Year Million

Amazing Docu-fiction; great job for the narration by Laurence Fishburne. Surprising that there wasn't a second season; really hope they make it happen. This is a very interesting vision of the future. They should remaster this season, and put it out again on streaming; it would be a big hit, especially now.

Such an interesting topic for a show for tech lovers

Not counting daytime television this maybe the dumbest show ever put on television

Want to have your mind expanded? Or completely blown? "Year Million" takes a look at how the future might play out, given the current status of technologies and real concerns about quality of life.

Sci-fi writers make their money thinking about the future and hypothesizing about how future existence might look if technologies and trends were carried to their logical conclusions. This show looks to "a far future" and asks viewers to consider some surprising and startling possibilities.

In the first two episodes of this mini-series, we consider the dramatic changes that advances in robotics will bring. Our culture can expect significant changes in the next twenty years; but what might occur in hundreds of years? Will robots replace many humans? Will they threaten the existence of humans? Will they merge with humans?

Also considered are the consequences of medical research that promises longer life spans. Nanotechnology may eventually promise near immortality. Genetic advances may promise designer children. The combining of human and machine may blur our definitions of humanity, especially if the contents of the human brain can be digitized.

Will people be able to download the contents of their brains into robotic bodies? Will people be able to visit or actually live in digitized (virtual) worlds? Will cryogenics allow people to be reanimated in the future, when medical advances allow more choices or a cure for disease?

Will off-world travel and colonization be the salvation of mankind?

With any new technology comes new ethical questions. Will technology advance faster than the ethical systems designed to deal with them? Will we be able to retain what makes us human? Do we know exactly what those things are?

"Year Million" is both exciting and scary. A fantastic voice over facilitates the journey through a myriad of musings and questions.

The show had great potential but it is lacking in several areas to be great.

I think the biggest problem -maybe my expectations were too high- is the lack of actual science, you get interviews and interventions from a lot of people who are completely unfamiliar with robotics, engineering, economics, etc. It's like asking your neighbor's opinion and frankly it's quite tiring. I believe the show would gain from explaining the different technologies they present in greater details.

Because of that, the show doesn't know where to go, is it science- fiction, is it actual science? Based on facts or assumptions? Trying to tangle the lives of fictional characters with a documentary is tricky and it sometimes feel like a cheap feeling grab to get the viewers involved. If I wanted drama, I'd watch a drama, I don't understand the need for the character's story arc, it feels forced. Because you simply jump from their story that serves the purpose of introducing the technologies to the audience, it doesn't feel (pardon the pun) organic and ruins the story-telling.

Finally, the show suffers from what could be called "americanisms" : everything is tremendous, crazy, on the verge of a massive discovery, etc. The use of constant superlatives actually weakens the viewers' understanding of what is important and what might be less important. "This is science and not science-fiction", "It's a question of when an not if". I could go on but you get the gist of it. What am I watching, a sales pitch? In the end this is probably the biggest disservice to the series.

So, I'm not strongly against it, the message is interesting and I believe it comes from good intentions. But this is not a science show, there is a lot of prediction and telling you how something will happen but very little factual explanations. A lot of people who give their opinions instead of sticking to facts or fact-based insights.

I just hope we'll have something better in the future.

P.S : Lose the comedian(s), they're supposed to be the "relatable" audience member, they just seem out of place and their interventions are strangely paced as well.