Wasn't feeling that episode at all - everything feels a bit predictable and there's no "what the hell is going on?" feeling like in S1.
― dem bow dem bow need calcium (seandalai), Wednesday, 30 July 2014 20:41 (ten years ago) link
Was somewhat O_o when they broke into a TV office to get a viral cat video they couldn't access on the internet but I did like the Romanian guy. Episode was a bit of a wash overall.
― Wristy Hurlington (ShariVari), Wednesday, 30 July 2014 21:46 (ten years ago) link
yeah the rationale for the break-in was ridiculous
― dem bow dem bow need calcium (seandalai), Wednesday, 30 July 2014 21:50 (ten years ago) link
I get what you're saying, but the ep really advanced the plot quite a bit. Carvel uncovered (although was he always a survivor? Wasn't he too young in the 70s?), the method for delivering Janus fully exposed, Jessica on the run and Dugdale's family/complicity explained, Milner becoming sidelined and setting up her own agenda...
Oddest thing for me outside of the Ian break-in was Wilson 1) becoming a good shot and 2) not suffering from depth of field issues despite only having one eye.
― and she's crying in a stairwell in Devon (aldo), Thursday, 31 July 2014 09:38 (ten years ago) link
Visuals department really outdid themselves in this episode. Wish the family reunion had lasted longer, but I guess the plot needed to be driven along.
― dem bow dem bow need calcium (seandalai), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 00:09 (ten years ago) link
Yeah, the episode looked really great.
In plot terms it all looks a bit terminal, not sure how it can be pulled back from what Milner's done - although Burger King clearly has some kind of undefined role and I suspect he'll end up being the Maguffin that prevents it. He was obviously tracking, or being told about, the 5 men in charge of the canisters and my guess is that he's a failsafe put in by someone (the woman from the charity maybe?) to recover the canisters if and when Milner carries out her plot, which is why he has currency and a passport to get him into the locations of the virus.
― and she's crying in a stairwell in Devon (aldo), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 08:46 (ten years ago) link
I assumed he was the guy that was going to release the virus?
― dem bow dem bow need calcium (seandalai), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 09:05 (ten years ago) link
No, that was covered last episode in dialogue with the guy in the shopping centre food court - pilots are going to release it under the cover story of crop spraying.
― and she's crying in a stairwell in Devon (aldo), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 09:22 (ten years ago) link
I'm a bit hazy on the details but wasn't food court guy one of three people who could be called up to set everything in motion? I figured that Burger King was another one of the three - the one who was actually chosen.
― dem bow dem bow need calcium (seandalai), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 09:53 (ten years ago) link
Don't remember the three but you could be right - that there are three options for pilots in each country. But that doesn't square with why Burger King needs passports and currency for each country; that would imply he was going to do them all himself at different times? Surely that would be too liable to failure, that he might only get to deliver one canister before something went wrong? (Although this is also true of him being a failsafe to prevent it all.)
― and she's crying in a stairwell in Devon (aldo), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 09:58 (ten years ago) link
Whole thing seems a bit lower stakes than the first one tbh (hundreds of millions of deaths notwithstanding). And too many minor irritants like "a heights thing" - just close your eyes ffs i'm trying to save your life here.
Wanna know where that ruin on the moors was though.
― ledge, Friday, 8 August 2014 09:40 (ten years ago) link
found ithttps://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Hebden,+Skipton,+North+Yorkshire+BD23/@54.0960259,-1.9579677,318m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x487c08344de97f31:0xdda31bad3a66c662
― ledge, Friday, 8 August 2014 12:32 (ten years ago) link
good find! some more on the area here: http://www.kabrna.com/cpgs/countryside/grassington_home.htm
― oppet, Friday, 8 August 2014 14:00 (ten years ago) link
I was wondering where that was. They also used the Hepworth House in Wakefield for the Network HQ. Hurrah for Yorkshire!
― Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (Stew), Friday, 8 August 2014 14:36 (ten years ago) link
So we're back where we started from, more or less. Hopefully they'll come up with something new for S3.
Are we supposed to understand from the lovely chest-carving scene that Leah is now Mr. Rabbit, or that Wilson actually is Mr. Rabbit but without Milner's sophistication?
― dem bow dem bow need calcium (seandalai), Wednesday, 13 August 2014 00:32 (ten years ago) link
I suspect the latter, really.
Yeah, a total nothing ending but I suppose it fits with a "the conspiracy can't be stopped" mentality.
― and she's crying in a stairwell in Devon (aldo), Wednesday, 13 August 2014 06:11 (ten years ago) link
The old, stale electrical appliance dropped in the bath execution scene doesn't quite cut the mustard in the RCBO era, that shit won't give you 70ma through your heart in the millisecs it takes to trip out, not that I would try it at home.
I wished this series had stayed in the 70's, the first episode was the strongest imo.
― autumn reckoning faction (xelab), Wednesday, 13 August 2014 08:07 (ten years ago) link
otm, rest of the run didn't hit those heights
this one sort of felt like it was just shuffling chess pieces around the board
― sktsh, Wednesday, 13 August 2014 09:22 (ten years ago) link
Wish they'd killed off Ian, he really is the worst character.
― dem bow dem bow need calcium (seandalai), Wednesday, 13 August 2014 22:32 (ten years ago) link
oh hooray, a us remake.http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2014/feb/13/utopia-hbo-remake-david-fincher-gillian-flynn
― ledge, Wednesday, 17 September 2014 13:25 (ten years ago) link
oh i didn't know there was a thread. binge-watched this last month and really enjoyed it - so many amazing wide-lens shots that made it seem slightly uncanny, in a sort of computer-generated future kind of way. not especially keen on the set-up for S3, it felt like it had come to a natural conclusion. wilson is no milner. agree that ian should've been killed off, his perpetually outraged sense of normalcy is incredibly wearing. becky is a wonderful character though. i wish they hadn't foisted the dumb love triangle narrative on her and jessica.
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 17 September 2014 14:05 (ten years ago) link
wondering what they can do with season 3 now that the 'mystery' is revealed, frankly. Season 2 was a bit boriing and rote for me, some nice moments but it lost that really insane sense of a real life comic in season 1 and never got it back.
I'm interested to see what HBO and Fincher do with this; how closely they'll hew to the storyline or will they just use the premise to do something else insane? It could be good.
― akm, Monday, 22 September 2014 05:45 (nine years ago) link
i was really put off by the violence, which felt gratuitous to no purpose
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Monday, 22 September 2014 11:27 (nine years ago) link
no doubt fincher will be "faithful" to that aspect of it
wondering what they can do with season 3 now that the 'mystery' is revealed,
wonder no more.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/utopia-series-3-cancelled-channel-4-pulls-the-plug-to-make-way-for-new-dramas-9785228.html
― mark e, Friday, 10 October 2014 09:01 (nine years ago) link
Not too surprising - ratings were awful iirc and the plot wasn't going anywhere.
― sweet lids of the stars (seandalai), Friday, 10 October 2014 23:01 (nine years ago) link
yeah it really fell apart in season 2. disappointing. Hope that Fincher does this better in the US. Or at least keeps it to one year.
― akm, Saturday, 11 October 2014 20:10 (nine years ago) link
Finally binged this. Super first series, but the writers made some huge gaffes in the second series, if they were intending a third spoilers I could never buy into Wilson Wilson's moral dilemma (which might makes emotional sense in a moral philosopher but not an uberhacker), the mystery of Mr. Rabbit should have been teased longer, and Lee (yellow-suit) and Terrence (burger sleeper) were key boogiemen worth preserving.
The soundtrack(s) by Cristobal Tapia De Veer are exceptional, best TV soundtracks since Richard Gibbs & Bear McCreary for the BSG reboot. Reminded a bit of Susumu Hirasawa's OST for Paprika
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsJXfkOlCLwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrenNlr1Wzo
― The inscrutable savantism of (Sanpaku), Sunday, 1 February 2015 04:39 (nine years ago) link
The US remake of this is out this year (!), on Amazon (!!) and written by Gillian Flynn (!!!)
― gyac, Monday, 18 March 2019 18:57 (five years ago) link
Can't say I love the casting for characters Michael Stearns/Dugdale, or what the new Jessica Hyde implies about how the plot will change. Would have prefered a gender swap for Ian (the IT guy) rather than Grant/Alice (the child).
As with Äkta människor/Humans, I expect to pine for a S3 of the originals.
― with Chew Guard™ technology (Sanpaku), Monday, 18 March 2019 19:51 (five years ago) link
Do you mean her age?
Do we know Grant is definitely not in it? That’s not a full cast by any means (and idk who “Thomas Christie” is meant to be either).
I’ll have a look at this but like you I’ll always want a third series.
― gyac, Monday, 18 March 2019 20:46 (five years ago) link
Not to get too spoilery here, but in the original, the ethnicity of Jessica Hyde's father plays heavily into the plot. I just don't think it will work as well with a more common ancestry, or one that hasn't suffered the same degree of recent genocide.
Wild guess, Thomas Christie is Lee, but won't have the snazzy lime green suit.
― with Chew Guard™ technology (Sanpaku), Monday, 18 March 2019 21:29 (five years ago) link
Oh, and the Stearns/Dugdale casting is just too on the nose.
― with Chew Guard™ technology (Sanpaku), Monday, 18 March 2019 21:32 (five years ago) link
I forgot the girl's name in the original was Alice. Odd to announce that casting and not Grant's.
― with Chew Guard™ technology (Sanpaku), Monday, 18 March 2019 21:34 (five years ago) link
This went from Fincher/HBO to not-Fincher/Amazon. Hmmm
― Simon H., Monday, 18 March 2019 22:15 (five years ago) link
I know exactly what you mean but I think it makes more sense in an American context? Like the scene in s2 where Becky sends Grant out into the street to find a guy who speaks (redacted) - I’m not sure how you’d make that work in a US context. I mean it would also work if one or both her parents were Rwandan?
― gyac, Monday, 18 March 2019 22:20 (five years ago) link
I know exactly what you mean but I think it makes more sense in an American context? Like the scene in s2 where Becky sends Grant out into the street to find a guy who speaks redacted - I’m not sure how you’d make that work in a US context. I mean it would also work if one or both her parents were Rwandan?
― gyac, Monday, 18 March 2019 22:21 (five years ago) link
Actually thinking about it now, there’s no reason to take it at face value. Like Fiona O’Shaugnessy was Irish in the first one & that had exactly zero contribution to the plot, whereas her ethnicity, which she wasn’t even aware of? Very much so.
― gyac, Monday, 18 March 2019 22:23 (five years ago) link
An Amazon "Original". Do words mean anything anymore?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfMBkiPFh-k
― neith moon (ledge), Monday, 27 July 2020 12:57 (four years ago) link
oh, no longer a Fincher thing I see. I'll watch this since it's been a few years since I saw the original; but the second series of the original was a disaster and the whole thing kind of fell apart. maybe they can rectify that.
― akm, Monday, 27 July 2020 14:11 (four years ago) link
The reboot has brought some fans of the original out of the woodwork, and one scanned the rare The Utopia Experiments graphic novel produced for the original in its entirety.
― Voulez-vous un coup d'etat, ce soir? (Sanpaku), Wednesday, 30 September 2020 05:15 (three years ago) link
Without Neil Maskell as the wheezy psychopath this remake cannot possibly https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/hbo-utopia/images/4/4c/Arby.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140218210738be worth watching.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Wednesday, 30 September 2020 06:37 (three years ago) link
Assuming Christopher Denham in the Amazon remake is playing the same role as that guy (wikipedia says yes), he's sufficiently creepy imo. I haven't finished this one's first season yet, but I get the impression this one's dialed up the grimness and cast aside the humor nearly altogether.
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 30 September 2020 06:55 (three years ago) link
Downloaded the UK original today, time to finally set up a home Plex again.
― Donald Trump Also Sucks, Of Course (milo z), Wednesday, 30 September 2020 07:28 (three years ago) link
Have been watching this! The original is one of the best things I ever saw, series 2 falls off a lot but still great (70s flashback episode is one of my favourite episodes of tv ever). This adaptation is interesting? Feels a bit too on the nose at times, tonally very different and obviously lacking the colour palette/spooky score, but it’s pretty fucked up! Interested in keeping watching all the same.
― seumas milm (gyac), Wednesday, 30 September 2020 09:23 (three years ago) link
Christopher Denham btw is very creepy, but in a wholly American way, and he’s not Neil Maskey but it’s a good take on the character.
― seumas milm (gyac), Wednesday, 30 September 2020 09:24 (three years ago) link
Suspect that if I already feel Gillian Flynn's an overrated hack then this retread of a better show will not persuade me otherwise.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Wednesday, 30 September 2020 10:20 (three years ago) link
gyac's critical support making me consider watching this - I too think the first season is amazing and the second season is half amazing/half pointless.
― timber euros (seandalai), Wednesday, 30 September 2020 12:00 (three years ago) link
It is critical yeah, it’s a very different beast but interesting if you loved the original as much as I do. We did laugh at the warning before of the episodes that it doesn’t represent a real pandemic, lol. Very timely in terms of the conspiratorial times we live in.
― seumas milm (gyac), Wednesday, 30 September 2020 12:16 (three years ago) link
Not having seen the original, the tone of this American version immediately reminded me of the first season of Orphan Black. Had zero clue what would happen in the next five minutes, but couldn't wait to find out. Except with bigger stakes and more explicit body horror (something I can't really cope with too well). Thankfully, those scenes are short and easy to turn away from.
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 30 September 2020 12:21 (three years ago) link