Utopia: The Best Show You’ve Never Heard Of

Dennis Kelly’s groundbreaking sci-fi drama ran two seasons before being cancelled because nobody watched it.

Channel 4’s ambitious television program Utopia was writer and creator Dennis Kelly’s first show he created. Before starting work on Utopia he worked in the writing staff of several other shows, most notably Pulling, but none were entirely his own vision. He was joined by an incredible group of directors, colorists, cinematographers, and an amazing composer. Looking back, it’s incredibly obvious what they had a hand in creating together and what they worked on independently that will soon become apparent. Utopia ran for 2 seasons and, in 2015 Utopia was cancelled citing a lack of viewership.

During its time on air, Utopia was met with some controversies, the chief among them being found in the first season. Utopia is incredibly violent and disturbing when it wants to be, no one will debate that. But when in episode 3 of the first season Utopia portrayed a school shooting, that was too much for some. This led to Channel 4 receiving 37 complaints regarding that night’s episode. Still, these complaints were small enough scale that they never impacted Utopia’s place on the network.

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The show follows Becky, Ian and Wilson, three unrelated people who share a cult following of a graphic novel called “The Utopia Experiments” and discuss it together on an online forum. One day, another user on the site claims to have the manuscript for the uncompleted sequel and asks to meet. From there, the trio are cast into a world of danger as they try to evade a shadowy organization known as “The Network” who want the manuscript for their own purposes.

Each of Utopia’s main trio of characters feels like they are a cliché. You have Ian, an IT consultant who lives with his mom; Becky, a woman convinced the illness her father died from results from some kind of conspiracy; and Wilson Wilson, a conspiracy nut who lives in his dad’s basement. Sound like a great show? Probably not. But what Utopia does so well is take a relatively simple premise with characters that feel cliché, and pair that with some of the most incredible production value you have ever seen. Yes, the characters and story are familiar, but it is what it does with its premise that Utopia captures so well.

Thankfully, given that the characters could easily turn into caricatures, the acting present in Utopia is of a high caliber. You won’t find any A-list celebrities preforming roles or cameos, but you will see an incredibly diverse and talented array of actors giving this show their all. Child actors who don’t have a great reputation as a whole, preform incredibly here and deserve praise. Perhaps the most deserving of praise, however, is Fiona O’Shaughnessy who portrays the elusive and ever enigmatic Jessica Hyde.

The show, while receiving low viewership counts, was praised by critics for its unique visual style and high production value as well as the unique music created by series composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer. It also received attention for its visual style which is distinct. So distinct, in fact, that once you have watched a few seconds of the show you know could point out any other works Utopia’s staff worked on in the same capacity.

Several projects since Utopia have utilized several members of Utopia’s team. National Treasure, the Channel 4 drama, not the Nicholas Cage movie, featured contribution from some of Utopia’s cinematographers, directors, and composer. It felt strikingly similar to Utopia in style despite being completely unique. Perhaps it is less their similarity and more the lack of any projects remotely similar to Utopia leading to anything remotely close to it feeling familiar.

Among the best parts of Utopia and an aspect which carries over into all of the projects he works on is the soundtrack, composed by the incredible Cristobal Tapia de Veer. It suits the show perfectly. Each track is given careful attention to detail, but few are as fun to listen to as the main theme song which is mysterious, upbeat and sounds like you’re having a panic attack. It employs, as does much of the soundtrack, many layers working together to give the sensation that, as the judges for the The Royal Television Society put it “…felt like it was being played inside your head.”

Utopia’s soundtrack is nearly impossible to describe. You can talk about aspects of it individually, but the culmination of so many influences and creations creates something new entirely. If you want to listen to a few songs from it click here. The soundtrack helps to give Utopia its feeling of mystery and intrigue as well as a bit of adventure. It is, for my money, the most innovative soundtrack I have heard made for television.

Color palates are often a second thought for the viewer of a television program. Yes, they are always important, bu how often do you, the viewer, think “that color palate is immaculate!”? My guess is never. Utopia, however, will make you gush over it. One of the best examples of Utopia’s color palate are its establishing shots. They are gorgeous. Take this, for example:

This style of hyper-saturation is achieved by a form of post-production technicolor whereby the artists take the, occasionally drab shots obtained from shooting the series and paint over them taking inspiration from the 1950’s technicolor process.

“…we choose certain colours like yellow and turquoise and paint them into the shots afterwards. The skies that we shot weren’t always blue, they were mostly grey British skies. The same goes for making grass greener, eyes brighter, or turning a blue van yellow.” - Director Marc Munden

The result is striking. Each shot looks like a scene from a graphic novel, exactly what the creatives behind Utopia wanted it to. Utopia is meant to mirror its namesake, The Utopia Manuscript, through its hyper stylized production, its cast of unlikely people brought together to fight against a mysterious group. It all feels like a graphic novel.

This knowledge of exactly what they want from the production and exactly what they want the show to look like is Utopia’s greatest strength. It feels perfectly realized and uninhibited by studio meddling as is so often the case. Looking back at Utopia is difficult because it forces you to realize just how much the world of television lost by its cancellation and lack of a proper finale and send off. Dennis Kelly later said that he pitched a 2 hour sendoff episode to wrap up loose ends but Channel 4 wouldn’t allow it.

Utopia may not have lived on in its first form, but it does still live on. Initially HBO was set to produce a remake helmed by acclaimed directory David Fincher util it fell through due to disagreements over budget. In fact, according to Finch, it all came down to 9 million dollars.

“I thought we had really, really good scripts and a great cast and we were getting ready to do that and you know it came down to $9 million, In the end, when you actually kind of lay it all out, $9 million in the scheme of things doesn’t sound like a huge discrepancy between what we wanted to do and what they wanted to pay for.” — David Fincher

Still, despite HBO’s failure to work out an agreement with David Fincher, the remake lives on, only now at Amazon. Fincher has left the project leaving Gillian Flynn, writer of Gone Girl and writer for Fincher’s project, both writing and acting as showrunner. The remake will star some big names including John Cusack and Rainn Wilson as well as several smaller name actors. It is anyone's guess as to whether the remake will prove a worthy adaptation, but as it is in post-production, we should know sooner rather than later.

Dennis Kelly is still creating excellent content as well. Currently he is working on HBO’s The Third Day, an ambitious blending of traditional television and real-world exploration written by Kelly with contributions from Utopia’s composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer and director Marc Mundon. Initially, this was set to premier earlier this month — May of 2020 — but due to COVID-19 it was pushed back to October of 2020. This is because the form the miniseries is taking is quite unique, the first 3 episodes will premiere, then an onstage performance will be given in the UK before the final 3 episodes air, with a new cast, story, and production crew. A very ambitious and, for me, exciting idea for a series.

I look forward to watching both Amazon’s remake, and Dennis Kelly’s new show when they premier. I will take anything related to Utopia. Still, nothing will come close to replicating the lightning in a bottle that Dennis Kelly found in Utopia’s initial run.

I believe I have given enough context for why this show is so great. It did so much with music, color, and the general vibe of the show. I hope I have convinced you of its worthiness of your time. If I have than please, check the show out. Watch it. It truly needs more people to see it for what it is: magical.

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