Netflix’s ‘1983’ Imagines an Alt-History Where Al Gore is a War-Mongering President

Netflix’s new foreign thriller 1983 might seem like just another European spy drama at first blush. After all, it opens on an interrogation in a seedy part of Warsaw in 1983, making it feel all very Deutschland 83. But within minutes, comes the twist. 1983 imagines an alternate history where most of Poland’s major cities suffered devastating terrorist attacks in the titular year, thus scuttling Polish independence and securing the control of the USSR for another 20 years. Everything in 2003 is different, from the Gulf War, to Vietnam’s place in the world. But one thing is…more different. 1983 imagines an alternate time line where Al Gore becomes a war-mongering president.

Now, full disclosure, we’ve only watched the first episode so far, and so we don’t know if Al Gore becomes a major complex character later in the series. But from a single story-framing newsreel, we know that the “Party” that controls Poland definitely reads Gore’s actions as aggressive. He’s apparently building up military might in Kuwait to push Iraq’s buttons. (Sound familiar?) Since this is all seen on a state news reel, it’s also carefully programmed propaganda. Al Gore might be just as excited about recycling in this timeline as he is in real life.

Besides this quirky little nod to American viewers, 1983 is largely concerned with Polish politics. In fact, the show feels like a Polish version of The Man in the High Castle, only instead of the AXIS powers winning World War II, the USSR won (or survived) the Cold War. As such, 1983 seems to have bit more gritty glamour than the Amazon series. It feels like a daring spy thriller with a twist. The alt-history setting allows the show to flit through genres: cop drama, spy thriller, and revolutionary tale.

Watch 1983 on Netflix