Finished the first season of Utopia today, I went in blind, having no idea of what the show was about, I have to say I was thoroughly impressed.
Utopia is a british show, one that could not ,in a million years,(well, not literally, who knows what would happen in a million years) be made in the States.
That is not always a compliment, Breaking Bad was made stateside and it was bloody brilliant, but it is my impression that Utopia is probably not ticking any boxes in the “American Show Checklist”, it pulls no punches and has an interesting story that skirts the line between being too complicated and complicated enough.
—Spoilers start here for about a paragraph—
At some point there is a school shooting. A kid is framed for it, I will not go into detail. From what I read there 44 complaints about the show.
“Thirty seven of the complaints related to a scene at the beginning of the third episode where a shooting takes place in a primary school”
—End of spoilers —
To Channel 4 credit, they gave this awesome badass response:
“Channel 4 thought very carefully about continuing with the planned broadcast of Utopia. The drama is in no way based on real events, and the scenes featuring violence are editorially justified within the context of the storyline”
I am not some crazed gore-hound, I like my violence in entertainment subtle most of the times, but I find it refreshing to see that some stories are not dilluted to preserve some sort of “morality”.
Utopia is also gorgeous to look at. I am one of many who have grown sick of the
tyranny that has dominated the movie industry the past decade. I was extremely pleased to see that Utopia emlpoyed all the other colours of our tiny spectrum of EM radiation. They re probably using a yellow filter because all the greens are REALLY green, the blues are REALLY blue and the yellows just jump out of the screen. Happy colours in stark contrast with the tone of the show
The cast is quite enjoyable to watch, even the kid actors pull it off admirably. Πλάκα πλάκα my eyes roll like slotmachines when I see “serious” shows employ some kid for comic relief, but the kids in Utopia feel more like the “innocence-skipping kids” like Jake from the Dark Tower.
So yea, if you like conspiracy-laden, gorgeous to look at shows, check out Utopia.
Did I mention it has a kickass sountrack as well?
~Garret
After Breaking Bad, we had to start watching a new series with Daphne. We’ve already watched two episodes of Utopia and it does look amazing so far. Good thing British series generally are shorter and faster-paced.