#Utopia series 1 buy series#

And they get nasty quickly.ĭespite the darkness, though, the show’s overwhelming impression is vivid and bright: Ole Bratt Birkeland’s almost garish cinematography paints the modern world with sickly yellow fields, neon green trees and violently claret blood. He steals the show with barely a word, shuffling strangely around and doing anything to get the manuscript, from removing someone’s eyeball with a spoon to – in the show’s most upsetting bout of violence – shooting young children. The actor made his name in Ben Wheatley’s Kill List and his trademark blend of intimidation and awkwardness is equally potent here. “Where is Jessica Hyde?” snivels unsettling henchman Ardy, played by Neil Maskell. But we get a good glimpse of the bad guys too, whose influence appears to infiltrate all levels of society – even the government, where exasperated civil servant Michael Dugdale (Paul Higgins) finds himself blackmailed over an affair. Through the cartoonish frames step our team, which expands to include schoolboy Grant (an impressively resilient Oliver Woollford) and, of course, Jessica herself (an eerily ruthless Fiona O’Shaughnessy). It’s written by a scientist who supposedly went mad, but if that’s true, why are curious do-gooder Ian (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), nerdily-obsessed Becky (Alexandra Roach) and underground hacker Wilson (Adeel Akhtar) suddenly pursued by a sinister organisation known as “The Network”? And why has his daughter, Jessica Hyde, turned up on their doorstep? Written by Dennis Kelly, it follows a group of people who have come into possession of the unpublished manuscript of Utopia, a graphic novel which legend has it holds the secret meaning to all the disasters of the 21st Century.

#Utopia series 1 buy series#

That’s what we soon gather from Utopia, Channel 4’s TV series which shocked viewers when it premiered in January 2013.

It’s about a scientist who makes a deal with the devil.” Already seen it? Read on at the bottom for additional spoilery notes – or read our review of Season 2 here.

This is a spoiler-free review of Utopia Season 1.