![]() Utopia masters the balance of characterization: Although viewers are kept at a distance, they know just enough to empathize with the cast and feel the show’s suspense. Even with Jessica Hyde, interpretations are about the morality of her actions, not her. Still, Utopia knows when to step back and leave some things unknown-nobody is put under a microscope. To varying degrees, each character falls into the trope of the poorly adjusted adult or the mysterious one with a dark past. Utopia amplifies this trope by fleshing out many of its characters, further strengthening the plot. Many thrillers fixate on a single character who has undergone trauma of some kind-they had a lonely childhood, or skeletons in their closet, or they simply neglect their mental health. Her selfish worldview reflects the show’s cynical outlook on humanity. Trying to understand why she makes the decisions she does is a puzzle in and of itself. Her questionable choices always boil down to her own survival. The most central character of Utopia is Jessica Hyde (Sasha Lane), a not-quite-hero with complex motivations. Utopia is grim, especially with regard to its characters. Ashleigh LaThrop of The Handmaid’s Tale also appears. Michael Stearns, while John Cusack plays his villainous counterpart, Dr. This version features familiar names-Rainn Wilson plays epidemiologist Dr. The eight-episode television series is set amid a rising pandemic that affects children (what a coincidence, right?). With that knowledge comes the responsibility to save the world. Even though they try to fight it, the friends are eventually forced to come to grips with the fact that their theories might be true. When an original copy of the sequel, named Utopia, turns up, the group of young adult friends follow it to a Chicago comic convention. The gang connects over the internet, where they share their conspiracy theories that the fictional novels foreshadow reality. It follows a group of friends bonded together by a graphic novel series. The Amazon Original is adapted from the British show of the same name that aired from 2013 to 2014. Expect the unexpected with Utopia-the plot twists and distorts seemingly harmless comic-obsessed fanboys into serious threats to humanity. ![]() The show is the furthest thing from utopic, but its title is well-suited for the satirical, vice-filled thriller. If any shadowy elites have a plan to get us there, this is your moment.Utopia, a new series from Gone Girl writer Gillian Flynn, hit Amazon Prime on Friday. We wouldn’t have to be living in a perfect society for Utopia to play the way it’s supposed to, but we’d need to build something better than this. If the country ever gets to the other side of this pandemic, there may come a time when Utopia can be appreciated for what it is: an inferior American copy of a pretty good British TV show. There’s nothing wrong with extending that invitation, but it’s better to do it intentionally, not as an accident of history. Every time the Utopia kids uncover another piece of the conspiracy, it’s a new invitation to contemplate just how screwed we are. Make whatever art you like-the audience isn’t your problem! But if you’ve made something about a scrappy group of kids uncovering a giant conspiracy, and it turns out that in the time since you finished shooting, that exact conspiracy theory has suddenly revealed itself to be a) believed by a significant portion of the population and b) deadly, it might not be a bad idea to push the release date.Įven if everyone who sees Utopia is capable of distinguishing fact from fantasy-and that’s vanishingly unlikely in a nation that is sending QAnon followers to Congress-it’s impossible to enjoy a story where the heroes persuade themselves that shadowy forces have manufactured a phony pandemic to trick people into taking a dangerous vaccine when those exact beliefs are helping to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans. It’s not the filmmakers’ fault we’re in this mess, it’s not their fault so much of the public is superstitious and gullible, and it won’t be their fault if Utopia gives some dumbass the confidence they need to quit wearing a mask and infect and kill you or the people you care about. We are in the middle of an actual pandemic, a staggering number of Americans sincerely believe that that pandemic is a politically motivated hoax, and an equally staggering number believed vaccines were harmful years before COVID-19 emerged. You can probably see the problem here, and it’s an insurmountable one. Send me updates about Slate special offers.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |