Tuesday, February 04, 2014

Dystopian "Utopia"


   And this picture above would be actually everything non-disturbing, that can be presented from Utopia. Places and scenery are beautifully shot, with vivid, lush colors which sometimes can make you dizzy.
But colors are not the main problem here. The series is sick.


   If I say the series is twisted, that would be an understatement. The violence is sickening, there are torture scenes which are quite graphic and not for faint-hearted. The language is foul, there are some brutal scenes.
The premises of the series didn't actually make me interested - a bunch of people who happened to be in possession of an unpublished second part of a graphic novel called Utopia Revolution.


There are violent scenes and those who didn't like those in Ripper Street won't like it here as well.
Also, I'm not going to write spoilers here about the plot, because twists in characters are presented in a very believable way, and there are handful of twists. According to IMDb the synopsis goes as follow:
Utopia will follow a group of people who find themselves in possession of a manuscript of a cult graphic novel. The tome is rumoured to have predicted the worst disasters of the last century and the group soon find themselves targeted by a shadowy organisation known only as The Network. Written by Digital Spy

I mentioned the colors, every random frame is carefully planned, and the camera work, sometimes painfully slow, sometimes slowly zooming in or out is suffocating and maybe even claustrophobic at times.
The show is slow, the intrigue is dense, but I rather enjoyed that. Even slightly unhinged Michael Dugdale's arc.


I will probably never take any vaccination again. Like EVER.
Of course there are some plot holes and inconsistencies, but in overall, the show is solid and characters behave in a way that justifies their decisions and behaviour. Even the final breaking down of Wilson is somehow fitted to his paranoiac character.


   Grant (above) quickly became my favorite character. Street-smart kid who sometimes acts as twice his age, a little human being in need of care and giving much care. Strange kid.
And if you like Stephen Rea or Simon McBurney, you may want to check this as well.
Soundtrack by Cristobal Tapia de Veer, bearing resemblance to the works of The Dust Brothers, but fits the series.

Verdict? Waiting for the second season.