Utopia 2020

Warning - Spoilers included for both this and the original British version.

Everything that made the original British version of Utopia special, intriguing and ultimately great is lost in this new version from writer, Gillian Flynn. The main thing that made the original show stand out so greatly was not just the story it created but through the visuals and the score, it was a stylised masterpiece. It was something we hadn’t seen before. This is not that. In Gillian Flynn’s own words, she wanted to make it “more gritty” and wanted to “Americanize” Utopia for the US audience and she’s certainly succeeded in that, but at the same time, she has, as mentioned taken away all of its wonder.

The introduction of new character Samantha adds absolutely nothing at all and when she is killed abruptly there is no sadness from either the audience or really from the rest of the cast. She dies and the reaction is not one of mourning but just a bit of shock. Honestly though, as mentioned she was a nothing character anyway. The show was trying to build her up as “the leader” but it just felt like they were stretching Becky’s original character across two characters instead and not leaving enough to make Becky interesting afterwards. Instead, both are barely a shade as interesting as the original character and ‘Deals Syndrome’ here is just a side-note. It may as well have not been mentioned.

But they don’t get much better from there. Rod (Lee in the original) is killed off early but again had no personality really as the show instead tries incredibly hard not to pull focus away from how excessively weird Arby is this time around. Arby in the original show is conflicted and simple-minded, easy to please and later builds his own life, grows, tries to have a family and saves them. Arby never gets that respect this time, instead being turned into a stereotypical Autistic man who has the voice of a serial killer and you’re never allowed to feel for him. He’s given no backstory.

Jessica, obviously the main character in the original is given a little more time than others here but Sasha Lane’s depiction of her is much like Arby’s. In the original, yes she is brutally honest, forward and knows she has to get things done right to save herself and the others but she also has an almost child-like innocence about her – A sense of wonder if you will. She is seeing things for the first time. She is experiencing love for the first time, she smiles, finds things funny and develops a relationship with Grant that’s almost like a big sister. Here, she is just brutal. Nothing else is given to her as a characteristic and it’s just weird when she splits from the rest of the group and they have an embrace in the final episode. None of them ever got that close to one another so what are they embracing for? They don’t like one another.

For some reason they’ve made Jessica’s story that she wants to find her daddy and go home rather than seek revenge and save people too. She’s selfish, yet cries her eyes out when she finds out daddy might be dead and that’s just so out-of-character it’s as weird as Arby.

Grant isn’t given enough time either but Alice is given far more. Wilson, I have fewer complaints about and Desmin Borges was a solid choice in his role, as was Rainn Wilson as Michael.

The main issue though outside of not caring about any characters, the wonderful score being a series of dulcet tones this time around and the visuals being unspectacular is that in this version of the show, the audience have no choice on what to believe. It isn’t until 42 minutes before the end that we’re told what the real reason behind the entire conspiracy is. We are given just 42 minutes of the near-eight hours to think about Dr. Christie’s world-saving sterilisation vaccine. In the original show we find this out around half-way through and it allows the audience to feel conflicted because we are given genuine reasons for it and enough information to allow us to truly think – what if?

There is so much that is lost in this version of Utopia that it ultimately isn’t worth the time. Instead, Amazon should have just pushed the original show like Netflix has with The Fall. The original show was so unique and ahead of it’s time that trying to re-make that was going to be a struggle and it does unfortunately fail here – As expected. Watching this version, we just feel like Dr. Christie is leading a cult who are trying to change the world with their “purpose” and it almost feels like this is because it is American. By that I mean, the original is more of a government conspiracy and I don’t think a show about a viral pandemic being led by the government would go down very well right now so it’s turned into a cult instead and it just feels silly.

And don’t get me started on John Cusack’s catchphrase, “What have you done today to earn your place in this crowded world?” – It is said SO MANY times that you just don’t care. I think Flynn thought this sounded edgey and cool or something but it just sounds awkward, clunky and becomes a catchphrase for the cult. I never want to hear that phrase again.

Ultimately, it’s predictable… We knew Colleen was on the bad guy’s side. We knew Dr. Christie was Mr. Rabbit. Milner was pointless in this version too. At the end of the series, you’re just left not really caring for anyone. Nobody is likeable except Michael and then he drives off into the sunset with an egg for some reason!

This is thankfully, just entirely forgetful and you can go back to the original and forget Gillian Flynn’s Utopia ever happened. She just doesn’t “get it” despite believing she did.