Utopia

What an absolutely embarrassing disaster this show is. I have never seen a different version of a successful show be this terrible. They got everything that made the original UK version great wrong. This show is a perfect example of what happens when Americans try to horribly copy a successful non-American show. A good example would be The Office US version, a bad example is this one. The plot and the acting and writing all are just bad. It's hilarious how terrible the characters are compared to the UK version. I rarely write reviews on things I've seen except when I feel like I need to, and when this show, it's an insult to the absolutely brilliant UK Utopia.

And to think the money that went into making this joke of a show would've been better spent on making a third season of the original Utopia.

...and changed it to a generous "2". Hollywood has proven themselves as obsolete and talentless.

If anyone that watched this and enjoyed it, it's been canceled.

The UK original is two seasons, and ends with everything explained and closure.

I decided to watch the British version through before taking a look at this, which was probably a mistake. Instead of being gritty and interesting, the fugitives in the new version have a frothy high-school vibe, Jessica Hyde has lost the classy demeanour and the neurotic self-possession to become a thuggish brat, the personality of the child, Carl, has been watered down so that none of the powder-keg anger and rebellion springing from a childhood of neglect remains and the psychopathic assassins are nothing like as sinister, demented and quirky as the originals. The British version demanded patience and intelligence from its viewers, while the American version dumbs-down the plot and serves up heavy exposition from the word go. Even the bizarre and cryptic artwork from the original series, in which clues were buried, has now been transformed into a literal comic strip. Instead of the moody and atmospheric soundscape of the first version, we now have pop music underscoring some of the transitional scenes. This new version is glitzy and superficial where the original was stylish and deep. Although the original version didn't conclude at the end of its final (second) season - and this one might eventually extend further to wind up the story - I'm not sure I can watch the rest of this, knowing how significantly inferior it is; I probably wouldn't have had as much of a problem if I'd only ever seen this predictably-Americanised remake. If you only ever watch one of them, ditch this one in favour of the first.

The original Utopia was mysterious with interesting characters.

This show is complete rubbish. The violence is stupid and seems to be purely for shock value. Except it's not shocking when it's so predictable. It simply comes across a trying too hard.

And Jessica Hyde is incredibly unlikeable. Part of it is the character and part of it is the actress (who seems to have a permanent ugly smirk on her face all the time).

Yes, I get it, direction, writing, shooting locations they all bring something to the formula that makes a great tv show. However, when adapting cult classics like utopia you have to ensure the actors are truly up to snuff, why? Because this show gets to the very heart of the matter that is the human experience, and so far, I'm just not sure the cast have that esoteric element required. From the very first moment, the actors in the British version were astounding the viewer with how serious this violently comedic drama was taking itself before metaphysically slamming you against the wall and slapping your astonished face around a bit. Look, it's early days and I do so hope the show entertains because the U.K. version was cruelly cut short after season two and there are plenty of fans out there who wanted to see where utopia was leading us to...