Paradise found: Utopia's remake is a welcome dose of TV justice

Dennis Kelly’s drama was dropped by Channel 4 after two acclaimed seasons. Now Amazon’s committed to a nine-episode revival will its potential be realised?

Ultra violent, foul-mouthed and bloody minded, Utopia didn’t shy away from controversy. When the second series of Dennis Kelly’s dark comedy – about a group of unlikely characters who stumbled upon the key to an international conspiracy – debuted for a second season, it sent the Daily Mail into meltdown. In a searing no-star review, which mostly took issue with the fact one of Kelly’s storylines suggested that Margaret Thatcher’s government was backed by “deranged MI5 agents with swastikas carved into their stomachs,” it declared the show “beneath contempt.”

But many loved it, including the Emmys voters who gave it an international award for best drama in 2014. Via Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s soundtrack and the bravura cinematography of Ole Bratt Birkeland and Lol Crawley to its artistic (or sadistic) use of violence, it won an army of loyal, often young fans. But it wasn’t to last.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2HGmLH8