Utopia (2020 TV series)

Utopia
Genre	Drama; Science fiction; Black comedy;
Created by	Gillian Flynn
Based on	Utopia; by Dennis Kelly
Starring	John Cusack; Ashleigh LaThrop; Dan Byrd; Desmin Borges; Jessica Rothe; Christopher Denham; Javon Walton; Farrah Mackenzie; Cory Michael Smith; Jeanine Serralles; Rainn Wilson; Sasha Lane;
Composer(s)	Jeff Russo
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producer(s)	Gillian Flynn; Jessica Rhoades; Dennis Kelly; Karen Wilson; Diederick Santer; Sharon Hall; Sharon Levy; Toby Haynes;
Producer(s)	Huey M. Park;
Cinematography	Shawn Kim; Stephen Pehrsson
Editor(s)	Scott Turner; Kyle Traynor; Lisa Bromwell; Jonathan Schwartz
Running time	44–55 minutes
Production company(s)	Endemol Shine North America; Kudos; Trallume Productions; Picrow; Amazon Studios;
Release
Original network	Prime Video
Picture format	4K (UHDTV)
Original release	September 25, 2020
External links
	Website

Utopia is an American drama web television series adapted by Gillian Flynn from the 2013 British original. It was released on September 25, 2020, on Prime Video.^[1]

Cast and characters[edit]

Main[edit]

Sasha Lane as Jessica Hyde
Rainn Wilson as Michael Stearns
Dan Byrd as Ian Ackerman
Javon Walton as Grant Bishop ^[2]
Cory Michael Smith as Thomas Christie
Ashleigh LaThrop as Becky Todd
Desmin Borges as Wilson Wilson
Farrah Mackenzie as Alice
Christopher Denham as Arby
John Cusack as Dr. Kevin Christie
Jeanine Serralles as Colleen Stearns

Recurring[edit]

Jessica Rothe as Samantha
Felisha Terrell as Hailey Alvez
Fiona Dourif as Cara
Dustin Ingram as Tallman
Michael B. Woods as Rod
Crystal Fox as Kim
Rebecca Spence as Laura Christie
Sonja Sohn as Agent Katherine Milner
Tim Hopper as Dale Warwick
Hadley Robinson as Charlotte / Lily

Episodes[edit]

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date ^[3]
1	"Life Begins"	Toby Haynes	Gillian Flynn	September 25, 2020
2	"Just A Fanboy"	Toby Haynes	Gillian Flynn	September 25, 2020
3	"Tuesday's Child"	Toby Haynes	Gillian Flynn	September 25, 2020
4	"not slow not bad"	Susanna Fogel	Gillian Flynn	September 25, 2020
5	"Order 2472"	Susanna Fogel	Gillian Flynn	September 25, 2020
6	"Respect Your Purpose"	Courtney Hunt	Gillian Flynn	September 25, 2020
7	"Talking Hurts"	J. D. Dillard	Gillian Flynn	September 25, 2020
8	"Stay Alive, Jessica Hyde"	Toby Haynes	Gillian Flynn	September 25, 2020

Production[edit]

Development[edit]

Utopia was ordered direct-to-series on April 19, 2018, with an order of nine episodes,^[4] after being originally set up at HBO with David Fincher to direct, but never produced after a financial dispute.^[5]^[6] On April 19, 2018, Utopia was ordered to series by Amazon.^[7] On July 23, 2020, during the San Diego Comic-Con@Home, the first teaser for the series was released and was confirmed to be released in fall 2020.^[8] On August 6, 2020, at the TCA virtual panel, showrunner Gillian Flynn announced that there would be less violence than the British original.^[9] The series was released on September 25, 2020.^[1]

Filming[edit]

In June 2018, it was announced the series would start filming by fall 2018.^[10] On August 8, 2018, it was announced the series would consist of nine episodes, and probably have three different directors at work, one every three episodes, although it was later confirmed that there would be eight episodes for the first season.^[11] It won’t have a single director the entire way through. I think we’ll probably have multiple directors. It’s nine episodes, so I think we’ll do it in blocks of three, three and three, and not one director, the whole time through."^[12]

On October 17, 2019, the creator of the show, Gillian Flynn, announced that the series' filming was completed.^[13]

On August 10, 2020, it was revealed that Jeff Russo would compose the music for the series.^[14]

Casting[edit]

During its initial development in 2015, the cast included Rooney Mara, Colm Feore, Eric McCormack, Dallas Roberts, Jason Ritter, Brandon Scott and Agyness Deyn.^[15]

In January 2019, Sasha Lane joined the cast of the series.^[16] In February 2019, Rainn Wilson, Dan Byrd, Cory Michael Smith, Ashleigh LaThrop, Desmin Borges, Farrah Mackenzie, and Christopher Denham joined the cast of the series.^[17]^[18]^[19] In April 2019, John Cusack and Jeanine Serralles joined the cast of the series.^[20]^[21] In May 2019, Jessica Rothe, Felisha Terrell and Dustin Ingram joined the cast in recurring roles.^[22]^[23]

Reception[edit]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 57% based on 28 reviews, with an average rating of 6.25/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Utopia's cast and mystery at times transcend its overtly cynical and overly violent tendencies, but even those willing to look past the torture may find the whole thing too timely—in a bad way."^[24] On Metacritic the series has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100 based on 11 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[25]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]

Intuitive fred888

Friday, September 25, 2020