As we look ahead to what looks like a second, possibly maybe a fourth year living under the fear of a pandemic, it might feel like the natural world is shrugging off humanity.

While stuck under lockdown due to the aforementioned pandemic we’ve been binge watching many shows, sometimes entire libraries in one long weekend. Recently we wrapped up one of those sessions with three shows that share one central theme – the future and humanity’s place in that future.

The apocalypse or the end of humanity makes for great viewing, but we feel there are rarely shows that capture the hopelessness and struggle of being the last few people on Earth. The Walking Dead is likely to come to the top of mind for many but we have three more you really should consider watching.

Snowpiercer

Snowpiercer shares a title and setting with the graphic novel and the Bong Joon-ho film from 2013 but that’s where the similarities end.

The premise of the show is simple. The world begins to freeze over due to climate change and the last place of refuge is a train, 1 001 cars-long that circles the Earth 2.7 times per year. The train, Snowpiercer (also known as the Eternal Engine) is a perpetual motion engine and it creates warmth, electricity and safety from the below freezing temperatures outside.

The series follows a few of the passengers aboard Snowpiercer but the focus is on Andre Layton (played by Daveed Diggs), Melanie Cavill (played by Jennifer Connelly) and a few others that if we mentioned, would run into spoiler territory.

The first series deals with a revolution that is so well told you will struggle to pull yourselves away from the show. The second season explores the future for the passengers with a number of developments that will keep you guessing until the very end of the season.

Snowpiercer does a fantastic job of highlighting the lengths humanity will go to for survival and how class systems topple when those survival instincts kick in.

We’ve watched both seasons twice and a third began filming in March this year. Snowpiercer comes highly recommended.

The 100

A young-adult drama set in post-apocalyptic Earth sounds like, well, just about every young-adult novel/film created in the last decade but The 100 is different.

The 100 follows a crew of 100 teenage prisoners (though we really only follow a core group of five or six) sent down from a collection of Space Stations known as The Ark 97 years after nuclear warfare destroyed the Earth. Soon after landing on Earth the prisoners discover that some of humanity has survived and, well humanity does what it does best – everybody goes to war.

The show runs for seven seasons and each season introduces a new big bad or emergency for The 100 to solve.

The first four seasons are rather slow and after season five, well, things get crazy. We’re talking long-distance space travel, alien rocks and death cults among others.

You will have to suspend some of your disbelief and if you can, you have seven seasons of excellent storytelling to enjoy. One of our favourite parts of this show is the language used by the Earth survivors known as Trigedasleng. The language was created by David J Peterson who also helped create the Dothraki and Valyrian languages in Game of Thrones.

There really is a lot to enjoy about The 100 and it is by far and away the best show to come out of The CW in some time. Just prepare for lots of blood.

Sweet Tooth

The most recent entry on our list is the Netflix Original, Sweet Tooth.

Sweet Tooth tells the story of a world gripped by a pandemic that kills off millions of people and spreads like wildfire. Sound familiar?

At the same time the pandemic hits, babies born with animal features make an appearance and humanity is scared so they begin experimenting on the children to find a cure to The Sick – as it is known.

To tell this story we follow Gus, or Sweet Tooth (played by Christian Convery). Gus is a boy with the antlers and ears of a deer who discovers a great big wide world outside of his reserve after meeting Tommy Jepperd (played by Nonso Anozie). Having been raised by his father in a secluded forest for most of his life, Gus often finds himself in situations he shouldn’t be in and has a number of encounters with a group known as The Last Men. 

As we only have one season to go on right now recommending Sweet Tooth is tricky but so far, the show is rather great.

We’re curious to see what The Last Men’s General Abbott (played by Neil Sandilands) does in the next season and what fate awaits the hybrid children.

This should fill up your viewing schedule for the next few weeks at least.

[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]