible, while Daniel's ex-husband's only crimes were being a bit too easily swayed by conspiracy nonsense and not being as good-looking as Victor. Well, until he got vindictive and got Victor deported, but that was after they divorced.

Greed seems to be an underlying theme here- the greed of bankers and politicians, the greed of Elodie the passport woman stealing from desperate and vulnerable refugees, the greed of the people trafficker taking €3,000 from each poor soul he could cram onto a tiny unsafe boat, and the greed of people who aren't content with their stable relationships and happy families. Is there a message that humanity as a whole is greedy and we're all complicit?

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

#129
EDIT: Fucking hell.


Blue Jam

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on June 04, 2019, 11:43:18 PM
One of the things I like about this show is that, with a few exceptions, no one in the family gives a shit about the terrible things going on in the world around them.

Edith is the big exception, and she only seems able to care about things happening thousands of miles away- travelling to the US to protest against anti-abortionists, but spoiling her ballot paper back in the UK...

Quote from: phantom_power on May 24, 2019, 01:55:31 PM
I think she has just thought "fuck it" after spending her life trying to save the planet, no-one listening and then getting radiation poisoning for her troubles. She just wants the world to burn down and start again.

This explanation made sense to me, but now she seems perfectly healthy and she's flying to the US for more protests? I can't work her out. I hope those loose ends get tied up.

VelourSpirit

God that was stunningly directed. I love how Viv winning the election was just background noise while we process what happened to the Lyons family.

Blue Jam

Quote from: TwinPeaks on June 04, 2019, 11:57:00 PM
I love how Viv winning the election was just background noise while we process what happened to the Lyons family.

That's a good point and now you mention it I take back what I said about wanting to see more of Viv Rook and what she's really about away from the cameras. Having the politics as background noise and the real struggles of ordinary people at the fore really works- both for making the petty squabbles of politicians look insignificant, and for reflecting that feeling of news fatigue a lot of us have in the wake of Brexit and Trump.

Ja'moke

This show is bloody great. An absolute gut-churner. Relentlessly bleak, especially this week's episode, and yet it still allows for moments of levity.

VelourSpirit

Quote from: Blue Jam on June 05, 2019, 12:01:44 AM
and for reflecting that feeling of news fatigue a lot of us have in the wake of Brexit and Trump.

I really love the paradoxical point it makes about the news being boring before the financial crisis, and the Lyons children being born during a 'pause' before the world went mad, despite the world always basically being mad and terrible things happening all the time. I'm too young to really remember but I feel like it rings true?

Blue Jam

I loved that bit of misdirection with Elodie warning Victor about the dental implant, saying it would hurt and he wouldn't be able to sue them, then in the waiting room I was anxiously awaiting a gruesome dentistry scene, only for something far more gut-wrenching to happen.

That looked like a bit of a callback to the transhuman surgery boat- wasn't there also some sort of disclaimer that Bethany's mate wouldn't be able to sue over the dodgy eye implant? "I'm alright, Jack" seems to be another running theme.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Blue Jam on June 04, 2019, 11:52:22 PM
Edith is the big exception, and she only seems able to care about things happening thousands of miles away- travelling to the US to protest against anti-abortionists, but spoiling her ballot paper back in the UK...

Apologies, I wrote my post within the first 15 mins of watching the episode. Then I deleted it after watching the rest.

gloria

A magnificent bit of TV. Dr Who fans might remember RTD using the line "He's the sort of man who's happy when he finds a big crisp" in The Writer's Tale.

derek stitt

Sorry, not for me. The dystopian scenarios just not comprehensive enough, bit superficial and ranty for me. Don't ask for specifics, I am one of the thick cunts who should be denied a vote. Alright, felt that sense of everything having to be in the now and no time for reflection or thinking for the  future was not explored enough either.

Don't like being critical of stuff like this, generally enjoy a bit of 'the shape of things to come' but not this programme. It's not all the bumming in it either that puts me off.

Chiefgango

I loved how Davies engineered a situation where a white British man can't get back into the UK to make us realise how awful draconian immigration laws are - circumventing that racist empathy gap without it seeming forced.

sevendaughters

it has become a melodrama set in a probable future, which is totally fine by me.

steveh

I think it captures extremely well what is the norm for most people of being so caught up in family life and work that aspects of the wider political system only wash over them when there's a direct impact on their lives. To me that makes it much more relatable and powerful than more directly focussing on the politics or cultural changes going on.

Leaves me jittery after each episode.

thugler

Quote from: Chiefgango on June 05, 2019, 10:42:41 AM
I loved how Davies engineered a situation where a white British man can't get back into the UK to make us realise how awful draconian immigration laws are - circumventing that racist empathy gap without it seeming forced.

No, he could have got back in, and this was pointed out quite clearly. But chose to go with his refugee boyfriend.

daf

Quote from: gloria on June 05, 2019, 08:26:21 AM
Dr Who fans might remember RTD using the line "He's the sort of man who's happy when he finds a big crisp" in The Writer's Tale.

Someone also spotted this in there :


Bad Ambassador

And if it had been made then, it would have been an impressively bold statement, rather than now seeming to be just a reflection of the news. Any dystopian fiction at present either needs to look far from the present day or just be apolitical to avoid comparisons with the shitshow outside the front door.

#145
Episode 4:

*only looking left - that feels delightfully RTD

*OK, had the twist/ending spoiled but that was still a harrowing watch.

BritishHobo

Quote from: Chiefgango on June 05, 2019, 10:42:41 AM
I loved how Davies engineered a situation where a white British man can't get back into the UK to make us realise how awful draconian immigration laws are - circumventing that racist empathy gap without it seeming forced.

I quite like that the show doesn't seem to have total empathy for Daniel. It seemed to be quite openly laid out that his being on the boat was taking the place of someone else who needed to be there. Although it may have saved their life, in the end. It's also all happened because of him anyway, because he got involved with Viktor despite being married - which the family are appalled by with Stephen - and then fucking it up by telling the ex about his cash in hand jobs. It's such a messy show with regards to morals, and I love that. I've come around to Jessica Hynes' muddled politics. It would be so easy for this show to have its good (left) and bad (right) characters, but I love that it's increasingly not that simple. Daniel a Tory voter, Celeste the nightmare ending up a lovely and sympathetic figure at the end of this one, Stephen being fairly contemptible, and pitiable in just how shit his life has become. Little things like Rosie always making snide comments about Viktor because she's sick of it always being about him.

Absolutely devastated by the latest episode. This show makes me feel sick for an hour a week, and I love it. Long live RTD.

Twed

Quote from: BritishHobo on June 08, 2019, 09:25:17 PMIt would be so easy for this show to have its good (left) and bad (right) characters, but I love that it's increasingly not that simple.
I dunno, I think everybody essentially defaults to being the kind of politics that the BBC hopes everybody has. Basic decent centrism with slightly different edges for each character.

Was a bit disappointed by the horseshoe theory stuff they threw in about the revolution. Is there a specific hard-left government that is firmly in favour of deportation that I'm just not thinking of? If so, fair enough...

Quote from: Twed on June 10, 2019, 03:12:21 AM
I dunno, I think everybody essentially defaults to being the kind of politics that the BBC hopes everybody has. Basic decent centrism with slightly different edges for each character.

Was a bit disappointed by the horseshoe theory stuff they threw in about the revolution. Is there a specific hard-left government that is firmly in favour of deportation that I'm just not thinking of? If so, fair enough...

While I haven't been watching this, and don't know of any governments of that sort, there is a Marxist-Leninist party in Britain that opposes immigration, and considers it
Quotea deliberate plan by the capitalist ruling class to use "cheap labour" to "undermine the wages and conditions of British workers."

I've tried linking to the Wikipedia page for them, where the above is from, but the hyphens are causing issues - try searching it for "Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist)".

In the meantime, here's a link to the article that the page is getting its quotations from.

http://www.workers.org.uk/features/feat_1105/migration.html

sevendaughters

I remember a guy from No2EU, the leftist lot, telling me and my Dutch then-girlfriend that all EU citizens would have to go home if they got in.