I watched the first episode of "Utopia" and... I dunno
🚨This post contains mild spoilers for the first episode of Utopia (both the UK and Amazon versions).🚨
I was a big fan of the original Utopia series, which premiered on the UK’s Channel 4 in 2013. I remember thinking that the opening was really good and messed up, and that I couldn’t wait to find out where the show was going. The performances were very good, the cast had great chemistry, and both the plot and character development kept me on the edge of my seat. Here’s the original opening scene btw:
Now the series has been adapted for Amazon Prime by Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl), and I just… don’t know. Full disclosure: I’ve only watched the first episode of the US version of the show, while I watched every episode of the UK original. But, for some reason, right now I’m not really in the mood to binge a show about a virus that’s going to bring about the end of the world. I wonder why that is. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Back in 2013, cynical comedy/drama was absolutely my jam, but in 2020, it just seems like putting a hat full of shit on a hat made of shit. Flynn has also made some slight changes in her telling of the story — it’s still about a group of unlikely friends who go on the run to protect a comic book that predicts the end of humanity, but instead of starting with the shocking opening scene of the UK show, the US version just begins with the comic book being discovered. I honestly don’t know if I think this is a good or bad move; it’s less depressing, sure, but we also don’t get any sense of danger until well into the pilot. (Also, the US version explicitly tells us that the people taking the gas are being poisoned, which feels like they’re not giving viewers enough credit. That might be studio interference, though.)
I’ll give the US version props for making its cast a little more diverse than the original, though diversity and inclusion are very different things, and the big names being used to promote the show are middle-aged white actors John Cusack and Rainn Wilson. That said, they don’t even appear in the first episode, so… there’s that? (I don’t dislike those guys, I just wish there had been some better representation among its big-name cast members.) The rest of the cast seems pretty decent, too. It’s great to see Dan Byrd (Cougartown) and Desmin Borges (You’re The Worst) continuing to work, and I really liked Jessica Rothe in Happy Death Day. Ashleigh LaThrop is new to me, but she was good enough in the pilot, so it’s not like the US version of this show has nothing going for it. I just… can’t right now.
Maybe one day I’ll keep watching the rest of Amazon’s adaptation of Utopia, but given that a) I’ve already seen all of the original up until its cancellation, and b) I mean, YOU KNOW, I’m probably gonna put this one on the back burner for a while. But if you haven’t seen the original and can stomach a story about a potentially devastating pandemic at the moment, you might like it! I certainly enjoyed the original many years ago.
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That’s all for me today, gorgeous. Talk to you soon.
Love,
Kat
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