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‘Man is a cross!’

Since time began there have been prophecies about the end of the world. We’ve written stories about it, and since TV and film started up we’ve made movies and shows about it. 8 Days isn’t about the end of the whole world, just Europe as we know it – a bit like Brexit but with a giant meteorite called Horus. How long people have got is in the title, and this series follows what happens to one extended family in the run up to Doomsday.

We begin as the US have already tried to knock Horus off-course – à la Deep Impact – and failed, making that country the go-to place to stand any chance of survival. So, the focus zeroes in on a handful of Germans trying to get the hell out of Dodge. Beginning with the central nuclear Steiner family of husband Uli (Mark Waschke), wife Susanne (Christiane Paul) and their kids, young lad Jonas (Claude Heinrich) and teenage girl Leonie (Lena Klenke), who are having no luck in their attempts to travel by car and then train.

Meanwhile Susanne’s brother Herrmann (Fabian Hinrichs), a snaky member of the Bundestag in Berlin, thinks he’s a shoo-in for a place on a plane heading to America. But what about his heavily pregnant girlfriend Marion (Nora von Waldstätten)? At the other end of the scale, Hermann and Susanne’s father Egon (Henry Hübchen), bitter and full of regrets, is happy enough to drink himself into oblivion before it actually arrives. Then there’s Leonie’s friend, wild child Nora (Luisa-Céline Gaffron) who we first encounter locked in a bunker by her psychotic and overprotective father Klaus (Devid Striesow); she’s just trying to escape so she can enjoy her last few days on Earth.

As things escalate, with carrots being dangled such as a lottery to enter a giant underground shelter and the promise of a utopia for those who follow the new religion set up by druggie Robin (David Schütter), who fancies himself as the next messiah, tensions steadily mount. Especially when Uli discovers Susanne’s affair with local policeman Deniz (Murathan Muslu), who is still frantically trying to keep law and order. Will any of these people find a way to make it?

In spite of the fact 8 Days is pure melodrama at times and has a tendency to chuck in apocalyptic clichés left right and centre (the gang of survivalists running riot, for instance), it can really deliver an emotional impact – if you’ll pardon the expression – especially as the end looms. It tackles issues like Egon’s heart-breaking gay affair when he was younger, political intrigue and the impending birth of Marion’s child; you’ll probably notice the striking image of her in a wedding dress, holding the baby, on the cover. Overall, definitely worth a watch, if only for that stunning final scene, but some extras would have been nice to find out why the makers made some of the creative decisions they did.

Verdict: ‘What a week it’s been!’ 7/10

Paul Kane   

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