• culture

• TV

• TV review

"Utopia": This is how you will take a masterpiece and make it banal and ordinary

Sorry for the cliché, but the British source of "Euphoria" is dozens of times better than the new American adaptation.

The story was thought-provoking and gripping, the visuals beautiful - but the bold and memorable work remained a flattened version with flimsy characters and battered dialogues.

Review without spoilers

Tags

• Utopia - Series

• Amazon Prime Video

• TV review

Ido Yeshayahu

Friday, September 25, 2020, 12:00 p.m.

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on general

• Share on general

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

0 comments

• Netflix series "Ratched" by Sarah Paulson

• Adults undress in front of children on a TV show

• Lia Saidou

• Closure of the holidays: Restrictions on prayers in synagogues and the territories ...

• Yonit Levy with the moderators of the new editions of Bahrain and Dubai

• Breslav followers got stuck on their way to Uman 17.09.20

• Always the devil

Trailer for the "Utopia" series, the American version (Amazon Prime Video)

Occasionally it happens that contemporary reality blends or resonates with a work that comes on screen, even though it was in preparation months and years before.

In the case of "Utopia", the new series that airs today (Friday) on Amazon Prime Video (also in Israel, including Hebrew subtitles), it happens in particularly negative ways: a series about Big Pharma's conspiracy, engineered epidemics and dangerous vaccines, while outside there is a real epidemic that claims victims .

In fact, in the years since the original British Channel 4 series aired in 2013 (here it aired on yes), vaccine opponents have only become more vocal and dangerous, of course with the help of social networks that will always prefer sensational lies over boring truth.

"Utopia" follows a group of obsessive comic book lovers, who find themselves becoming a target by organizing shadows, after they get their hands on an underground graphic novel depicting a conspiracy that is not necessarily fictional.

The British original, created by Dennis Kelly ("The Third Day"), was one of the best series of the previous decade.

An act of an artist, or actually artists, because every element in it was no less amazing.

More on Walla!

NEWS

Prisoner of Tide: "The Third Day" takes a familiar, but so beautiful, path

To the full article

Poor and feeble figures.

"Utopia" (Photo: Amazon Prime Video)

The story Kelly conceived not only weaves interesting connection theories that yield exhilarating plots (and also shocking violence), but was eye-opening, thought-provoking, saturated with black and superbly written humor.

Directed by Mark Manden - who also joined Kelly in "The Third Day" - was beautiful, gripping, captivating, and the photography was symmetrical, intense, spectacular (thanks in part to color framing in the editing stage).

The cast breathed life into some memorable characters, led by the eccentric and deadly Jessica Hyde (Fiona O'Shaughnessy) and Arby (Neil Meskel), the assassin from the horror scene with the bizarre gait, heavy breathing and fondness for chocolate-coated raisins, who carefully examined his victims with a heavy mouth Waiti: "Where's Jessica Hyde?"

Only a few watched the series, unfortunately, and despite excellent reviews it was canceled two seasons later, in late 2014. Each season may have closed circles and plot lines, but the big story is not over yet.

Still, there was consolation: Earlier that year, HBO acquired the rights to an American version.

Writer Gillian Flynn ("Gone", "Sharp Objects") was hired to adapt and write it, David Fincher ("Battle Club", "Mind Hunter") was recruited to direct all the episodes, and even cast Roni Mara, who worked with him in a key role in "The Social Network" and "A Girl with a Dragon Tattoo."

More on Walla!

NEWS

Back in town: "The Boys" is a bit scattered in season two, but still great fun

To the full article

No visual uniqueness.

Raine Wilson, "Utopia" (Photo: Amazon Prime Video)

However, during the preparations for the filming of the first episode, a dispute arose between Fincher and HBO regarding the amount of the budget.

The network agreed to 95 million for the entire season, the director demanded over 100 million.

No solution found.

The actors have been released from their districts, the series is dead.

Until it was revived: When the rights expired in 2018, Amazon acquired them and restarted the machine.

Fincher is out, but Flynn is back, signed as the creator of the series and on the scripts of all eight episodes (all of which were sent in advance for review), and for the first time in her career even serves as a showrunner.

The re-casting recruited, among others, Raine Wilson ("The Office"), John Cusack ("High Loyalty"), Sasha Lane ("American Honey") and Dan Byrd ("Cougar Town").

An old-fashioned cliché holds that British television is far better than American television.

You can understand where it comes from.

British produce is much more focused if only by the fact that it has fewer productions relative to its neighbor across the Atlantic.

But that’s exactly the point: America has hundreds of TV productions every year.

Most of them are banal and trivial, but there will always be a lot of great and even groundbreaking series on their side that leave dust for the United Kingdom.

In the case of American "Utopia" - this cliché suddenly seems like the most true thing ever said.

More on Walla!

NEWS

The coolest place: "Upload" describes what will happen when humans rule eternal life

To the full article

Too many coincidences.

John Cusack, "Utopia" (Photo: Amazon Prime Video)

Flynn's adaptation is like a guide on how to take a masterpiece and transfer it to the factory for series like we've seen a thousand times.

It branches out and expands the plot body (however, the season has eight episodes instead of the original six) without it contributing anything to it.

In fact, it detracts from it.

There is more time for the bad guys to formulate their plots aloud and in detail, instead of conveying them in a more organic and reasonable way.

Everything is dotted with battered and unnatural dialogues like "Okay, I'm Angus in Bait," "Can we stop for a moment to appreciate how cool this is?"

- And they do stop for a moment!

- and a character who asks, "Do you really think a collection of underdogs like us can do such a thing?"

And the others answer her at the same time with shrugs, "yes."

Like the dialogues, the characters are poor and frail.

The series' attempt to delve into them actually rolls them over, making them ones we've met dozens of times before.

The reason the originals were complex and fascinating is precisely because the British "utopia" did not dig into them beyond what was required, but let us infer on our own what happened to them and what was caused to them based on their personality now.

As is to be expected, the devaluation is particularly noticeable in the two mentioned above: Jessica Hyde (Lane) becomes here a cool-tempered and unremarkable warrior (and also with much less impressive skills), while Arby (Christopher Dunham, "Argo") no longer threatens by his very phlegmatic and pragmatic laconic nature. , But looks more like something closer to Sheldon Cooper.

More on Walla!

NEWS

Demons from the past: "Land of Abkraft" relies on a clever idea but fails to grow from it

To the full article

friend you are missing.

Neil Meskel in an Arab role, the original "Utopia" (Photo: Channel 4)

Perhaps what most dilutes American "utopia" is the transformation of the villains into a cult-like organization.

What was so scary originally was the practicality and the calculated and compelling logic behind the actions of the bad guys.

Here they operate in the name of the same agenda, but are much less effective and rely on too many coincidences.

Their actions are accompanied by an annoying mantra that everyone constantly says to each other: "What did you do today to earn your place in this crowded world?".

Maybe it's meant to put some heart as a counter to the dizzying violence they engage in and that the series is full of (though much less so than originally, and also not as graphic).

In practice the result is a forced compulsion, which is also expressed in additional moments and futile attempts to be cool - eighties and seventies hits are played almost fully against the backdrop of dynamic scenes, some original.

It all seems like a foreign plant in such a practical and cool-hearted story.

The attempt to delve deeper into them actually rolls.

"Utopia" (Photo: Amazon Prime Video)

It is very possible that if you are among the 99 percent who did not watch the original series, you will like the new one.

Maybe even beyond that.

The ideas are still interesting and the surprises are still effective.

Flynn, whose fondness for jaw-dropping plot twists has yielded some such icons in the library, even adds a few to the new series.

She also punctuates the series with tributes to herself, like a giant sign of "Gone - the Musical" and even a twist that seems to have been duplicated from one of her books.

Visually, while it has no uniqueness - it turns out that the loss of David Fincher is greater than expected - but the series enjoys emphasizing the graphic novel illustrations that drive the plot, and in one case even turning them into animation.

At the same time, none of this prevents the new "utopia" from feeling like a gourmet meal that is not well heated in the microwave.

Whether you watched the original or not, the flattening of the story is no less outrageous, which is doubly true given that it comes to the screen in the days of the Corona.

If there's a series that inspires conspiracy theories about drug companies, at least it's amazing.

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on general

• Share on general

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

0 comments