2021·Documentary·6 episodes
8.0
★
In six films, Adam Curtis traces the different forces across the world that have led to now. It covers a wide range—including the strange roots of modern conspiracy theories, the history of China, opium and opioids, the history of Artificial Intelligence, melancholy over the loss of empire and, love and power. And explores whether modern culture, despite its radicalism, is really just part of the new system of power.
Created by Adam Curtis
conspiracy theory
power politics
russian politics
political satire
usa politics
global politics
Trailer
IMDB
N/A
Seasons
Cast
Adam Curtis
Self - Narrator (voice)
Crew
Adam Curtis
Creator
Popular Reviews
21 reviews
No Name
2.0★ · 01/10/26
Стильно ок
Стильно ок
Ari
8.0★ · 10/20/24
I’ve never heard the word “meme” treated so seriously. Some excellent Curtis Segways™️ in here.
Like all of his other works there are a multitude of historical revelations that give tangible legs to so many of our greatest fears about the state of the world. The meaninglessness underneath our world is brought to the surface through the lens of the individual, which destroys the past and the future alike, granting only momentary satisfaction through the privilege of money and as mediated by products. Curtis is left as helpless in his web as we are in our own webs. We’re left at the ground floor, “you are here,” etc. He’s weeded through the archives and left us with a reality which urgently needs a radical, collective upheaval to reframe and revolutionize collapsing and exploitative relationships. Relationships that are socially reinforced and controlled for generations.
Not for anyone looking for a satisfying ending lol.
Guy badly needs to drop the Graeber and graduate to Parenti or something tho… glaring contradictions lie between how he frames the fall of communism and the haphazard conclusion he draws about the power of the masses… maybe it’s that Curtis’s work is intensely supplemental by design, perception contingent on your positionality and positions on the world while he just delivers today’s news… and it feels weird being fully onboard for a guy who can draw the right connections but—in being a newsman—doesn’t do it in a persuasive way, where a given fact that aligns with his post-colonial image is the bombshell and not what is interpreted from the fact (which is the thing that can actually center and empower the oppressed masses within his narrative), so I can’t help but feel a liiiiiitle mixed after having all of my most radical buttons pushed to no actionable end (kinda sounds like post-colonial academia as a whole lol)… first instinct after it ended was to ironically enough pick up my Mao book and check Signal chats bc this doc leaves u at such an open and precarious position for better or for worse… and for better or for worse I believed Curtis enough to do that…
Like all of his other works there are a multitude of historical revelations that give tangible legs to so many of our greatest fears about the state of the world. The meaninglessness underneath our world is brought to the surface through the lens of the individual, which destroys the past and the future alike, granting only momentary satisfaction through the privilege of money and as mediated by products. Curtis is left as helpless in his web as we are in our own webs. We’re left at the ground floor, “you are here,” etc. He’s weeded through the archives and left us with a reality which urgently needs a radical, collective upheaval to reframe and revolutionize collapsing and exploitative relationships. Relationships that are socially reinforced and controlled for generations.
Not for anyone looking for a satisfying ending lol.
Guy badly needs to drop the Graeber and graduate to Parenti or something tho… glaring contradictions lie between how he frames the fall of communism and the haphazard conclusion he draws about the power of the masses… maybe it’s that Curtis’s work is intensely supplemental by design, perception contingent on your positionality and positions on the world while he just delivers today’s news… and it feels weird being fully onboard for a guy who can draw the right connections but—in being a newsman—doesn’t do it in a persuasive way, where a given fact that aligns with his post-colonial image is the bombshell and not what is interpreted from the fact (which is the thing that can actually center and empower the oppressed masses within his narrative), so I can’t help but feel a liiiiiitle mixed after having all of my most radical buttons pushed to no actionable end (kinda sounds like post-colonial academia as a whole lol)… first instinct after it ended was to ironically enough pick up my Mao book and check Signal chats bc this doc leaves u at such an open and precarious position for better or for worse… and for better or for worse I believed Curtis enough to do that…
I’ve never heard the word “meme” treated so seriously. Some excellent Curtis Segways™️ in here.
Like all of his other works there are a multitude of historical revelations that give tangible legs to so many of our greatest fears about the state of the world. The meaninglessness underneath our world is brought to the surface through the lens of the individual, which destroys the past and the future alike, granting only momentary satisfaction through the privilege of money and as mediated by products. Curtis is left as helpless in his web as we are in our own webs. We’re left at the ground floor, “you are here,” etc. He’s weeded through the archives and left us with a reality which urgently needs a radical, collective upheaval to reframe and revolutionize collapsing and exploitative relationships. Relationships that are socially reinforced and controlled for generations.
Not for anyone looking for a satisfying ending lol.
Guy badly needs to drop the Graeber and graduate to Parenti or something tho… glaring contradictions lie between how he frames the fall of communism and the haphazard conclusion he draws about the power of the masses… maybe it’s that Curtis’s work is intensely supplemental by design, perception contingent on your positionality and positions on the world while he just delivers today’s news… and it feels weird being fully onboard for a guy who can draw the right connections but—in being a newsman—doesn’t do it in a persuasive way, where a given fact that aligns with his post-colonial image is the bombshell and not what is interpreted from the fact (which is the thing that can actually center and empower the oppressed masses within his narrative), so I can’t help but feel a liiiiiitle mixed after having all of my most radical buttons pushed to no actionable end (kinda sounds like post-colonial academia as a whole lol)… first instinct after it ended was to ironically enough pick up my Mao book and check Signal chats bc this doc leaves u at such an open and precarious position for better or for worse… and for better or for worse I believed Curtis enough to do that…
Like all of his other works there are a multitude of historical revelations that give tangible legs to so many of our greatest fears about the state of the world. The meaninglessness underneath our world is brought to the surface through the lens of the individual, which destroys the past and the future alike, granting only momentary satisfaction through the privilege of money and as mediated by products. Curtis is left as helpless in his web as we are in our own webs. We’re left at the ground floor, “you are here,” etc. He’s weeded through the archives and left us with a reality which urgently needs a radical, collective upheaval to reframe and revolutionize collapsing and exploitative relationships. Relationships that are socially reinforced and controlled for generations.
Not for anyone looking for a satisfying ending lol.
Guy badly needs to drop the Graeber and graduate to Parenti or something tho… glaring contradictions lie between how he frames the fall of communism and the haphazard conclusion he draws about the power of the masses… maybe it’s that Curtis’s work is intensely supplemental by design, perception contingent on your positionality and positions on the world while he just delivers today’s news… and it feels weird being fully onboard for a guy who can draw the right connections but—in being a newsman—doesn’t do it in a persuasive way, where a given fact that aligns with his post-colonial image is the bombshell and not what is interpreted from the fact (which is the thing that can actually center and empower the oppressed masses within his narrative), so I can’t help but feel a liiiiiitle mixed after having all of my most radical buttons pushed to no actionable end (kinda sounds like post-colonial academia as a whole lol)… first instinct after it ended was to ironically enough pick up my Mao book and check Signal chats bc this doc leaves u at such an open and precarious position for better or for worse… and for better or for worse I believed Curtis enough to do that…
Joe Keane
10.0★ · 03/31/23
Adam Curtis makes the best history podcasts and they aren’t even history podcasts
Adam Curtis makes the best history podcasts and they aren’t even history podcasts
Scott
8.0★ · 09/05/21
Strange days in the age of the self. Embrace the chaos and make it different.
Strange days in the age of the self. Embrace the chaos and make it different.
Mila
1.0★ · 02/23/21
brb gonna have undisciplined guerilla warfare with your mom
brb gonna have undisciplined guerilla warfare with your mom