U.S. homeowners are facing crisis. The American economy is failing. The time-honored tradition of the Presidential debates has become little more than a clever PR tactic, and we’re in the middle of one of the most intense election years the States have ever known. If you’re among those who think the world is going to hell in a hand basket, or even if you’re not, HBO’s new futuristic series may just appeal to you. It could also offer a not-so far-fetched look at our potential future.

In Americatown, the world has advanced 25 to 40 years into the future (the exact year remains unclear), and the great country of America has weathered at least one too many massive catastrophes. In the series, the decline of the country has sparked massive immigration that gives rise to Americatowns all over the world. Think Chinatown, with buffalo wings and beer.

“By presenting Americans as immigrants in the near future, as both underdog and hero in the drama of global dislocation, we substitute a mirror for the rancor that informs much of the partisan debates on immigration,” said series writer Bradford Winters.

The series follows a group of immigrants who have just arrived in a large, foreign city. The idea was perfected, ruminated envisioned in many mediums by Winters - seen as a series, movie, miniseries and even as a book. But one year ago, Winters landed on his Americatown plot.

He explored several different scenarios which could plausibly lead to country-wide destruction, such as skyrocketing oil prices and devastating natural disasters. Today, some of the scripted scenarios are coming to pass, making Americatown less an intriguing idea and more a very frightening glimpse at a very possible U.S. future.

“What is happening right now is such a terrible disaster for so many people and, in some ways, I think it makes it less hard to argue that the events in Americatown are impossible,” said Winters of the current mortgage crisis, Wall Street crash, enormously high gas prices and other recent American events.

Is the future of the American people really so grim? The idea of a massive immigration from the U.S. is very plausible, and that’s what makes Americatown so very interesting an idea. The series is currently in production. No release dates or cast members have been released.