![]() Ian’s everyman persona is still at odds with Nathan Stewart-Jarrett’s model good looks (he still seems more suited to sockless Hoxton fashion shoots than systems analysis), but his comic delivery in this episode papered over the disconnect.Īrby aside, nobody got more laughs than Alexandra Roach as Becky, who proves once again that swearing is not only big and clever, but also very funny. The laughs continued with the reappearance of Ian, who was back being terminally bored in IT until his months-long search for Becky bore fruit. His transformation from robotic hit-man to romantic hero (if that isn’t pushing it) has been one of Utopia’s most enjoyable and surprising developments. Speaking of which, what fate do you think befell Tess and little Amanda? Utopia provokes us to imagine the worst, but Arby’s character and childhood now inspire such peculiar affection, it’s hard to see him as a villain capable of series one’s atrocities. Top marks to Neil Maskell for wringing laughs out of just about every line, from SWAT teams to quinoa. ![]() The tension and punchline of Arby’s re-introduction, wheezing up that uncanny suburban street, yellow bag in hand, was played entirely off his child-killing series one persona. There was more cheekiness than risk-taking in episode two, which delivered outright laughs and gleeful winks towards the first series – a literal wink in the case of Lee and Wilson Wilson. This episode owes its emotional heft to Rose Leslie, Tom Burke and a creative team willing to take risks. Or for that matter, consider watching Milner’s meeting with Arby in which he assured her that his father was “not incredible, not at all” without realising why she insists on protecting Carvel’s boy. Imagine Milner asking a possum-playing Jessica “What have I done to you?” without understanding her history with Philip Carvel. The purpose of that fifty-minute flashback was nowhere more clear than in this episode’s final scene. That they are, praise be.Įpisode two was this series’ real opener after that superb trip back to the seventies carefully and stylishly shaded in the outlines of Milner, Arby and Jessica. ![]() “They’re starting again” said back-from-the-grave Lee this week. (Though this can also throw a series off the rails.Hear that? Underneath all the eerie buzzing beeps and whispering drones? That’s the sound of a TV show running at full pelt and knowing exactly where it’s heading. While they cover similar ground, the American Utopia diverges from the original, meaning the series isn't bound by rigid source material. The Channel 4 series (written by Dennis Kelly, whose newest show The Third Dayis currently airing on HBO ) upon which the American series is based ran for two seasons and 12 episodes. While Amazon has yet to officially confirm season 2 of Utopia, there's strong precedent. But will all the twists and conspiracies continue? If that’s your jam, then Utopia is probably your show. The result: the same comically bloody fare that’s become all the rage in streaming lately- Hunters, The Boys, Umbrella Academy-vividly-colored rated-R adaptations, featuring teams of people doing terrible things to supposedly terrible people. ![]() ) Amazon picked up the series in 2018 and moved forward without Fincher. Originally, HBO planned to produce the series with David Fincher attached as director (Fincher and Utopia writer Gillian Flynn had previously worked together on Gone Girl, the Academy Award-nominated adaptation of Flynn's bestselling novel. ![]() In reality, Utopia has been in production for a number of years. In short: Utopia will feel oddly prescient and perhaps itself become an object of conspiratorial obsession. And while it may do nothing to abate actual Chinese-America conspiracies, the series also shows the dangers of rushing vaccines into widespread usage (even if that too is a bit conspiratorial). Amazon’s Utopia, based on the British Channel 4 series of the same name, turns epidemiological conspiracy theory into an 8-episode binge. If, a year ago, a television series suggested that somehow the SARS virus was introduced to China by a rogue American scientist-and that covert biological warfare raged between the superpowers-we all might have shrugged it off as good fictional fun. ![]()
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