Last year I stumbled upon two great UK series in the spring/early summer: the sublime, moody Broadchurch and wholly unique, deeply intriguing Black Mirror. I had read good things about Broadchurch and quickly tore through its episodes, catching up with it shortly before its finale. I had read a review about Black Mirror and decided to give it a shot on a whim, and what I tumbled upon was one of my great discoveries of last year. I had stumbled upon these shows almost out of nowhere, without the hype and heavy promotion that oftentimes accompanies American television series. And they were such wonderful discoveries.
So when I heard rumblings about a UK show called Utopia this spring, I gave it a try, hoping to discover another under-the-radar gem.
Utopia is stylish, yes. Utopia makes good use of colors, yes. Utopia is a well-shot show, yes. But Utopia is not Broadchurch. And Utopia is not Black Mirror. Broadchurch and Black Mirror are weighty and substantive shows, and placing Utopia next to the two shows makes it pale in comparison in terms of weight and substance.
That’s not to say it’s just puff, no. As a conspiracy thriller, it has some interesting spots. Jessica Hyde and RB (and the assassin with neat hair, a crisp suit, and nice shoes) make for good characters excellently acted. But as a show that runs 48-55+ minutes, it definitely feels like it’s running that long, sometimes longer. It simply doesn’t explore issues deeply enough, it doesn’t have a cast of characters interesting enough, it doesn’t have intrigue or action or plot twists interesting enough to sustain my interest and full attention for its 50+ minute runtime. Some/many will disagree, the comments I read for it simply raved about it. And I suppose I can see how this can tickle someone’s fancy. But as someone who’s watched plenty of spy shows and thrillers, I found the plotting and twists and turns superficial at best, I was never drawn into it, I was never gripped by it. Not in the way that Broadchurch had me wanting to know who the killer was, not the way Broadchurch could utterly distract me from the main plot by exploring the backstories of the various residents of Broadchurch, not in the way Black Mirror could set up a futuristic world that intrigued you and have a plot that kept you glued to the screen, or the way Black Mirror could hit you with an emotional wallop by a plot twist.
Comparing Utopia to two of the best British series of the past year is probably not entirely fair. Utopia is not a bad show. It’s decent, and its 61-minute long finale was probably the best of the bunch, managing to be the longest episode of the season without feeling as such; but the series as a whole did not pull me into it the way that properly good dramas should. Too often it gets lost going down its own conspiracy rabbit-hole, with double agents, betrayals, potential other ominous groups or shadowy conspiracies all getting mixed up into an amorphous mess.
Ultimately, Utopia felt like a show that’s on its 4th draft but really needed to get to a 7th draft. It needed a couple more writer’s meetings/rewrites to flesh out the story, tighten the script, and structure the storyline better. It’s been renewed for a 2nd season, and I might(/probably will) give that a go (especially upon hearing that Rose Leslie aka Game of Thrones Ygritte/Downton Abbey’s Gwen has been added to the cast).
Also HBO is working on an adaptation of it, which begs the question, can you make a great show from a mediocre one? Les Revenants did it with a movie. Still, the fact that David muthaeffin’ Fincher (Se7en, Zodiac, The Social Network, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Curious Case of Benjamin Button) is spearheading the adaptation along with author Gillian Flynn (of the acclaimed novel Gone Girl) gives me hope that he will be able to inject the needed pizzazz to elevate a show that’s simply serviceable in its current form. I’m also looking forward to how Fincher, known for his dark, moody, sullen cinematography, translates the brightly-colored aesthetics of Utopia. Also casting will really interest me, they have some juicy characters that, if matched with the right bubbling-under-the-radar, up-and-coming actors could create sparks. (Spoiler alert Spoiler alert Spoiler alert: I imagine they’ll keep the sharply-dressed assassin around a bit longer seeing as how he was so creepily good in the original but merely lasted 1 episode + a brief appearance, hell, I can totally see them just bringing the actor along for the ride in the US adaptation END SPOILER ALERT).
tl;dr Neither a Utopia nor a Dystopia, leans more towards the former but a bit too surface-level for my tastes, not enough intrigue to keep me from getting bored during its lengthy-ish run-times
AVthatsme 