Critic Reviews

Fear of the future informs every scene and every performance in “Years and Years,” a deeply disturbing yet absolutely riveting six-part British miniseries. ... Along the harrowing way, Davies is swerving ferociously from horror to humor to heartbreak to heartwarming, without ever losing his balance. And the magnificent cast goes right along with him, with particularly strong contributions by Kinnear, Reid and Thompson.

On top of the nuanced work from Davies and Jones, the six-part series boasts outstanding performances. Looking through the opposite end of the telescope at present (and controversial) history is often a recipe for disaster, but Years and Years is magnificently agile in the creativity it uses to make it all cohere.

He never loses sight of his characters, a[n] incredibly likable array of personalities. And what’s most impressive about this series is how deftly Davies uses the big issues of a world in tumult as backdrop for what is a basically a character piece. This is one of the best shows of the summer.

To its credit, “Years and Years” — among the most emotionally involving, and best, series to air so far this year — keeps its aperture narrow even as the world keeps forcing its way in. This is, above all, the story of a family, one whose ordinariness makes them a powerful vehicle for telling the future.

“Years and Years” is a gripping, highly entertaining and beautifully written family drama first and foremost. The performances are extraordinary, and though Thompson toplines the cast (and does a brilliant job as an ignorant but charismatic candidate) the largest portion of the series' success rests on the strong work of the rest of the cast, with Madeley’s and Reid’s performances producing the most sparks.

[Russell T Davies] aerates the heaviest, most fraught issues (from the insidious nature of tech, to income inequality, to the rapidity with which events can become both ancient history and rapidly repeated) with wit and optimism, so that they are no longer a burden, to us or the narrative, but grist to the mental and dramatic mill.

With mordant wit and masterfully harrowing plotting, [series creator Russell T. Davies] puts the Lyons family through the emotional wringer, rendering the political all too personal. ... You will be riveted. [24 Jun - 7 Jul 2019, p.10]

“Years and Years” is one of the best shows of 2019 so far — worth going back and experiencing it in your own way. While remaining a deeply absorbing family story, as good or better than any season of “This Is Us,” “Years and Years” is depressing on top of depressing. ... My praise for the show is not unqualified, however, as Davies (whose previous work includes the British version of “Queer as Folk” and a successful revamp of “Doctor Who”) stumbled greatly with Monday’s series finale.

What Davies has done, essentially, is combine a family soap opera with elements of "Black Mirror."

The six-part “Years and Years,” an often funny, often bleak, deeply unsettling look at our near future, follows the fortunes of the Lyons, a Manchester, England, family as they are rocked by the political and technological changes shaping the world. Imagine “This Is Us” crossed with “Black Mirror,” only with a slightly lower body count than the NBC sobfest.