Utopia

[monkey!]

Just finished Season 1 Episode 1... fun!

[nacho]

Oh, man...what a ride you have ahead of you.

[RottingCorpse]

Season 1 is one of the best pieces of anything I've ever watched.

I still haven't watched the season 2 finale. My wife has, but I fell asleep five minutes in. Something in me doesn't care which I suppose says something about how I feel about season 2 as a whole.

[nacho]

Season two was just as amazing as season one. I think it's important to see the two seasons as two standalone shows. Season one was more thrill-based, season two was more intellectual based.

[RottingCorpse]

I think I experienced season two with a bit of Star Wars prequels syndrome. The big reveals in season one where a masterpiece of story construction; complex ideas presented in simple ways. Season two for the most part has struck me as being heavy on plot in order to create different kind of character reveals because they know they can't match the (okay, thrill ride) reveals of the first season. Yet there's so much lip service paid to the first season, that you can't help but refer back to it. They reference three mile island and Thatcher and set this grand extermination in motion, but it's just variation in the big reveal at the end of the first season.

I was also a big hot stressed out mess when I was watching most of the episodes and out of town for the others so maybe I just need to take a rainy day and marathon the whole thing again.

[nacho]

Yes, you should. Star Wars is a good analogy -- except not the prequels. I think season two will prove to be akin to Empire. Which means season three will end horribly.

[monkey!]

Season 2 still has those gruesome murders.

[RottingCorpse]

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/david-fincher-will-direct-the-entire-first-season-of-hbos-utopia-in-2015-20140929

David Fincher Will Direct The Entire First Season Of HBO's 'Utopia' In 2015

While David Fincher is no stranger to the small screen format (see our ranking of the 55 music videos he's directed to date), when it comes to actually getting behind the camera for TV episodes, he's hasn't quite jumped completely in the pool. At least not yet, but he's about to make the leap. As the executive producer on "House Of Cards," he only helmed the first two episodes. But as we recently noted, that's about to change. Fincher is about to shift away from movies into TV in a big way. And with his upcoming series "Utopia," it looks like Fincher is borrowing a page from his pal Steven Soderbergh, who dropped movies and headed to Cinemax to film the entire first season of "The Knick" (which you absolutely need to be watching if you're not already).

Chatting with The Guardian, Fincher revealed that he will be behind the camera for every episode of HBO's remake of the U.K. series "Utopia." The project, which has been brewing for a while, was given a series order by the network earlier this year, with "Gone Girl" author Gillian Flynn also on board to produce. The show (which has two seasons overseas) follows a group of people who get their hands on a cult graphic novel called "The Utopia Experiments," which seems to have predicted no shortage of disasters. An organization known only as The Network hunts them down as the group tries to prevent the next disaster predicted in the pages of the manuscript from happening.

“I like the world of it,” Fincher told the paper. “I like the characters – I love Dennis’s [Kelly, creator of the U.K. show] honesty and affinity for the nerds. I mean, I’ve always been a bit of a junior conspiracy theorist because I don’t have time to connect them all! But it’s nice to see that somebody has.”

Fincher joins a growing number of directors taking their auteurist approach to the more freeing world of television. Need some examples? Okay, there's Sean Durkin ("Southcliffe," the excellent mini-series now streaming on Netflix), Jill Soloway ("Transparent," one of the best of Amazon's new shows), Jane Campion ("Top Of The Lake"), Cary Fukunaga ("True Detective")....you get the idea. Clearly, Fincher sees where the artistry is going and is following suit.

The gig will keep Fincher busy for much of 2015, and after that, he says he doesn't know his next movie yet and that's likely because he has at least two more TV shows in the works.  “Oddly enough,” he says, “I did a remake of a literary adaptation, then I did a remake of a television show. Now I’m doing a literary adaptation [and then remaking another show]. I don’t know: the pattern is not clear to me exactly what it is that I’m doing. But I’m sure it’ll be illuminated for me. Your job is context. I’m just a hamster on a wheel!” And we can't wait see where that wheel spins next.

[nacho]

Utopia will not be renewed for a third series on Channel 4, the broadcaster has confirmed.




Read more: http://www.digitalspy.com/british-tv/news/a602435/utopia-will-not-be-renewed-for-series-3-as-channel-4-cancels-show.html#~oWF5a9j2yG1uZM#ixzz3K7DawCFy
Follow us: @digitalspy on Twitter | digitalspyuk on Facebook

Kelly pitched a two-hour wrap-up special, and Channel 4 axed that as well.

This isn't really all that surprising, and might be for the best. I can't imagine a third season...

meanwhile, on HBO, things seem exciting. Not only is Fincher directing the entire season, but Gone Girl's Gillian Flynn is writing the entire season. Sounds like they're just planning on making a 10 hour movie...

[RottingCorpse]

I was just thinking about how I still haven't watched the Season 2 finale.

[nacho]

I was just thinking about how I still haven't watched the Season 2 finale.

Well, now it will just piss you off.

[RottingCorpse]

I need to binge watch all twelve episodes.

[monkey!]

Do it.

[RottingCorpse]

And since we mentioned Utopia in the Humans thread...

I still haven't revisited the second series, but all time has done is make me forget it. The first series was perfect to me, but with the exception of a couple moments, I never went whole hog into the second.

http://www.digitalspy.com/british-tv/news/a612100/channel-4-turned-down-utopia-special-says-writer-dennis-kelly.html

Channel 4 turned down Utopia special, says writer Dennis Kelly

Channel 4 turned down a Utopia two-hour special, according to writer Dennis Kelly.

In an interview with The Independent, Dennis admitted that the team behind the series "knew" the cancellation news would eventually arrive.

"I think we all knew it was coming," said Kelly. "The people who liked it really liked it, but the ratings were just bad. I don't know why. I think going out in the summer didn't help."

He continued to say that they wanted to wrap up the story with a special episode, but their offer was declined.

"It's gutting not being able to finish the story," he said. "We did want to do a special. We said to [Channel 4], 'I could finish it off with a two-hour special,' but they weren't going for it.

"I understand, though. It was a risky show to do."

Utopia was canceled after two series, and featured actors including Geraldine James, Ian McDiarmid, Rose Leslie and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett.

David Fincher is creating a US remake of the series, which is thought to premiere on HBO in 2015.

Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn will be a scriptwriter for the project.

[nacho]

I linked to we talked about that article a few posts up, RC. Your dementia's setting in! And my advice remains the same -- do not revisit the second series. With no followup, you'll just be disappointed.