Rebelote. In a saturated market, the Apple TV + platform has managed the feat of offering the most intriguing, seductive and unexpected series for the second consecutive year. Exactly one year after the masterpiece that constitutes the first season of “Severance”, another vision, brilliant and bittersweet, of contemporary society arrives on our screens. Where Dan Erickson’s creation built a dystopia seeming to be only a few years ahead of our time, “Hello Tomorrow! counters and goes back to the 1950s. Or at least in a retro-futuristic version of the American Glorious Thirties where robots are legion and where you can easily travel to the Moon.
A brilliant critique of liberalism
From the first minutes, we are captivated by the sets, the accessories, the costumes, where beauty competes with ingenuity. But far from being satisfied with this demonstration of artistic force, “Hello Tomorrow! composes a poignant story about a lying man, a pure allegory of carnivorous capitalism. With his 1,000-watt smile, his perfectly tailored suits and his glibness, Jack Billings (Billy Crudup in his best role to date) embodies a first-rate salesperson who sells with an equally friendly team of time-sharing peddlers. “. In other words, rather than monetizing stays in the snow as in our regions, they offer lunar residences to American citizens who are bored by their earthly life. With the nuance that the vaunted mansions simply do not exist.
The season will therefore take place on a razor’s edge when doubt begins to creep in among Jack’s customers and employees. Meanwhile, the huckster’s tour takes him to his hometown where he meets the son he abandoned long ago. Structured like an existential house of cards, the story will thus mix a brilliant critique of liberalism with a celebration of paternity, the only solid link in this world of storytellers.
American series by Amit Bhalla and Lucas Jansen (2023). With Billy Crudup, Haneefah Wood, Dewshane Williams. 10 episodes. Available on Apple TV+.
