In a dystopian, nearby future, global warming has caused a flood that decimated the human population. The remainder of humanity live together in massive, highly-surveiled metropoles, surrounded by wasteland. One of these metropoles is Arcadia.
Within Arcadia, everyone is given a score based on merits, which determines what you are entitled to (and what not): The house you live in, your job description, the healthcare you can obtain, the places you can visit and even whether or not you get a spot on the bus, are determined by your score. While a high score grants you access to nearly any perk and benefit you can imagine, a low score forces you to live in squallor, or worse, gets you deported from Arcadia altogether.
The story of Arcadia begins when Pieter Hendriks, one of the more prominent citizens of Arcadia, is accused (and, soon after, convicted) of committing fraud with the score of two of his daughters, Luz and Hanna. He is promptly deported from Arcadia, while the remainder of his family (his wife Cato and daughters Luz, Hanna, Alex and Millie) receive a two point reduction in their scores. The series then focuses on the hardships of the family Hendriks-Jans, as they try to adapt to their new score (and new life) within Arcadia. Their life is even further complicated by Regulator Marco Simons, who is determined to prove that other members of the family (besides Pieter) were involved in the fraud, and Revisor Lena Harms, who sees the entire ordeal as an opportunity to conscript one of the family members as her personal spy. Yet, a more imminent danger is brewing in Arcadia, as a splinter fraction called De Ontrouwen ("the Unfaithful") is on the rise.
While the series has an overarcing story throughout, most of the main characters get their own story arcs, in which they play a significant part:
- Cato Jans, the matriarch, tries to keep the family together, even at the expense of her own score. This puts her at risk of deportation
- Millie, the eldest daughter, is a soldier with the military and takes up a position at the border outpost to look for her deported father. Through a friend and colleague, she manages to come into contact with a small community, living (against all odds) outside of Arcadia's walls. They manage to find her father (for a price).
- Alex, the second eldest, had obtained a high rank within her job as a police officer and is desperate to climb the ladder once more. This, and the degrading score of her mother, makes her susceptible to Lena's manipulations.
- Hanna, the second youngest, is a nurse at the nearby hospital, who disagrees with the treatment of their poorer patients. When she catches Nora Davids, another nurse, as she tries to steal medical supplies for an impoverished loved one, she decides to help her, which puts her on the radar of the Unfaithful.
- Luz, the youngest daughter, is a somewhat autistic office clerk, who was sheltered from most chaos and disorder by her father before his deportation. After losing her father and getting demoted to help-desk employee, she discovers that the world can be a terrible place, but she manages to grow as a person nevertheless. After meeting Regulator Simons' father by chance, she even manages to become friends with Marco and his father, at the bewilderment of her own family.
The first season of the series has been broadcasted on Eén and NPO3 between March and May 2023. A second season is already in the making and set for 2024.
This show contains examples of:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The series takes place in the nearby furture, where mostly the architecture (and some of the infrastructure) is revamped. Regardless, most of the current technology (and even some dated technology) is still present in this setting, making it more "five minutes into the future" than twenty.
- Action Survivor: Most of the people living outside of Arcadia's walls are this: they survived the initial onslaught of their deportation and managed to find a group of survivors to live with. Furthermore, regardless of their skills at surviving, they never chose this path (most of them, anyways), but were instead forced into this role.
- Arc Words: "You get what you deserve" is a phrase that is often repeated throughout the series, which has a bearing on the merit-based score employed by Arcadia. Whether it's good or bad depends on how the state views you at that moment.
- Asimov's Three Kinds of Science Fiction: The show is an example of the "social" category, where technology (and surveillance in particular) control the daily lives of the citizens of Arcadia to (nearly) the last detail. Stepping out of line in Arcadia is generally not advised, as the government will use technology to find out what you did and punish you accordingly.
- Close-Knit Community: The groups of survivors who live outside the walls of Arcadia have formed these to survive in the wastelands. While they usually take care of their own, they can be rather hostile to strangers.
- False Utopia: Arcadia sells itself as a beacon of light, where anyone can be succesful through hard work. In reality, it's a dictatorial dystopia, where even the slightest indiscretion is punished harshly by those in power. Its use of mass surveillance and tracking (together with the implementation of a Police State) also ensures that no one will get away with anything (unless they really try their hardest).
- Good Behavior Points: How the scoring system works in Arcadia. Do something that benefits the state, like holding a job, working on your (physical) health or helping out the state in any other way, and your score goes up. Lose your job, eat unhealthy or step out of line and your score goes down (rapidly). Lose to many points on your score and you'll get deported (a fate deemed equal to death).
- Kangaroo Court: Arcadia's justice system fits this to a T, as even the innocent get punished without any evidence. Getting your sentence appealed is also nearly impossible without some inside help.
- La Résistance: The Unfaithful, who try to undermine the control of Arcadia's governing powers on the daily lives of their citizens. They even mask their chip so as not to be tracked by the state. Being a member of the Unfaithfuls is, obviously, illegal.
- Nepotism: As with most dictatorial states, having friends in high places will help you a great deal within Arcadia. One Example of this is Jaak Philips offering his daughter-in-law, Alex, a high-ranking position within his company to help with her score. She ends up taking his offer, after some duress from Revisor Harms to become a spy for her.
- Police State: Arcadia employs a heavy-handed one in the form of the Shield, who essentially have the autority to do nearly anything they please (from arrests to house searches to monitoring suspects through bugs) with little repercussions. They are solely being supervised by the Visor, who seem to pull the strings behind the scenes.
- Science Fiction: The series is a dystopian, futuristic science fiction story about the hardships of a family in a higly-surveiled dictatorial police state.
- Socially Scored Society: Arcadia uses a personal citizen score to determine what every citizen is entitled to. High scores will come with all of the perk one can imagine, while low scores will leave you with little to nothing to your name. Excessively low scores will get you deported to the wastelands, where you'll have to fend for your own. Furthermore, anything you do will be reflected in you score, no matter how insignificant it may seem, while your score will determine every single aspect of your life. For most people, their score is their life.
- State Sec: The Visor, which not only seems to pull the strings of society behind the screen, but also has it's own police force, working exclusively for them. Furthermore, while they aren't well-known, they are officially recognized as a governing branch.
- The Dictatorship: Arcadia can be seen as a military dictatorship, as most everyday people don't really have a say in anything (not even in their own lives), while the people in charge surveil and control everything that takes place in Arcadia. Not complying with the rules will get you deported (to your death), which is why most people decide to comply. Their rules are inforced by a heavy-handed police force, who gets free reign to go about their bussiness, and all of it is sold as a kind of utopic paradise, where hard work pays off.
- The Social Darwinist: Most of Arcadia is run on this principle: If you're of any use to the state (because you're a healthy, functioning member of society) you'll be fine, but lose your job or get sick, and your score will plummet, leading to your deportation. This is even discussed throughout the series, as the government of Arcadia wants to raise the minimum score from 3.0 to 3.3, simply because anyone below 3.3 costs the state more than they provide.
- Untrusting Community: Most of the groups living outside of Arcadia's walls are this by default, as trusting someone can get you killed. Trust is even hard to find within Arcadia, for that matter.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: The main reason why the city of Arcadia empathises so little with its citizens, is because they do everything for the greater good (creating a utopic society), even if this means deporting the sick and helpless. As they see it, the interests of Arcadia trump those of their citizens and should be protected at all costs. Quite a few citizens agree with this notion and even betray their own family for the betterment of the state.
