Utopia

Seeing as though all I seem to do these days is watch TV and films, I thought you would all appreciate it if started reviewing Television programmes as well!

Utopia

There's all sorts of twists and turns packed into this series. You are thrown into the thick of it right from the word go, the first scene leaves you slightly gob-smacked and thinking what the hell is going on here! I have seen nothing like Utopia before, it has all you want in a thrilling series. A global conspiracy, A remorseless pair of killers, a mysterious cultic scientist and a bit of romance and comedy. The series keeps you on toes, it's too hard to predict what is going to happen and for a conspiracy programme it focuses on your average Joe person, who has just happened to read a comic book at the source of it all!

The story focuses on several main characters but from different angles. We are thrown straight into the mix when you see two killers, (one looks like a footy fan, the other looks like a Topman addict) killing everyone in a comic book store. They then give us a line leading to so many more questions ''Where is Jessica Hyde.'' Thats scene one!

 The main angle of the story comes from the conspiracy hunters, but these aren't your stereotypical spy's or secret agents. They are just average Joe's. Ian a bored IT worker, Becky a student, Wilson Wilson a paranoid nerd living with his dad; and Grant a young street wise chav. These four are brought together by The Utopia Experiments, A graphic novel whose mysterious author killed himself.

The other main angle of conspiracy comes from Dugdale, a man working for a drug's company who is being blackmailed by a pimp after getting a Russian prostitute pregnant. He has been told he has a ''mission'' to simply get the Department of Health minister he works for to sign off an unnecessary 83 million pound Russian flu vaccine. Of course the minister says what a load of rubbish, so Dugdale sneakily tricks the minister into signing it off thinking it's nothing else. When the disaster comes out that this pharmaceutical company has just bought 83 million pounds worth of vaccine the minister is sacked and replaced by a new one, who congratulates Dugdale by saying ''mission complete.'' Intriguing!   

I can't remember the last time I saw a TV programme which shows such remorseless killings. There not gory or over dramatic just shocking. In one scene Arby (The footy fan killer) walks into a garage where Becky, Wilson Wilson and Ian were living and see's an innocent family of four tied up and blind folded, he asks them the Utopia classic, ''Where is Jessica Hyde'' then kills them all. I was also shocked to see young Alice (of about 12) blowing the guts out of someone with a shotgun, after seeing her mother shot point blank in the head! There were a few complaints after this as there is another scene when children are killed and kill themselves! There are a few other moments which will have you squirming in your seats, one torture scene nearly forced me to walk out!

The series as a whole had me gripped from the start. The story is a work of brilliant imagination, It was something I could not predict, and finally a series which was not afraid to kill of main characters. I would definitely advise anyone who didn't watch it to watch it on 4od and catch up. Although it is not for the faint hearted and it can be tricky to follow it's intense plot sometimes.

My Rating: 8/10

Directors: Dennis Kelly    Cast: James Fox, Geraldine James, Fiona O'Shaughnessey, Alexandra Roach, Nathan Steward-Jarrett, Ruth Gemmel, Anna Madley, Adeel Aktar, Paul Higgins, Neil Maskell