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Petrochemical scientist Andy Yeats (Matthew Fox) is called in to work for an unusual emergency. Something is wrong with oil. In the Middle East, he is joined by mysterious British agent Mika Bakhash (Amber Rose Revah). His wife Elena (Joanne Froggatt) and their blind son Sam are stuck in France when chaos descends upon the world. His daughter Laura (Alyth Ross) is protesting oil companies back home in London when it happens.

This is a limited series with five episodes. I have some basic problems with the premise. First, bacteria eating up all the oil would release a boatload of CO2 or worst. I doubt anyone would want that. I would also doubt it eats up other hydrocarbons. They don't show any plastic start melting and they don't say anything about gas. France is using mostly nuclear for its electricity. They would still have renewables and natural gas. They should be able to maintain their grid with some minor brown outs. The basic science is questionable at best. Second, I hate that a premise that relies so heavily on science is reduced to a fist fight. They insist on doing a Bourne Identity movie for some reason. It would have been more interesting to have a Bourne Identity type movie without the science. Just have oil turn inert for unknown reasons. The most annoying may actually be how they pronounced Tobias. It's annoying. It could be worst. I get the premise. It just needs some work. It's also only five episodes long.

When you find yourself skipping all scenes with the mother and child, you know something has gone wrong.

They are also padding out a thin story using slow pacing, music and extended, boring, conversations.

It is not very good. The actors are, bar a couple, meh, unable to deliver lines convincingly. The 'authority' spook lacks any kind of presence for the role. The responses to external events are contrived, with stupid decisions driving the plot, rather than any kind of smart writing.

They finally spell out the core of the plot in episode 4, and it is as thin and dumb as it appeared to be when revealed in a single quick image in the first episode.

Unfortunately this series is only moderately entertaining with few surprises. The ads on TV promised a lot more than what is delivered.

I found myself drifting off, as the story just doesn't take off.

A pretty good cast is underutilized, and unfortunately often resort to woefully melodramatic over-acting.

The UAE star as a thinly vailed fictional Arabic country and we were easily identifying landmarks, buildings and even street corners.

If you are after a great "power grid failure doomsday scenario " series, try to find the Austrian/German series "The Blackout. Tomorrow is too late". That one delivers.

I'm pretty sure that It is available in English as well...........

I like dystopian tv series and movies so I was looking forward to this even though the ratings weren't so great, but unlike most apocalyptic series that focus on the world created after this is more of what happened just prior and during the event that lead to the collapse of society itself concurrently. Unfortunately it's not a story you haven't heard and despite seemingly being well produced with a decent cast to go with it, the story just wasn't enough to make this something special. It could have been better.

The family is quite insufferable to watch especially the daughter, but it was quite alright when following the political angle that felt more interesting. And the finale, the end of the season finale felt rushed like they skipped through time and was unrealistically optimistic. I thought after the world order was shattered it'd end with a cliff hanger for another season where we see how society endured but it skips straight to the good part and the time jump isn't even large enough to justify it. Quite underwhelming and anticlimactic. The story also lacked detail in general and the antagonist in the end, despite supposedly being so smart had really naive logic. It's the equivalent of people who say 'just print more money' to solve economic problems (i.e. Giving people money to combat inflation), except this time it's climate change and oil. Solutions that only make sense if you don't think about it, or are just callow and gullible.

It's a miniseries but I feel like if they cut off the ending and hired better writers with focus on the chaos and events that proceeded the collapse for a second season it'd have been better, maybe trite but better.

It's pretty well made. I don't think it's as horrid as reviews with 2 star ratings give it, it's just nothing impressive and you won't be missing out on much if you skip it, but if you've nothing to do and just looking to pass time it's not a terrible option.

I read the book shortly after it was published a number of years ago, and what an absolute thrill to read. The book was based around cities in the UK, London particularly and I was gripped.

The second book was OK, but I felt it was rushed to publication with no real thought behind it.

When I saw they had turned this in to a series, I thought GREAT!!

Well how very, very disappointing right from the get go!!

Bad acting, considering these are great actors, it was as if they regretted taking the role and couldn't wait to get off the set.

The adaptation from the book was odd as the book was based around a terrorist threat, which made it feel more real and believable. So, so disappointed, but I had to continue watching in case the story/acting got better, alas NO.

Save yourselves the pain and trauma. Go watch a cartoon.