There's really no escaping the end of the world as we know it. First of all its a strange adaptation of The Day of the Triffids - with Eddie Izzard emerging as an unlikely dictator - on the Christmas schedules of all things. Next we have the release of the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, depressing, horrifying and apparently impressing cinema audiences the world over. There was even 2012, memorably described by Mark Lawson on Front Row on Radio 4 as "the comedy version" of The Road.
And now, if anyone has any shred of hope for our collective futures remaining, we have the second series of the BBC's series Survivors, a remaking of a 1970s series.
Series One, which I bought from iTunes and largely watched on a 2 inch screen somehwere over the Baltic ewas surprisingly entertaining. The premise was simple - and particularly germane in the wake of bird flu, swine flu and various other pandemic-threatening viruses - humanity (or at least the portion that lives in and around Manchester) is stricken by a flu like virus that spreads rapidly and destructively, killing all but a handful of the population.
Those that remain are left to fight for their lives and over dwindling supplies of energy and food in a landscape that is bleak and a society that is Hobbesian and increasingly dangerous.
If the path of Survivors was largely predictable - battles for food, for territory and for power - it was also very entertaining. The series fcouses on the battle of one particular group, led by a woman, Abby, searching for her lost son and including a violent career criminal, a Muslim playboy and the devout child he finds while racing an Audi supercar around the devastated city and a doctor who loses her faith in her profession.
A sinister background is provided by a former minsiter running an authoritarian compound which aims to recreate civil society using a combination of the jackboot and a Stalinist five year plan and a group of scientists in pristine who may or may not have been involved in the spread of the virus - or in trying to control it.
It's not The Road, but it's not 2012 either. As many of the critics have said, it is entertaining.
Series Two started with the spectacular and explosive destruction of a hospital in which some survivors were searching for the tools with which to repair the shotgun-impaired of the myserious Greg, who was wounded during the finale of Series One as Abby was kidnapped by the sinister scientists. She is now in their lab - the only person known to have contracted the wound and survived - a guinea pig for whatever plan they are putting into effect.
And even if the second half of the show was a rather slow Earthquake-rescue scene, It should be another good ride, with the poltico-medico plot to the fore. I may need a bigger iPod for those cross-Baltic flights.