Sadly, the character’s ethereal presence has been lost in translation, even if her killer instincts remain. Things take a Labyrinth-like turn when characters off the page start appearing in physical form, including Jessica Hyde, played by American Honey’s Sasha Lane who steps into Fiona O’Shaughnessy’s shoes. The first episode – directed by Black Mirror’s Toby Haynes – introduces Ian, Becky, Wilson, Grant and (US newcomer) Samantha as they meet up at a convention to check out the hallowed graphic novel Utopia. Getting Gone Girl scribe Gillian Flynn in as showrunner is a good start – can she deliver the goods?įeaturing genuine A-lister John Cusack as the self-proclaimed “extraordinarily dedicated scientist” Kevin Christie, Flynn’s remake reaches for the stars with its higher budget. A limited audience, despite the glowing reviews, meant the story was agonisingly cut short – and loyal fans have been clamouring for a return ever since.
Utopia uk tv series#
Broadcast on Channel 4, the original series was a cat-and-mouse conspiracy thriller which won acclaim over the course of two seasons.
Utopia uk tv tv#
We may never get viewing metrics from Amazon or any of the streamers, who are under no obligation to provide them, but it sure would be helpful in understanding some of their decisions, both as a critic and a consumer who pays multiple streaming bills each month.US remakes of British TV shows are often cannon fodder for critics (see The Inbetweeners, Spaced, Broadchurch), but Amazon Prime Video’s Utopia reckons it can break the trend. I have no explanation, but obviously it comes down to Amazon's formula regarding cost versus eyeballs. Why was Hunters renewed and not Utopia? Well, its reviews were a bit better, and it had more of a 'fun' hook. Why did The Expanse get a sixth season? That I can't tell you.
Utopia uk tv free#
I'll miss this cast, which included John Cusack, Rainn Wilson, Sasha Lane, Desmin Borges, Dan Byrd, Ashleigh LaThrop, Farrah Mackenzie, Christopher Denham and Euphoria's Javon Walton, but at the same time, I'm glad they're now free to do other things, because I don't think a second season would have necessarily improved upon the first without jumping the shark a la Lost.Īs for Amazon, I wish it hadn't allowed the potential audience for Utopia to busy itself watching The Boys, which also held the focus and attention of the streamer's marketing department, making the Utopia launch something of an afterthought. Better to invest that money in either a fresh idea or another IP that could catch on with the culture rather than serve up seconds of a meal that no one was all that interested in the first time around. It just never had the breakout success envisioned by the streamer, and at that point, given the themes of the material and the current state of the world, the cost just isn't worth it. So while I was personally looking forward to a second season of Utopia and delving deeper into the mystery behind its titular comic book, I completely understand why the show just wasn't worth the potential headache for Amazon. The streamer obviously has no problem with violent shows, since it released Season 2 of The Boysjust three weeks before Utopia.īut this was a show in which children were routinely killed and the characters (rightly) questioned a vaccine, which is not something America or the rest of the world really needs right now. Now, if Utopia had scored with critics or subscribers, I think Amazon would've ordered a second season without blinking.
Yes, it was an eerily timely series about a pandemic, but television is supposed to be a distraction from the real world more than a reflection, and people could basically look out their window and get the paranoid gist of Utopia, which upped the ante, naturally, in terms of violence.Ĭoming from the writer of Gone Girl, this shouldn't have been a major surprise, especially since I was familiar with the original UK series, but Flynn's Utopia was an incredibly violent show, particularly for one with such a young cast. For starters, timing is everything in Hollywood, and Utopia could not have come at a worse time.
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