We know that the world as we know it is going to go someday, hopefully long after you and I have predeceased it. All else being equal, the Earth will be engulfed by the sun some five billion years down the track, when our star is in its red giant phase, although it’s possible nobody is going to be around to bear witness to that.
But we’re compelled to wonder what it might be like to personally experience the apocalypse. And apocalypses come in a variety of flavours, from literally earth-shattering events to the lesser, but still horrific, collapse of civilisation as we know it.
Still, there’s comfort to be had – you won’t have to worry about your credit rating when zombies are hammering at the door or ICBMs are raining from the sky. So, from a certain point of view, these gems are feel-good fodder.
Of course, your mileage may vary.
Dumbsday
When you’re facing Armageddon, you’ve got to keep your sense of humour intact. Here to help is this ten-episode Norwegian comedy that echoes the cult classic Idiocracy and Stephen King’s The End of the Whole Mess. After a disease that ravages intelligence sweeps the globe, sad sack failed musician Frode (Jakob Schøyen Andersen) leads a group of misfits on a quest to deliver the vaccine, contending with a world of absolute idiots on the way. Sounds like our morning commute.
Dumbsday is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
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Dumbsday
series • Comedy drama • Norwegian Bokmål
M
series • Comedy drama • Norwegian Bokmål
M
The Fortress
Another Norwegian series (it must be those arctic winters) this seven-part series takes place in 2037, with the country a walled-off, self-sufficient haven, safe from the ecological and political upheaval wracking the rest of the world. But you can’t outrun the apocalypse, so when a deadly pandemic sweeps the population, it’s all hands on deck, and we follow Selome Emnetu’s scientist, Eili Harboe’s presidential speechwriter, and Russell Tovey’s British refugee as they try to stop, spin, or merely survive the disaster.
The Fortress is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
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The Fortress
series • drama • Norwegian Bokmål
MA15+
series • drama • Norwegian Bokmål
MA15+
Two Weeks to Live
Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams heads this British six-part series as Kim, a young woman raised by her survivalist mother with no contact with the outside world. Unfortunately, that means she thinks a fake news clip featuring a nuclear detonation is real and, believing everyone will be terminally irradiated in a fortnight, sets out to kill the man (Sean Pertwee plays gangster Jimmy in a great cameo) who murdered her father. Is it still the end of the world when it’s all in your head? Surprisingly, given the precis, this is a comedy, although a very dark one.
Two Weeks to Live is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
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Two Weeks To Live
series • Comedy drama
M
series • Comedy drama
M
Everyone Else Burns
Another black comedy, this British sitcom deals with the more religiously oriented flavour of apocalypse anxiety. Simon Bird (The Inbetweeners) is David, head of a suburban family who are part of a fire-and-brimstone Christian sect praying (quite literally) for the End Times. Meanwhile, they have to contend with suburban life among the unfaithful who aren’t as keen to meet their maker. While young son Aaron (Harry Connor) relishes the thought, teen daughter Rachel (Amy James-Kelly) struggles to fit in at school, and wife Fiona (Kate O’Flynn) is started to chafe under their church’s strict gender roles. Poor David – with all that on his plate, Judgement Day can’t come soon enough.
Everyone Else Burns is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
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Everyone Else Burns
series • comedy
M
series • comedy
M
We’re All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel)
Having starred in This is the End, Jay Baruchel knows a thing or two about the apocalypse. In this Canadian documentary series, he talks to various experts about various types of possible extinction threats facing the planet, from artificial intelligence to the death of insects and finally, the prospect of his own death. Even with these awful possibilities leavened with dry humour, you may find yourself lying awake at night.
Season two of We’re All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel) is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
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We're All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel)
series • Dark comedy
M
series • Dark comedy
M
These Final Hours
Western Australian director Zak Hilditch knows Perth isn’t the end of the world, but you can definitely see it from there. Perhaps that’s why his 2013 drama is set in WA’s capital. As a wave of devastation tears across the Earth following an asteroid strike, people deal with their certain and imminent death in various, often horrifying, ways. Nathan Phillips’ James plans to head to his mate’s house party and see out the end in a bacchanalian haze but finds himself the unwilling protector of a young girl separated from her father (Angourie Rice in her debut role). Can he rediscover his humanity when humanity itself has only hours left on the clock?
These Final Hours is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
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These Final Hours
Science fiction • thriller • 2013
Science fiction • thriller • 2013
Train to Busan
Korean director Yeon Sang-ho brought new life to the zombie subgenre with this frenetic, nail-biting thriller. The premise is simple: after a zombie outbreak in Seoul, a mixed bag of survivors find themselves on a high speed train to Busan, and hopefully safety. Of course, there’s an infective on board, and of course, the body count is high – but it’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it, and this one is a thrill ride with no brakes. Notable for introducing the mighty Ma Dong-seok to a grateful international audience, and followed by the sequel Peninsula, also streaming on SBS On Demand.
Train to Busan is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
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Train to Busan
action • horror • 2016
action • horror • 2016
Peninsula is streaming now at SBS On Demand until 30 November.
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Z for Zachariah
If you read the 1974 novel by Robert C. O’Brien in school, you’re familiar with the broad strokes of this one. However, screenwriter Nissar Modi and director Craig Zobel reconfigure the narrative into a three-hander that sees Margot Robbie’s Sarah, believing herself the only survivor of a nuclear war, finding her isolated farm visited by two men: first Chiwetel Ejiofor’s scientist, John, then Chris Pine’s Caleb. Three is one too many, and as racial, religious, and sexual tensions rise, a more personal apocalypse seems inevitable.
Z for Zachariah is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
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Z for Zachariah
drama • romance • 2015
drama • romance • 2015
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