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BBC Channel 4 Show Utopia Wreckomendation. I love recursiveness. The further down the rabbit hole a story goes, the more I will probably be foaming at the mouth as we go. Well, the other day, I met back up with a buddy of mine and he held my face in his hands, stared me in the eyes, and said, “You have to watch. This. Show.” Now, this friend of mine and I go so far back, and we have so many chits in each other’s pockets that I generally equated this call to action as a life-debt. So even though I had a niggling feeling in the back of my head that the series was just a dumpster fire, I had to watch. (Please make sure you have friends in your life with life-debt level chits in each other’s pockets… sure it obligates you occasionally, but you might be surprised at the experiences you’ll have that you wouldn’t have otherwise. Are you feeling me?) Turns out, my feeling that the series was trash was all because of a horrible American attempt at a remake. Yeah, that story checks out.
So, I’m not doing a deep dive on this one because I’m only three episodes in, and I’d prefer to just enjoy this one as opposed to constantly referring to my freaking notepad for once. Thanks for that. But Utopia tells the story of a group, an underground following of fans, that are deep into a comic book called The Utopia Experiments. Why? Because the comic book correctly predicted several horrible pandemics like, Mad Cow Disease. And when there is a rumor of there being a sequel to the original, everyone is DYING to get their hands on it. It is said to contain a number of new prophetic call outs for the world.
When one of the Utopia fans gets his hands on the sequel, all hell breaks loose… including his being tossed from the top of his apartment building. But before he does, he invited all his Utopiates to join him and pour over the new comic book together in person. This brings together – Ian, Becky, Wilson, and Grant. Real fast though, with the body count rising, and no end in sight to the bloodshed, they have to figure out if they’ll survive the day, let alone have normal lives to go back to. A company of extra-governmental organizations called The Network is after the book. And they have nothing stopping them from getting it. Well, besides this group of friends that is. Oh, and by the way, The Network is looking for someone named Jessica Hyde… and if they ask you where she might be, please know this, you are about to die. Don’t take their word for it otherwise.
When Jessica Hyde actually does turn up, and leans in to try and keep the foursome alive… she sort of informs them as to the enormity of the challenge in front of them. Like Frodo and Sam Wise, this group has an enormous haul in front of them before they’ll even consider seeing daylight again. All the while, innocent bystanders keep getting jerked into the orbit of the Utopian Experiments. And more often than not, find themselves dying horrifically. And as The Network embeds itself in the inner workings of the British government, they begin messing with the purchasing and arrangement for various vaccines… but why? And to what end? And for a Russian Flu? Why? It is up to this group of four to figure out what The Network is up to and why.
Thoughts on Utopia So Far
This show rides like a longer version of Blue Ruin and Green Room. Really bloody, really violent, and really unhinged. I mean, other than that, there isn’t much in the way of a comparison, but you get the idea. It’s as if you took the movie Blue Ruin, and mixed it with the conspiracy theorizing of Fox Mulder in X-Files, I think you get a pretty good idea of what is going on here. I’m having a lot of fun with it, which, is saying something seeing as though I try to avoid older releases… HECK, I try to avoid series shows all together! I prefer to stick with films mainly because of the time investment required. But I’m looking forward to watching this one start to finish. Oh, and by the way, there are two seasons out there to partake in too! So, if you get into it, I’m hearing the second season is worth the watch as well.
That’s all. That’s it. That’s all I wanted to say. Looking for a show? Maybe consider watching the conspiracy-filled BBC4 Utopia. Or don’t. Either way works for me. I’ve been having fun with it either way.
Edited by: CY