Brief Story Line
When a graphic novel that has garnered cult following was said to have a long awaited sequel titled Utopia to be sold to the highest bidder, all the fanboys were totally excited. A group of fans consisted of the paranoid Wilson (Desmin Borges - You're the Worst TV series etc), the intelligent Samantha (Jessica Rothe - Happy Death Day etc), the gentle & shy Becky (Ashleigh LaThrop), the common insurance person Ian (Dan Byrd - Easy A, Cougar Town TV series etc) and Grant (Javon Walton) were trying to outbid the others. However, it also received the attention of other people with mysterious background such as Arby (Christopher Denham), and an unknown woman (Sasha Lane - Hellboy 2019 version etc).
Meanwhile a wealthy industrialist in bio business named Dr. Kevin Christie (John Cusack - Identity, Distorted etc) was trying to grow a new kind of meat, but it was said to be containing virus making people sick. With the help from his son Thomas (Cory Michael Smith - Gotham TV series etc), Dr Christie tried to prove it was unrelated. A virologist named Dr. Michael Stearns (Rainn Wilson - The Meg, The Office TV series etc) supported by his wife Coleen (Jeanine Serralles) felt the spreading virus could be cured by his vaccine.
Wilson and friends would soon find out that the graphic novel Utopia was a lot more than what they think and they were caught in the middle of something truly dangerous. So what would happen to them and what was the connection with the virus spreading? Find them all in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
The above story line was the shortest I could write without revealing too much of the plot, especially compared to the very brief synopsis available. Suffice to say though, what I experienced in this series was totally not what I expected. I thought it would be just a simple story of people trying to get their hands on the comic, but apparently there were so much mystery surrounding it. It was quite fun to see it done by a group of comic book fans who are nerds in real life but had to fight for their lives.
What truly surprised me though was the brutality and violence in this series. I really did not see that coming. And there were also some surprising twists (2 or 3 of them totally astonished me, so beware of those). For a series that has only 8 episodes, I thought it was quite colorful and the use of some drawings a la graphic novels were a nice touch. I also read there was even a graphic novel consultant for the series.
This one was said to be based on a British 2013 TV series of the same title and categorized as black comedy conspiracy thriller. The series was adapted to US version by Gillian Flynn, writer of successful novels such as Gone Girl, Sharp Objects and Dark Places. However that British series only ran for 2 seasons and did not seem to have proper conclusion? So let's hope that this one does not share the same fate, especially with such cliffhanger ending.
One factor that I think would be troublesome for general audience (apart from the heavy violence and some even involving children) was the virus thing. From what I understand, the series began production in 2018 before the current pandemic Covid-19 spread. So the timing of the release of the series could not have been worse. I myself chose to see this series as just entertaining purpose, which is why the opening scene where they said it was fictional work and not based on any real/current event was an important message.
Aside from the action & surprising twists, I actually like the background music and songs of this series, with one or two songs that I was quite familiar. The special effects were quite good. Some of the characters are interesting and likable. For me, I like Ian's the most as he provided some fun moments (obviously the choice of Dan Byrd was perfect for this role). Rainn Wilson and Cory Michael Smith also performed their roles nicely. Oh, the duration of each episode is pretty standard between 43-54 minutes.
Overall this was a quite entertaining series. It's always fun for me to see a group of ragtag people trying to save the world. Add to that some surprising twists and violence (some more brutal than others) plus a bit of dark comedy here and there, making it pretty enjoyable. However, I still think that the timing of the release could have been done at a later stage to avoid being seen as insensitive. But other than that it is still a fun series.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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