The Dystopian Sci-Fi Series That's Taking Off On Netflix

Just picture it — a world divided along ideological lines, all thanks to a global crisis in the 2020s. Tribal societies on the brink of collapse, with a once amalgamated European Union fractured into competitive states. 

All of this, and more, can be found in just two places: Either your Apple News feed, or if you prefer a fictionalized version, the Netflix series Tribes of Europa, which has been dominating the streaming platform's Top 10 Most Viewed rankings since it premiered on February 19.

Tribes of Europa is a new original series out of Germany, mixing equal parts The Hunger Games with that classic Deutschland sense of frivolity on display in the works of Werner Herzog and Otto Dix. The show takes place in the year 2074, in the wake of a mysterious catastrophe generations prior which left all the technology that mankind had learned to rely upon rendered useless. The European continent has split off into tribe states, separated by their philosophical, geographical, and aesthetic differences.

One of these tribes, the peaceful luddite Origine, is home to a trio of siblings: Kiano, Liv, and Elja. Their lives are interrupted by the appearance of a crashed aircraft containing a small, glowing box with all the earmarks of a first act call to adventure.

Tribes of Europa comes from the mind of Philip Koch, a German writer and director with a deep love of post-apocalyptic fiction — though, for the record, he has been reluctant to describe the series as "dystopian." In a recent Variety interview, Koch described his approach to the show, preferring to brand it as a futuristic frontier epic. 

"You have tribes that are on the dystopian side, but not the whole world is dystopian. It's a new beginning, a completely new world to discover, where you also have tribes that are very egalitarian, liberal — utopian even." That's not to say that Tribes isn't deeply rooted in the pop culture doomsdays of the past, however. Koch hints at a bevy of Easter eggs "hidden throughout the entire show for fans to discover. From Game of Thrones to Mad Max, or the Fallout video games — my very own personal love letters." As with any dark science fiction future, Tribes of Europa also takes inspiration from current events, with Koch citing the 2016 Brexit referendum and the recent American political climate as a few of the show's real-world anchors. 

Anyone looking for a stylish crash course in the archery-heavy days to come, not to mention the importance of sussing out Atlantean artifacts, can currently stream all six episodes of the show's first season on Netflix.