Years and Years: What the Must Watch reviewers think
Must Watch reviewers Scott Bryan and Hayley Campbell share their thoughts on Years and Years, new to BBC One.
What do you think? Leave your comments below...
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(Photo credit: Red Production)
Scott says: "There are pros and cons"
"I think there are pros and cons with this. I think that the attention to detail in terms of world affairs is spot on; the fact that it really feels - when you’re watching the first episode - like you’re practically having today’s news served up on a plate.
"And that’s why I was so intrigued in whether the writing process had been changed at last minute because it literally feels like you’re watching this week’s news.
"I was thinking 'what if this person who’s mentioned as a plot point is no longer in power?' Or 'what happens if this happens along the way?' You want it to be as realistic as possible.
"A lot of the different visions of the future that is then implied from that point onward feels logical, particularly within the first episode.
"The issues that I had with it - sometimes it felt a bit jarring. There were a lot of ‘state of the world’ speeches by characters, a lot of lectures, which I just don’t think you get in real life, even if they are thoughts in your head. Of course, that’s the issue, how else would you be able to depict the state of the world without someone telling you explicitly?
"There were times where people were giving monologue speeches that were looking a bit like Facebook rants."
(Photo credit: Red Production)
Hayley says: "I didn't like it"
"It was an hour-long moan about the state of the world and how bad it’s getting, told through family conversations.
"It gives you that same knot of anxiety you get through scrolling through Twitter or talking to anybody about the news. And I felt that episode one lulls you into a familiar sense of boredom and that familiar low level but constant anxiety which I don’t really need from a TV show because I get that from real life.
"Then something happens, but by the time the thing happens I had already decided I was out.
"I do love Russell’s other shows, I’m a huge fan of ‘Queer as Folk’ … I was looking forward to this one, and it just didn’t do it for me."
Years and Years starts on BBC One at 21:00 BST on Tuesday 14 May 2019.
Must Watch is available as a podcast every Monday evening from BBC Sounds, or through your podcast app.
