Just like the rest of the world, after finally contracting COVID-19 after 2 years of avoiding it, I spent my mandated quarantine binging multiple shows on any streaming service I could get my hands on. There was only one that stood out to me. Utopia, adapted by Gillian Flynn and directed mostly by Toby Haynes, was absolutely bone-chilling, and I mean “binge it in two days” bone-chilling. Utopia, for those who don't know, is an Amazon Prime TV series adapted from 2013’s British original version written by Dennis Kelly. Spoiler alert, it is a web of conspiracies about pandemics and vaccines and the government’s involvement with it all.
It’s quite the confusing little bugger at the beginning—which honestly pulls you in to watch more—and just as you think you have it all figured out, there’s the biggest cliffhanger of the series, and season 1 ends, leaving you staring at a dark TV screen in confusion and frustration. There’s so much to unpack throughout the entire show, but what interested me the most was the casting.
In the “comic book” which is the entire basis of the show, the main character Jessica Hyde is depicted as a little girl with pigtails going on crazy adventures with her father and Artemis, her protector, by her side. The real Jessica Hyde is played by Sasha Lane who is definitely not a little girl and definitely doesn’t have pigtails. Instead, Jessica has unruly dreads and quite obviously hasn’t seen a shower in a while. The juxtaposition of the two is shown throughout the series and speaks on how “everything is not what it seems.” The whole cast is amazingly well-picked and diverse. It’s interesting to see the amount of diversity the show has compared to the 2013 original.
With multiple female directors, multiple PoC, and the appeal of the show to anyone interested in comic books, conspiracies, or sci-fi in general, the show should’ve been a huge hit. Except, it wasn’t. With the current pandemic really setting in just as the show that had been in the works for 2 years finally being released, it maybe wasn’t the best time to release a show about the government trying to sterilize all citizens with a fake vaccine for a widespread illness (which was also spread by the government). The show hits a little close to home and for those who truly believe our government is out to get us, it was just another reason to ignore the warnings from health officials and go outside during quarantine.
Overall, the confusing twists and turns were what kept me watching, but to most, it was a reason to stop. If released at a better time, Utopia could’ve been a cult classic, but sadly for now it is just a way for conspiracy theorists to try to convince others the government is lying, even with the memo at the beginning of each episode telling viewers that the show is purely fictional (or is it?). Sadly, we will never know as the show was canceled just 2 months after its release on Amazon Prime. Maybe we will see another reboot in the future, who knows?
Comentarios