'COBRA' Is Officially Convening For Season 3

The British TV series COBRA was one of those rare shows that benefitted from the 2020 shutdowns and lockdowns. Though the first season originally ran on Sky One in the weeks before the March pandemic announcement, the sense of impending apocalyptic doom out of human control fit the national mood in the U.K. perfectly. Its October debut in the states in the weeks before the National election only heightened the series' tension and made its ludicrous twists and turns all that more of a welcome relief. Though Season 2 seemed a stretch, it also wasn't a surprise. Nor, for that matter, is Sky One's announcement it renewed the show for a third set of episodes to follow.

The series' slightly madcap attitude may be partially due to the real-life government response code on which it's based. COBR in the U.K. government stands for Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms, and COBRA, or Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, is the first and largest of those rooms that are commandeered whenever the government meets to handle a national emergency. The phrase referring to the room has, over time, become shorthand for any convening of the Civil Contingencies Committee to handle major disruptions and/or crises.

Season 1 found the Tory government of Robert Sutherland (Robert Carlyle) facing down a massive solar flare, which knocked the country's electrical grid and navigational systems, leading to riots. Season 2, subheaded "Cyberwar," brings a two-fold crisis, starting with an accidental explosion destroying the coastline along northern Kent. The rescue operation is disrupted when unknown forces choose that moment to launch a cyberattack, tying the government's hands. (It will surprise no one that the Cyberattack is suspected to originate from Russian hackers working hand-in-glove with Putin's government.)