Sneak Peek at Dystopian Series THE LOTTERY

It wasn’t too long ago that I was making fun of Lifetime’s predilection for terrible TV movies about terrible men. But, like seemingly every network (I’m looking at you, The CW), they’ve taken a hard turn into genre territory lately, greenlighting Witches of Eastwick and an Omen-inspired series from The Walking Dead’s Glen Mazzara. The network recently sent us a sneak peek of their upcoming series The Lottery, and it actually looks kind of great. It’s from Timothy J. Sexton, who scripted Children of Men, and it is a long form exploration of the same theme: all the women, everywhere, are infertile and have been for years. Here’s an official synopsis:

Set within a dystopian future driven by a global fertility crisis, The Lottery reveals a world staring down the barrel of impending extinction as women have mysteriously stopped bearing children. After years of research, Dr. Alison Lennon and her team remarkably create 100 viable embryos. To determine which women will carry the prized embryos to term, a national lottery is held and a battle over the control of the 100 embryos begins.

That sounds promising. Children of Men is one of the rare movies that is better than the book it's based on, but it gave short shrift to one of the book’s major themes, which was that whoever controls the miracle baby controls the future. It sounds like this series is going to tackle that head on.

The Lottery stars Marley Shelton, Michael Graziadei, David Alpay, Athena Karkanis, Yul Vazquez, Shelley Conn, and Martin Donovan. It premieres Sunday, July 20 on Lifetime.