‘Families Like Ours’

By Mark Graham

The scariest series you’ll see all year doesn’t feature a single ravenous zombie, telekinetic teen, or machete-wielding maniac. Families Like Ours is a remarkable Netflix original from Danish creator Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round) that focuses on an impending doom that threatens to upend life as we know it on a mass scale: climate change. Before you guffaw, this show doesn’t revolve around blathering liberal eco-warriors or CGI tsunamis; rather, it revolves around the mass societal panic that happens when a country (in this case, Denmark), challenged by (slowly) rising tides, determines that the only way forward for its populous is to retreat. It forces you to confront some massive existential questions: What would happen if your country decided to close their borders and evacuate you and everyone you know? Would you be able to sell your house? Would you be able to get a job? What happens to your life savings, and currency? Things are getting pretty scary in the real world, for sure, but if you’re a doomer and/or gloomer, this show might make you realize that things could (and likely will) get much, much worse.

Photo: Netflix