Creators:
Dennis KellyComposer:
Cristobal Tapia de VeerCast:
Fiona O'Shaughnessy, Alexandra Roach, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Adeel Akhtar, Paul Higgins, Oliver Woollford, Neil Maskell, James Fox, Geraldine James (more)Seasons(2) / Episodes(12)
Plots(1)
Utopia is a cult graphic novel rumoured to have predicted the worst disasters of the late twentieth century. Dismissed as the fevered imaginings of a madman by most, and idolised by a handful, only one thing seems certain about Utopia: come into contact with it and you won't be safe for long. When a small group of normal people (including an IT consultant, student and child) find themselves in possession of the manuscript of Utopia, they realise they are at the centre of a nightmarish conspiracy turned real. Targeted by a shadowy organisation known only as The Network, they are left with one option if they want to stay alive: they have to run, avoiding even being caught even on CCTV. The Network is everywhere: in government, in business, in charge. A secret organisation constrained neither by borders nor common morality. Nobody knows what their plan is, just that they will stop at nothing to find the original manuscript of Utopia. Utopia asks what if the conspiracy nuts are right? What if people are trying to control our lives, doctor our food, experiment upon us, kill us? Fast, terrifying, funny and brutal, it is a massive new drama/conspiracy thriller. (Channel 4)
(more)Reviews (1)
Slightly Lynchesque (and it’s not just because of the goddamn rabbit) a bit like Gen Sekiguchi (and it’s not just because the over the top colors or Maskell’s role) and a bit too much of conspiracy in thus-far unseen garb. Mainly considerably original, considerably imaginative, considerably topical and at places considerably funny and chilling. Often both at once. Then just pretty chilling in terms of atmosphere. And considerably full of sultanas; it sure couldn’t be done without them. Simply conclusive proof that the Brits (and especially the alternative-biased Channel 4) are way ahead of the rest of the world at present. They are capable of presenting even this apparent nonsense, different just out of spite, as a hard-to-categorize movie which is not at all stupid despite all this craziness (and that’s not just because of the purpose of the vaccine). In this regard, a shame about the “huge revelations" during the final episode; it’s stupidly clichéd and completely unnecessarily. You’ll either love Utopia or hate it. That is an inherent reaction to similar works (but what can be called similar here, right?). With this movie, we simply can’t talk about mediocrity. Let’s have a sultana on that!
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