The trailer for Utopia totally underwhelmed me. I'm with you in that they should take the basis of it and then run and do their own thing. (Which I read in an interview with the writer is what they're eventually going to do.)
Yeah, the finale of the US version is going in a different direction (in the last 10 minutes). So season 2 will be way different...which is fine because season 2 of the original sucked ass!