Watching: "Years and Years"

Forty minutes into episode one of the six-episode British limited series "Years and Years", I was thinking the story of the Lyons family of Manchester - starting in the near future and moving forward - was interesting, though was wondering where all the hype for the series, as it was blowing up over in the UK, was coming from. Then the episode dropped its bomb - literally - and from that moment until the final minutes of the episode-six finale, "Years and Years" became one of the most compelling, fascinating, suspenseful - even prophetic - television series I'd ever seen. Not always the most uplifting, but certainly vital; fact is, everyone living in today's world owes it to themselves to watch. The series begins in 2019 and follows the various siblings of the Lyons family: Stephen (Rory Kinnear), his wife Celeste (T'Nia Miller) and their two children; Rosie (Ruth Madeley), a single mom whose recently had her second child by a man who bailed when he learned she was pregnant; Daniel (Russell Tovey), an openly gay man who works for the British government; Edith (Jessica Hynes), the far-left protestor/activist always fighting a battle in a war-torn country; and their mother, Muriel (Anne Reid), the widow who acts as matriarch over her children and grandchildren, hosting family get-togethers at her rambling old home in the country. It's 2019 and with Trump decimating the United States and Brexit doing pretty much the same in Britain, the Lyons watch from their TVs as a radical new politician, Vivienne Rook (an incredible Emma Thompson), rises swiftly up the ranks with her outlandish behavior and soundbytes, fueled by a population tired and angry and growling louder each day for change. At first seen as a buffoon with no political experience or connections, as time passes and the chaos of the United States and the UK spread worldwide like a cancer, the wild-card politico gains a firm toe-hold in her country, creating her own "Four Star Party" and aiming for the office of Prime Minister even as it grows increasingly obvious there is something ... "off" about her. What "Years and Years" is, essentially, a series about what happens to the world if the situations currently in place (particularly here in the States and in the UK) go unchecked. It takes place over quite a number of years, during which you see how these events effect the various members of the Lyons family - from the bizarre to the devastating - as they would yours or mine; truly, what the world will become if the path we are on now continues. It is chilling, it is crushing, and many times this limited series comes off more a documentary of our future than fiction - it feels that real. Talk about must-see TV.  9.5/10 stars