This engaging, provocative, ultra violent, black comedy is billed as sci-fi mystery drama. It's certainly all three. It is also a grand satire of the comic book/graphic novel.
Regular comic books I recall were action-packed, over-the-top plots, with almost indestructible heroes, the worst kind of bad guys and seemingly insurmountable odds for the heroes to overcome. This Utopia follows that schema to a capital T, which rhymes with P which stands for ... Paranoia, that sociopolitical cancer now pervading many, if not most nation states on our planet. Creator Kelly and his coven of writers obviously had a merry time concocting and putting together this mysterious Utopia.
The series begins with a nod to Hitchcock's MacGuffin and our heroes on a quest: find the unique graphic novel which hides information about an insidious, apocalyptic government conspiracy. Unhappily for the heroes, the worst kind of bad guys are already wreaking murderous havoc across the city/country in their attempt to find that graphic novel first and are killing anybody - even innocent children - who stands in their way. (Note: don't try to keep a tally of the body count - way too many.)
For the heroes we have icily frantic Jessica Hyde (O'Shaughnessy), bawdy Becky (Roach), IT analyst Ian (Stewart-Jarrat), ultra-paranoid Wilson squared (Akhtar) and young, grunge-mouthed Grant (Woollford). For the killers, maybe we initially blanch at the sociopathic excess of agro Arby (Maskell) and his sidekick, laid-back Lee (Ready); but, as the bodies pile up, we realize nothing succeeds like excess in this story.
Overshadowing the efforts of both groups - Heroes and Killers - are the puppet masters, those maniacal mandarins in secret places who coolly dispatch orders to kill millions as easily as they order hors d'oeuvres or post a parcel. And with the same indolent indifference. Chief among them are Letts (Rhea) and his Assistant (Fox). Lurking in an even more secret place is mad Milner (James) - killer controller extraordinaire. Fumbling and bumbling around, among this mayhem, is Dugdale (Higgins), a very civil servant who often gives a good impression of Manuel of Fawlty Towers (1975) fame. Finally, like a god, the identity of nebulous Mr Rabbit - the Ultimate Uber Meister - remains a constant fear for all concerned.
To support the satirical slant, the acting is superbly performed and managed to convey just the right amount of drama, comedy, anger, terror, scientific gobbledygook, horror etc to still make the narrative appear all so possible and plausible. After all, with current and projected technology developments this century, who knows what might happen in twenty or thirty years?
Photographed in Cinemascope (aka Anamorphic 2.35:1) - goodness knows why - color saturated to almost make your eyes water - but it looks glorious - and driven by a sound track which is catchy, innovative, and frenetic; but also utterly in step with this episodic, up/downbeat, quasi-comedic and sometimes terrifying narrative which, once you begin: Just. Won't. Let. You. Go.
Provided, of course, you like satire. If you don't, then you won't be persuaded at all by the entire premise and what naturally and logically follows. Too bad - because the core message of this series, at the end, is highly personal and pertinent; and is, in fact, already in place at various scientific agencies in different countries.
But you get that ironic revelation only in the last few seconds of Series 2....
Thoroughly recommended for all adults, young and old. Unequivocally deserves nine out of ten.
June 8, 2016.