18Children of Men (2006)

Some of the most celebrated shows in the so-called “bleak TV” era (The Handmaid’s Tale, The Leftovers, The Walking Dead) seem to owe a debt to Children of Men. Co-screenwriter Timothy Sexton told Colorado Public Radio that it was the post-9/11 zeitgeist that sparked the way into James’ 1992 dystopian novel set against mass infertility and the possible end of humanity. “Fertility is just a way to talk about crisis, and a way to talk about human hope,” Sexton said. “For me this is all kind of a post-9/11 phenomenon, where the West had this existential shock and began asking harder questions about where it’s all headed.”