Amazon Prime Utopia Review: What an Irony!!

What:Utopia is an American drama web television series adapted by Gillian Flynn from the 2013 British original.

Amazon Prime Utopia synopsis

The fresh new remake of the popular 2013 Channel 4 series of the same name, this version for Amazon Prime is written by Gone Girl fame Gillian Flynn. The eight episodes dark thriller is a story of a group of comic book nerds -Samantha (Jessica Rothe), Ian (Dan Byrd), Becky (Ashleigh LaThrop) and Wilson Wilson (Desmin Borges). They suddenly get a flash of hope as they sense a chance to get their hands on the much-awaited sequel. Their seven-year-old obsession to grab the future edition of the cult graphic comic might be in their possession. A preteen Grant (Javon 'Wanna' Walton) comes into the picture unaware that a mysterious organisation who will eliminate whoever comes in the way of getting a hand on Utopia comic makes this brutal, dark and deadly.As the hunt for the original manuscripts of Utopia begins, the real-life version of the comic’s protagonist, Jessica Hyde (Sasha Lane) comes in and the series then takes a serious turn.

Amazon Prime Utopia Review

Imagine a dark thriller web series with a super hero twist having situations and words like virus, pandemic, disease, end of the world, crises, all that we are experiencing today due to this deadly on-going Corona Covid – 19 pandemic during its course.

After Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion during the early days of lockdown, now we have Utopia - Gillian Flynn’s adaptation of the cult British revolution in Channel 4 history made in 2013 reforms it into a dark, gritty American version.

Developed on the known format of a superhero, sci-fi, and/or a disaster movie, Utopia stays true to the original and adds some elements of Gillian Flynn.

The huge challenge for Gillian Flynn was to make the American version of Utopia better or different from the original. The result is different in some portions but not better.

But that should not be a worry, as majority of this generation and others have not watched the 2013 original cult?.

The series opens with these comic book nerds who believe the prequel to Utopia, Dystopia. As the hunt for the original manuscripts of Utopia begins, the real-life version of the comic’s protagonist, Jessica Hyde (Sasha Lane) comes in and the series then takes a serious turn.

Slowly it holds you as new twists emerge in the conspiracy as Dr. Kevin Christie (John Cusack) and Michael Stearns (Rainn Wilson) emerge while Chicago is under threat from a deadly ‘flu’ virus from bat.

Things get excitingly taut in this reboot now with the soft-spoken psychopath Arby (Christopher Denham) gets busy in his spine-chilling killing spree to increase your pulse meter while on the other hand Jessica Hyde (Sasha Lane) along with the comic book nerds is on the hunt for her father.

Performances

Strong performances come from Sasha Lane, Dan Byrd, Christopher Denhamand John Cusack.

Technicalities

Background score by Jeff Russo is perfectly in sync. Cinematography by Shawn Kim and Stephan Pehrsson is atmospheric.

Flaws in Amazon Prime Utopia Review

It lacks the wow factor and at points tries to be unnecessarily sensational.

Any scene that should be deleted at once

Those peeing scenes. Yuck…

Any memorable scene/dialogue

Scenes between John Cusack and Christopher Denham

Bottom line

Dark, Gritty and Infectious Gillian Flynn’s American version of the cult 2013 British original may not be a revolution but it’s certainly a perfectly timed & relevantly infectious on-screen realisation of the world pandemic disasters.