It’s fascinating to see how previous generations pondered the future, writes “Streaming” columnist NICK OVERALL.

IN the ’50s and ’60s, imaginations ran wild of a 21st century techno-utopia, one inhabited by flying cars, house-cleaning robots and entire meals condensed into a single pill.

Little would people have known they’d instead be streaming television through something called the internet.

It’s what makes Apple TV Plus’ newest show “Hello Tomorrow!” such an intriguing watch.

This retro-futuristic, 10-episode series is set in a future that looks how ’50s America imagined it.

Robots work as bartenders, the family car seamlessly hovers through the air and the mailman gets around with a jetpack. It’s like something taken straight from the cover of an “Amazing Stories” magazine.

Award-winner Billy Crudup plays Jack Billings, a salesman who flogs real estate on the moon. 

For the right price, the residents of sunny Vistaville have the opportunity to build a home in “Brightside” – an exciting new lunar development.

Is this slick, futuristic salesman slinging dreams or lies? His true motivations are revealed as this absorbing comedy-drama unfolds.

There is something oddly disquieting about these idealistic and flashy predictions of the future.

In looking at how previous generations envisaged the world of tomorrow, so too can the anxieties and fears of the time be gleaned.

There were obsessions with cars that would run on anything but fuel, automatons that would alleviate the crushing monotony of domestic life and, like the houses on the moon in “Hello Tomorrow!”, dreams of a new life far, far away indeed.

The show’s collision of past and future aesthetics melds into an entertaining and pertinent social commentary for today. Let’s just say it’s a tad more bleak than “The Jetsons”.

IT’D be audacious of me to call Joe Goldberg TV’s favourite psychopath (God knows, there’s no shortage of them) but with “You” now back for a fourth season he might very well be on his way to becoming just that.

For latecomers, Goldberg is the maniacal main attraction of this psychological thriller on Netflix, which places the audience inside his mind.

Charismatically and creepily played by Penn Badgley, viewers get to listen in on the inner monologue of Joe as he becomes obsessed with a new target each season. 

He lures his victims in with the appearance of a charming bookshop manager. While on the surface he seems like your ordinary, well, Joe, behind the scenes he watches his “true love’s” every move and pulls the strings of their relationship much more than he lets on.

His obsessions become so intense he will do anything to both protect and possess his victims. That “anything” forms the crux of the show and continues to get more deranged with every season.

The wildly popular series is based on the books of Caroline Kepnes, who this year is also releasing her fourth entry in the series.

Four novels and 40 episodes deep into the franchise and audiences still can’t get enough of Joe Goldberg’s creepy and nail-biting escapades.

What Kepnes and the show have cleverly managed to do is up the ante with each new instalment.

While season three saw Goldberg living in suburbia as a household husband, in season four he’s trotting the globe to pursue his latest desire.

It is a testament to “You” that it’s been able to successfully build on its premise yet again and draw viewers back into its macabre atmosphere for a fourth time.

While season four is another winner, one does have to wonder how much further it can possibly be pushed at this point – especially with talks of a fifth season already in the air. It’d be a shame to see this excellent series milked into irrelevance. 

How do you up the ante yet again? Who knows. Maybe next time the show’s creepy anti-hero will be boarding a rocket to chase his next obsession through space or something. I actually wouldn’t put that past Joe Goldberg.