By now, you should know anything Gillian Flynn writes is gold. Flynn is behind such amazing stories as Sharp Objects, Dark Places, Gone Girl, and more. She’s also behind the upcoming Amazon Prime series, Utopia. Which, was adapted from the 2013 original from the U.K. It’s a series I had the fortune of watching before its September 25th premiere. This is a series you won’t want to miss.
Nothing Is As It Seems
Right away, I can say that Utopia is not at all what I thought it would be. Seemingly just a show about a few comic-book fans who take a specific title way too seriously – Utopia becomes far more than just a show about a graphic novel. Utopia is beyond a conspiracy theory. It feels so prevalent to this time that we are living in now that you wonder if the people behind the show knew what was about to hit us.
Utopia starts off with four friends who have never met in person. They’re all connected by this comic book called Dystopia. When they catch wind of a long-awaited sequel, Utopia; being discovered, they immediately flock to the comic-con that it’s being sold at. These four are more than just fans who look for deeper meanings – they legitimately believe that the unknown author is predicting catastrophic events. Specifically, world-ending diseases. In the real world, you would think these four are looking for answers where they don’t exist. In Utopia, though; fiction merges with reality. And it isn’t as glamourous or exciting as they thought it would be.
Amazon Prime Was the Right Choice
This show really has the potential to be Amazon Prime’s next hit. It’s very post-modern cinema, with shocking and sudden deaths that are presented in a very stark fashion. There’s twists and turns and you start realizing you are in this large conspiracy that you’re not sure what to believe anymore. Who is involved? How deep down the rabbit hole go?
You would expect a show like Utopia to be developed by Netflix, but thankfully it wasn’t. I can already see Netflix having its branding on the show, turning it into a carbon copy of all the other comic-book titles on it. I like that Amazon Prime is grabbing up comic-book themed titles, because they’re doing it in very unique ways. Such as they’re doing with The Boys. The comic-book in this is nothing like the Avengers or the Justice League. The art style is very reminiscent of something Neil Gaiman would produce. It’s almost like a very twisted Alice in Wonderland and Sandman combined.
Rating: 4.5/5
Sasha Lane plays a very unconventional heroine, who you aren’t really sure if you’re on her side most of the time. Dan Byrd, Ashleigh LaThrop, Desmin Borges, and Javon Walton are great as our band of unsuspecting heroes. Trying to navigate through a world that they thought they knew. Christopher Denham plays an incredibly chilling character. John Cusack and Cory Michael Smith are great in their roles of characters who present as one way, but their intentions turn out to be different. Finally, Rainn Wilson is virtually unrecognizable from his The Office days that you wish you saw him in more projects.
I really enjoyed Utopia. I certainly hope Amazon Prime greenlights a second season because I really have not seen anything like it in a long time.
Utopia hits Amazon Prime on September 25th and is a must-see!
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A girl with too many fandoms to count.
