![]() ![]() ![]() The summer 2020 release date’s timing certainly didn’t help, but the viciousness in this story requires some empathy, too, if it’s going to thrive. Yet, there’s a haze that covers most of the series, one that adds to the feeling that it’s an update designed to be endured more than appreciated. That version (an Amazon production also available to stream now through Prime Video) certainly succeeds in being punishing in its own way, showing even less mercy towards the folks trying to escape the cabal that’s going after the pages. The 2020 American-set remake of “Utopia,” in an attempt to distinguish itself, shaved off some of that early-2010s, early-digital contrast. Series writer Dennis Kelly does little to provide a viewer a simple out to harden themselves in the same way. (Arby’s yellow bag matching the same yellow of the opening is an early indicator that no single shade belongs solely to light or dark forces in this world.) Different individuals in this decades-long saga approach their parts with a real callousness to the consequences of their actions. But the calculated, cold-blooded havoc wreaked by Arby (a truly mesmerizing Neil Maskell) is presented in a way that forces everyone involved to really reckon with the human toll that this manuscript hunt is taking on anyone who strays into his path. “Utopia” is far from the first story to show brutality in plain daylight for maximum chilling effect. Those color pops also serve another practical purpose: In a story where a series of illustrations hold the answer to sinister global plots and forecasts of cataclysmic events, it’s almost like those harbingers are bleeding into the “real world.” To the extent “Utopia” is a puzzle for both characters and viewers to suss out, there’s something to be said for having all of these colorful pieces out in the open and ready to assemble rather than tucked away in shadow. Each successive scene is driven by its own sliver of the rainbow: red mailboxes, green hills, royal blue suits, interiors trimmed with accents you’d find on a Bob Ross palette. “Utopia” takes full advantage of the color wheel from its opening frames of a field, drenched in the same bright yellow that make up its title card. That small group of enthusiasts suddenly struggling for their own survival - including Becky (Alexandra Roach), Ian (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), and Wilson Wilson (Adeel Akhtar) - get some reinforcements in the form of the mysterious Jessica Hyde (Fiona O’Shaughnessy), who’s savvy enough to cover her tracks and escape some sinister traps. Soon, they find out that there are forces intent on securing those answers for their own, and they’re willing to do anything to ensure that they alone have them. Some rabid fans, long committed to parsing out the predictive easter eggs in the series’ previous volume, come into possession of some pages thought lost to time. Trying to make a neat summary of the plot of “Utopia” is a bit counterproductive, but the story centers around the manuscript of a graphic novel. Maisel’ Sound and Music Teams on How They Assembled a Trash Musical and More in Season 5 The joy of Utopia is the way it plays graphic novel nerdishness against itself, real mysteries wrapped in pretend mysteries.Watch the ‘Mrs. As is so often the case, and I don't think this is mere Limey prejudice, the new version says so long to subtlety, although it retains much of the intricacy of the original. In 2018, Amazon acquired the project without Fincher. Kelly, Flynn and Fincher was a tasty prospect, but evidently not mouthwatering enough as it ran into money trouble. HBO initially planned to make the new version, with the Gone Girl duo of Gillian Flynn and David Fincher writing and directing. Dennis Kelly's Channel 4 conspiracy thriller, which revolved around a comic that seemed to predict global diseases, was sharp, violent, original and darkly funny, but could also, like so many British programmes in contrast to their wealthy American cousins, have used a more generous budget. ![]() Plans were afoot for an American version of Utopia almost as soon as the British series aired in 2013. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |