Reel or real? Here’s why Amazon Prime’s new series ‘Utopia’ is timely and thrilling
Amazon Prime Video’s new series ‘Utopia’ will keep you at the edge of your seat as it takes you through a world riddled by a pandemic and violent conspiracies.
A deadly virus, a new flu pandemic, widespread conspiracy theories, and a race against time.
If this scenario sounds eerily like the grim present, that’s because it is part of the appeal of the web series ‘Utopia,’ which is presently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
In the times of COVID-19, when the pandemic has gripped our world in a web of fear and misery, the conspiracy thriller Utopia is shocking and full of surprises. This eight-episode web series premiered on Friday is created by Gillian Flynn of Gone Girl and Sharp Objects fame, and is adapted from the 2013 British original.
Starring John Cusack, Sasha Lane, Rainn Wilson, and Christopher Denham, the series is about a group of comic book nerds who are in search of ‘Utopia’ — a fictional sequel to a fictional comic book named ‘Dystopia’ — which had predicted the outbreaks of diseases like SARS, MERS, and Ebola.
The group believes that the sequel ‘Utopia,’ contains information about future pandemics and an evil plan to reduce the population of earth. With time running out, the fan group, a network called The Harvest, and the heroine of the comic book race to locate and decode the information.
The series could seem terrifying to some viewers, perhaps because it reflects many scenes that are prevalent in the world today. The virus is unstoppable. The infection hotspots are mounting. Hazmat suits are everywhere. Great fear and helpless despair engulf the land. There is no vaccine in sight and no hope of escaping the fatal power of the virus.
However, the conspiracies, the violence and paranoia, and the sinister storyline ultimately make it the fictional thriller it is meant to be.
The pace of the show is furious as the band of comic fans discover the conspiracy and race to save humanity from the end of the world. There are plenty of twists in the tale, many overlapping narratives, and many people have likened the series to an ‘addictive crime novel.’
Since the beginning of this year, movies belonging to the pandemic and disaster genre have gained popularity. Movies like Contagion, Solanum Virus, World War Z, Pandemic, The Andromeda Strain, The Virus (Malayalam), and many more are on top of the popularity charts now, as people try to find hope and solace in such films.
Utopia is creating a buzz among science-fiction fans not just because of its exciting storyline, but because of its uncanny resemblance to the present state of the world. It is a must-watch for those who love movies about strange conspiracies and missions to save humanity from annihilation.
Edited by Suman Singh