Utopia 2013

I was first introduced to Utopia on a visit home to the UK in 2013. Not to be confused with Working Dogs well-loved, deadpan infrastructure sitcom, this Utopia is Dennis Kellys weird, dark and idiosyncratic conspiracy thriller. I was hooked from the opening sequence. Over the course of three days, I binged the entire first season and was blown away.

Utopia is one of the most powerful and electrifying pieces of television Ive seen. At the time of that first watch, I duly expected it to feature on best of TV lists for years to come, alongside the likes of The Wire, Breaking Bad or The Sopranos, of which Utopia is more than an equal. It was quite a surprise then to learn that Utopia existed only as a cult hit (albeit one with fervent fans), was dismissed from its home on the UKs Channel 4 after only two seasons, and remains criminally underseen almost everywhere else, including in Australia.

The plot revolves around a mysterious unpublished graphic novel the sequel to a popular first chapter and a group of people brought together by their shared obsession with it, and its apparently prophetic scientist author, now dead. As the four new friends Becky (Alexandra Roach), Ian (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), Grant (Oliver Woollford) and the magnificently named Wilson Wilson (Adeel Akhtar) get closer to the manuscript, they discover more about the dangerous secrets it contains, including details of a shadowy black ops organisation called the Network and the true identity of its founder, known only as Mr Rabbit. Oh, and it also contains details of a chemical compound that world governments and the Network will stop at nothing to obtain.

The closer the group gets to the truth, the more their lives begin to unravel. They become embroiled in a global conspiracy centred around a vaccine in a pandemic; they are framed for crimes they did not commit; they are hunted by everyone. Loyalties are divided, morals compromised and theres a good old fashioned double cross or two. Their only hope of survival is to go on the run with an infamous terrorist named Jessica Hyde (Fiona OShaughnessy).

From top to bottom, Utopia challenges you. Its like a paranoid conspiracy thriller from the 1970s transported to middle England. A global conspiracy, with reality-fracturing consequences, playing out against mundane British suburbia its a striking juxtaposition, making Utopia both outlandish and believable at the same time.

Another intriguing facet to Utopia is the ethical dilemma it presents to its characters and to the viewer. As details of the conspiracy unfold, we start to wonder if the bad guys actually have a point. Their methods are abhorrent but perhaps some of their thinking is sound? Our protagonists must decide on which side of the fence they stand, and we find ourselves in their shoes, asking the same questions.

Theres no doubt Utopia goes down some dark paths, particularly when we meet the two matter-of-fact hitmen, Arby and Lee (Neil Maskell and Paul Ready), who are sent after the group. Arby looks like a geezer down the pub, while Lee could be mistaken for a real estate agent, but they both throw violence around casually, almost cartoonishly, taking a monstrously placid approach to the task at hand. The consequence is some of the most well-performed and unsettling horror sequences of the past two decades.

But there is also a warped vein of comedy about these killers, and in keeping with Utopias refusal to depict anything in black and white terms, the writers even manage to generate some sympathy for Arby later in the piece.

This ever-present gallows humour lightens Utopias emotional load. Combined with Cristobal Tapia de Veers strange, discombobulating soundtrack, and a colour palette taking in blue skies and golden fields and weird green interrogation rooms, the whole series presents itself as slightly off-kilter, and this unique aesthetic buffs away some of the shows sharper edges.

Quite why Utopia was so overlooked is a bit of mystery. Darkness aside, perhaps it was ahead of its time. Perhaps what Utopia really needed was todays deranged political climate and a terrifying real-life virus in order to thrive because themes of global extinction, shadowy corporate overlords and conspiracy theories feel perfectly suited to 2020.

Well probably find out soon enough, as Amazon Primes US remake, penned by Gone Girls Gillian Flynn, has just hit the platform. With any luck it will renew interest in the original, because its just as enthralling now as it when it first aired. Utopia is dark, weird, unique and densely plotted. In other words, its the perfect show for lockdown rediscovery.

Utopia (the original series) and Utopia (the remake) are now streaming on Amazon Prime