I think having one of your favourite shows cancelled before it gets to end is something everyone goes through at some point in their lives if they watch enough TV. There are many reasons a show may be cancelled as a lot needs to go right for a TV show to get off the ground (especially now with higher expectations regarding production values). In the case of Channel 4’s ‘Utopia’, the official statement for cancellation was “it is a necessary part of being able to commission new drama”…so essentially it’s because not enough people watched it so they deemed it a waste of time and resources. Utopia is without a doubt one of my all-time favourite TV shows and I was delighted to hear back in 2014 that HBO would be reviving the show, but those plans laid dormant until Amazon eventually swept up the rights in 2018 and by the end of this year we will have a full-blown U.S remake. Not quite the outcome I wanted, as I would have given anything to see the show get a third and final series with the original creators and British cast, but alas some Utopia is better than no Utopia. With this news and the new trailer dropping just a few days ago, I felt now was an excellent time to revisit what I consider to be the height of British drama.
The Utopia Experiments is a graphic novel that hardcore fans believe predicted global epidemics such as BSE (Mad Cow Disease). Created by a man named Mark Dane in the 1980’s, Dane was a paranoid schizophrenic who killed himself once he had finished creating it. When Bejan, a member of an online fan forum, reveals that he supposedly has the manuscript for the unpublished Utopia 2, some of the members of the forum agree to meet him to read the manuscript and decipher its meanings.
Becky is a post-grad student who is trying to write her PhD thesis on The Utopia Experiments, believing them to be connected to the condition that killed her father (and she also suffers from), Deel’s syndrome. Ian is an IT consultant that lives with his mother. Wilson is a conspiracy theorist. And Grant is a troubled 11-year-old boy. Becky, Wilson, and Ian all meet at the rendezvous point whilst Grant tracks down Bejan’s actual address and plans to steal the manuscript from him, but when he arrives he witnesses two men kill Bejan whist interrogating him about the manuscript. Grant goes on the run with the manuscript, Becky and Ian are embroiled in sex scandals and arrested or go into hiding. Wilson is found by the two men who killed Bejan and tortured for information on a woman named Jessica Hyde.
Becky & Ian find Wilson, go on the run from the police and the assassins who are hunting them only to be found by the one and only Jessica Hyde. She informs the group that she is the daughter of Philip Carvel, the real author of Utopia. She tells them The Utopia Experiments were all real and that the manuscript for Utopia 2 contains details which an organization called ‘The Network’ needs in order to finalise the chemical composition for something called ‘Janus’. The Network’s plan is to sterilize the majority of the world’s population using Janus, which it will distribute in a flu vaccine in an attempt to stabilize population control. The group must now attempt to work out how they can stop The Network from starting a flu pandemic and distributing Janus, as well as find out the identity of the mysterious Mr. Rabbit so that they may be able to topple The Network once and for all. Meanwhile civil servant for the Department of Health, Michael Dugdale, is blackmailed into working for The Network and ensuring the flu vaccine containing Janus is properly funded.
The Utopia Experiments is a graphic novel that hardcore fans believe predicted global epidemics such as BSE (Mad Cow Disease). Created by a man named Mark Dane in the 1980’s, Dane was a paranoid schizophrenic who killed himself once he had finished creating it. When Bejan, a member of an online fan forum, reveals that he supposedly has the manuscript for the unpublished Utopia 2, some of the members of the forum agree to meet him to read the manuscript and decipher its meanings.
Becky is a post-grad student who is trying to write her PhD thesis on The Utopia Experiments, believing them to be connected to the condition that killed her father (and she also suffers from), Deel’s syndrome. Ian is an IT consultant that lives with his mother. Wilson is a conspiracy theorist. And Grant is a troubled 11-year-old boy. Becky, Wilson, and Ian all meet at the rendezvous point whilst Grant tracks down Bejan’s actual address and plans to steal the manuscript from him, but when he arrives he witnesses two men kill Bejan whist interrogating him about the manuscript. Grant goes on the run with the manuscript, Becky and Ian are embroiled in sex scandals and arrested or go into hiding. Wilson is found by the two men who killed Bejan and tortured for information on a woman named Jessica Hyde.
Becky & Ian find Wilson, go on the run from the police and the assassins who are hunting them only to be found by the one and only Jessica Hyde. She informs the group that she is the daughter of Philip Carvel, the real author of Utopia. She tells them The Utopia Experiments were all real and that the manuscript for Utopia 2 contains details which an organization called ‘The Network’ needs in order to finalise the chemical composition for something called ‘Janus’. The Network’s plan is to sterilize the majority of the world’s population using Janus, which it will distribute in a flu vaccine in an attempt to stabilize population control. The group must now attempt to work out how they can stop The Network from starting a flu pandemic and distributing Janus, as well as find out the identity of the mysterious Mr. Rabbit so that they may be able to topple The Network once and for all. Meanwhile civil servant for the Department of Health, Michael Dugdale, is blackmailed into working for The Network and ensuring the flu vaccine containing Janus is properly funded.
Although that synopsis certainly comes off as a little complicated, the show only ran for a total of 12 episodes and it does an excellent job of explaining what is going on very quickly. You’re rarely left without all the information and it presents it in a very concise and easy to understand way. What Utopia then does is provide lots of red herrings, double crosses, surprise reveals, and unexpected twists to keep the narrative interesting. All of the characters are given lots of development time, including the key players in The Network, so you get a great view of the situation from both viewpoints.
Whilst technically the villains, The Network are not outright villainous because their ultimate goal is to allow humanity to thrive and not fight each other for scraps. This is a great and really interesting moral dilemma to provide audiences with. Do you side with the group trying to save humanity but doing some pretty horrific things to achieve that? Or do you side with the group who are trying to stop innocent people from dying but ultimately dooming humanity to dying a slow and painful death anyway.
This problem is made even worse by Utopia’s graphic violence. This is really not a show for people who are easily triggered by violence. The series opens with a triple homicide by happy smiley assassins. Come the end of the first episode you have a man being tortured by having his eyes removed. The third episode opens with a graphic school shooting! The fact that Channel 4 had the balls to allow this kind of stuff to go ahead is testament to how much faith they had in the writers to justify the choices they were making. Racial genocide also plays a role in the story and it doesn’t shy away from exploring that in ways many shows wouldn’t dare. It’s a show that deals with really tough subject matter in ways a lot of people probably won't be comfortable with, but it’s issues that need to be talked about...and Utopia will certainly get you talking about it.
Utopia has a relatively small cast over its two series. Because of this almost all the characters can be explored in great depth, and it also comes as a surprise when some of them are killed off because even minor characters play such large roles. The performances are excellent all round which really helps bring the characters to life too. My personal favourite is Neil Maskell as Arby, one of the assassins who works for The Network. Maskell transforms himself into a character that is extremely unnerving to witness. Arby is so far detached from his emotions that it becomes like watching a modern-day Terminator. I also love Adeel Akhtar as Wilson. His character goes under a tremendous amount of growth over the series and Akhtar’s performance makes his progression seem totally natural and completely believable. His commitment to that character is second to none to the point where I struggle to separate the actor from the performance as he embodies it so well. If I feel like any actor is under-utilised it’s Ian McDiarmid as Philip Carvel, he doesn’t get a whole lot to say or do which makes sense for the story, but it just feels like a waste of McDiarmid’s incredible talents.
Whilst technically the villains, The Network are not outright villainous because their ultimate goal is to allow humanity to thrive and not fight each other for scraps. This is a great and really interesting moral dilemma to provide audiences with. Do you side with the group trying to save humanity but doing some pretty horrific things to achieve that? Or do you side with the group who are trying to stop innocent people from dying but ultimately dooming humanity to dying a slow and painful death anyway.
This problem is made even worse by Utopia’s graphic violence. This is really not a show for people who are easily triggered by violence. The series opens with a triple homicide by happy smiley assassins. Come the end of the first episode you have a man being tortured by having his eyes removed. The third episode opens with a graphic school shooting! The fact that Channel 4 had the balls to allow this kind of stuff to go ahead is testament to how much faith they had in the writers to justify the choices they were making. Racial genocide also plays a role in the story and it doesn’t shy away from exploring that in ways many shows wouldn’t dare. It’s a show that deals with really tough subject matter in ways a lot of people probably won't be comfortable with, but it’s issues that need to be talked about...and Utopia will certainly get you talking about it.
Utopia has a relatively small cast over its two series. Because of this almost all the characters can be explored in great depth, and it also comes as a surprise when some of them are killed off because even minor characters play such large roles. The performances are excellent all round which really helps bring the characters to life too. My personal favourite is Neil Maskell as Arby, one of the assassins who works for The Network. Maskell transforms himself into a character that is extremely unnerving to witness. Arby is so far detached from his emotions that it becomes like watching a modern-day Terminator. I also love Adeel Akhtar as Wilson. His character goes under a tremendous amount of growth over the series and Akhtar’s performance makes his progression seem totally natural and completely believable. His commitment to that character is second to none to the point where I struggle to separate the actor from the performance as he embodies it so well. If I feel like any actor is under-utilised it’s Ian McDiarmid as Philip Carvel, he doesn’t get a whole lot to say or do which makes sense for the story, but it just feels like a waste of McDiarmid’s incredible talents.
A large part of the reason I love Utopia and regularly return to it is the incredible visual style. First off, the series applies a high contrast filter to everything making the colours much more vibrant than they would normally appear. This is most evident during sequences shot outside as the sky and plants in particular have such a vivid appearance that it looks quite unlike anything else on TV. The downside of this is that it can play havoc with the lighting in some indoor scenarios where some areas of the screen are incredibly dark where others are extremely bright.
The cinematography is also incredible. A lot of wide angles are used and the frame is often sparsely populated, combine this with the high contrast colours and Utopia really is a sight to behold.
One thing I noticed during my re-watch of the series is that the first episode of series 2 has been altered. When it aired on Channel 4 in 2014 the episode was broadcast in a 4:3 aspect ratio with a lot of film grain applied due to the shift in time period. But when I watched it on Amazon Prime it was a normal 16:9 aspect ratio and the film grain seemed to have been toned down. Whether All4 has retained the original style I don’t know but it’s a shame to see this changed as that style was a key factor to the episode.
I’d love to say more about Utopia but the problem is that with short series it’s easy to talk too much and spoil some of the magic of it. If you like conspiracy thrillers, crime dramas, British black comedies, or just want a new show to watch I cannot recommend Utopia enough. The series ends on a cliff-hanger which really sucks, but here’s hoping that Amazon’s remake will be able to go on further than Channel 4’s one did. Here’s also hoping that making the show work for a U.S. audience doesn’t dilute the experience original series creator Dennis Kelly was going for.
The cinematography is also incredible. A lot of wide angles are used and the frame is often sparsely populated, combine this with the high contrast colours and Utopia really is a sight to behold.
One thing I noticed during my re-watch of the series is that the first episode of series 2 has been altered. When it aired on Channel 4 in 2014 the episode was broadcast in a 4:3 aspect ratio with a lot of film grain applied due to the shift in time period. But when I watched it on Amazon Prime it was a normal 16:9 aspect ratio and the film grain seemed to have been toned down. Whether All4 has retained the original style I don’t know but it’s a shame to see this changed as that style was a key factor to the episode.
I’d love to say more about Utopia but the problem is that with short series it’s easy to talk too much and spoil some of the magic of it. If you like conspiracy thrillers, crime dramas, British black comedies, or just want a new show to watch I cannot recommend Utopia enough. The series ends on a cliff-hanger which really sucks, but here’s hoping that Amazon’s remake will be able to go on further than Channel 4’s one did. Here’s also hoping that making the show work for a U.S. audience doesn’t dilute the experience original series creator Dennis Kelly was going for.