‘Time Bomb Y2K’ overview: An HBO documentary revisits the hysteria across the twentieth century’s closing freakout

CNN
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“Time Bomb Y2K,” an HBO documentary concerning the panic associated to the calendar swap to 2000 and the pandemonium “specialists” warned would ensue, possesses an “All the pieces previous is new once more” high quality, a semi-comical reminder that conspiracies and media hysteria don’t finish however merely recycle. The one detrimental facet is, by relying totally on archival materials, these featured needn’t reply at the moment for embarrassing issues they stated and did then.

On the coronary heart of the fears unleashed by Y2K resided an undercurrent nonetheless very a lot alive a quarter-century later: unease concerning the know-how and knowledge explosion, which the Clinton administration solid as a boon for society however that not surprisingly yielded issues about these huge, puffy clouds.

The documentary opens with individuals making ready for the top of civilization, anticipating a wholesale “meltdown” by the pc methods upon which society hinged. Heck, there’s even a clip of “Star Trek’s” Leonard Nimoy sounding involved (and logical) about it in a particular titled “Y2K Household Survival Information.”

Because the doc makes clear, it’s not that there was no trigger for apprehension, solely that as is so typically true, lots of the reactions rapidly devolved into overreactions, making it exhausting to separate the sober evaluation from the science fiction and charlatans.

The alarm bells prompted a spike in gun gross sales, naturally, however the scientific and technical Cassandras intertwined and intermingled with these whose fears had been tinged in biblical prophecy. Though the federal government acknowledged it was working to avert any such catastrophe, the footage makes clear that there was ample curiosity in listening to from doomsayers and people issuing dire predictions, turning somebody like pc skilled Peter de Jager right into a sort-of superstar (getting within the spirit, de Jager reveals up for one look, as his interviewer notes, sporting a Y2K tie.)

Amongst different issues, “Time Bomb” makes a persuasive case that in a media tradition the place the squeakiest wheels get the grease (and airtime), there appeared to be little warning about platforming these crying wolf in probably the most provocative phrases, and no actual penalty for being conspicuously improper. After the reduction and exultation that greeted an basically uneventful ushering in of the brand new millenium, life went on, even for individuals who seemed silly with the advantage of hindsight.

Administrators Brian Becker and Marley McDonald do incorporate a couple of postgame interviews from the time, together with one with de Jager, however “Time Bomb’s” main blind spot might be discovered there. A era later it will be attention-grabbing to meet up with among the individuals – from so-called specialists to an early iteration of doomsday preppers – to elucidate themselves, if solely to place the absurdities of the second in larger context.

Permitting for that oversight, “Time Bomb Y2K” nonetheless speaks to the excesses of that ancient times in a approach that connects instantly to the current, offering a style of how media frenzies occur filtered by way of the twentieth century’s closing freakout. And if plenty of these speaking heads and folks hoarding provides seem foolish now, think about how ridiculous persons are going to look when some shiny filmmaker decides to sift by way of the absurdities of the present second circa 2048.

“Time Bomb Y2K” premieres December 30 at 10 p.m. ET on HBO, which, like CNN, is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery.