Hacker Cinema
Utopia
2013 · TV series · 50 min episodes · 2 seasons
Created by Dennis Kelly
MysteryDramaComedyScience FictionFantasyActionAdventure
The Utopia Experiments is a legendary graphic novel shrouded in mystery. When a group of strangers find themselves in possession of an original manuscript, their lives suddenly and brutally implode.
19 positive1 mixed10 neutralfrom 30 commenters
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35 comments on Hacker News
Severance (Apple TV) and Fallout (Amazon Prime) are pretty amazing TV shows that came out somewhat recently. Nothing on top of my mind came out of Netflix for which I really felt the need of resubscribing.
I miss the quality of TV shows we reached with Mr. Robot, Silicon Valley, Utopia (UK), and Westworld :(
There’s a great Australian comedy called Utopia about a government department that has a whole episode B-plot of the characters working on the Aussie equivalent of a FOIA request. It’s pretty funny and in the end one of the workers just finds it easier to leak the document to the requesting journalist rather than deal with the official process, even though it was mundane contract details on a carpark that came in ahead of schedule and under budget.
In another episode they’re trying to find out the length of a stealth submarine for construction planning purposes of a port or something, and they have to go through endless layers of security checks with the military that lead nowhere. In the end a reporter filming a documentary episode on the government agency tells them the length because they were allowed to film the submarine on another program.
Definitely recommend the show and my friends in government say it’s scarily accurate.
Are you referring to the 'GovPort' website episode of Utopia, season 3, episode 3 'Nation Shapers'[1] or a different episode?
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_otJbx-PVOw
This shows the genius of Utopia's writers.
They have a whole episode that is exactly this.
Funny enough, I recently stumbled upon an Australian comedy show called Utopia that looks more and more like a documentary now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_otJbx-PVOw
Bureaucracies generally busy themselves by going after soft targets as they represent easy wins, an extra line item for the yearly review.
There is a popular Australian TV show called Utopia that satirizes modern Australian government bureaucracies, I am lead to believe that it is quite accurate.
That said I would expect clemency in the sentencing.
The existence of a fictional movie says nothing about how popular conspiracies are. I have seen a lot of dystopian movies and read such books, including cyberpunk. A Scanner Darkly, The Illuminatus Trilogy, The Matrix, Snow Crash, Dune, eXistenz, just name some random ones. I'll mention four series, too: Twin Peaks, X-Files, Utopia, Nikita. That doesn't make me a conspiracy nut, because I am able to differentiate between fiction and non-fiction.
The trouble from 80's is different. We've shifted power vacuum, but whilst doing so the rich have become very much more rich, and [generally] they don't want to take responsibility; they want raw power. Things like bullshit (lies, conspiracies, manipulation), drama (such as creating friction between poor and middle class), obliteration of facts and science, cryptocurrency to avoid sanctions and law, and criminal behavior (including methods to avoid paying tax) are each tools for achieving more of such power.
UFOs are one of such, too. They're a tool to accelerate the distrust in government. For the acronym UFO itself is broad. A meteorite or Starlink satellite could be mistaken for an alien spaceship. Furthermore, drugs, hallucination, psychosis and the power of suggestion alone are strong tools to feed such fables.
I am well aware fans of conspiracies can very well be fans of X-Files but it is fiction first and foremost, plus don't forget Scully's role and background.
This makes me wonder how the stats compare for other forms of media, like TV shows, books, video games, comics, etc. Feels like there's probably more of a mix of attitudes and settings in these mediums, at least from the few I've seen.
Like in television, you've got Black Mirror which usually has near contemporary stories set in horrifically messed up versions of our world, but also Doctor Who and Star Trek, which are far more optimistic and deal with a far wider mix of settings and time periods. Like Utopia, a dystopian story set in the year 100 trillion where the simple passage of time has destroyed all but a handful of worlds via entropy, and the last remaining humans are trying to survive a dying universe.
And there are arguably more stories in those mediums that do deal with outside threats more than internal ones, often due to the 'monster of the week' structure some of these shows and stories run on. If you want sci-fi stories with external threats, virtually every sci-fi game you can think of has you killing hostile aliens and mutants and monsters by the thousand. Plenty that don't have any ties to Earth or current events too, and simply take place in a completely independent setting with entirely original problems.
They won't make digital ID mandatory yet; the point is to make it as inconvenient as possible not to have a digital ID. It's likely you won't be able to do your taxes online without signing up for it. Then you won't be able to receive certain government services. Businesses will be able to use it, starting with banks.[1] It's just about making it more and more inconvenient until you're forced to use it because some service you can't do without requires it.
The Netherlands has some respect for digital privacy. In Australia, it won't be hard for the Americans to access this data. The point of data privacy isn't just about not giving up information. If a particular agency needs a piece of data, you don't want every other government agency to have access to it. A digital ID makes it convenient to aggregate everything.
Australia has tried this many times. They even satirized it in the TV Show "Utopia" (Episode "Mission Creeps")
[1] https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/banks-auspost-win-early-entry-to-digital-id-scheme-in-senate-deal-20240324-p5fet9
Utopia was one of the great political | civil service documentaries of the western world, up there with Yes, Minister and The Thick of It.
I feel like the Australian TV show Utopia should be mandatory viewing for anyone who wants to understand government, even though it is ostensibly a comedy.
There's literally an episode of the satirical comedy "Utopia" about how this is untrue and yet keeps getting raised every election.
Having worked for several state government departments, I describe "Utopia" as a documentary.
Fascinating and reminiscent of the comedic absurdity portrayed in the “Utopia” tv show!
Season 3, Episode 3 of Utopia dealt with myGov perfectly. It's like the writers were actually in implementation meetings.
If you've never worked in or with government in Australia, I highly recommend checking it out. Then remember that the real thing is worse.
Less is more. No filler content. GoT could have stopped 2-3 seasons before it did and I'd been fine. Star Wars not needed episode 1 and onward. The old ones were neat as they were (personally apart from that I only liked the recent movie which took place between 3 and 4, and the first season (!!) of Mando). Its like meeting your heroes: don't! Same with books. I read the The Thrawn Trilogy. It was great. I don't want a comic about it or a movie about it; I leave the memory as is. There's a remake of the brilliant series Utopia (orig. by Ch 4) and I am not looking forward to it either for the same reason. Then again, perhaps all these reboots are not aimed for me but for people who did not see the orig.
Underrated show: https://www.reddit. com/r/DownUnderTV/comments/dpytin/utopia_au_s01s04/
Australian comedy show about government infrastructure- scary how similar some of the episodes are to the Massachusetts windmill example
Not a good review of the US version. Are other reviews out yet?
For what it's worth, I thoroughly enjoyed the UK original, back in 2013/14. Very different to what British TV normally served up as drama ... though Being Human was another TV series of the time which had the same sort of feel to me.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2384811/
I heard a story/statement once, that every time a bunch of smart people got together to think about solving the world problems, they all pretty much came up with the same solution: eugenics and birth control.
Both of these are controversial subjects at best.
Have you seen the TV show Utopia? Basically a group of people decide it's in the humanity's best interest to wipe out 90% of the population with viruses. Rather grim, but understandable in a way.
While in the domain of Sci-Fi, the solution I liked better was the idea from "Forever peace" by John Haldeman, where human evolution is propelled to the next step by increasing mutual empathy through technology. The Internet might be a small step in that direction.
<spoiler>The Utopia TV series from BBC channel 4.</spoiler>
Amazing show.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_(UK_TV_series)
Utopia is a documentary, not a comedy. I know people that can’t watch it because it is like being in their office.
Utopia is brilliant. The new logo episode is one of the greatest pieces of tv ever made.
Man, you need to get better co-founders! I agree that Silicon Valley often hits painfully close to home, but that's precisely what makes it so fantastic.
My own startup has been mostly outside of America, but we get enough brushes with Silicon Valley culture -- or, worse, wannabe Silicon Valley culture -- to make the show really resonate.
Even closer to home, for me personally, is the Australian comedy "Utopia" (or "Dreamland", depending on the market). It's about a municipal urban development corporation, which is basically my startup's customer group. One episode features a sendup of what my own startup does (online collaborative infrastructure planning and stakeholder engagement) -- or, more to the point, what some of our would-be customers want it to do. You can tell that the writers know what they're talking about. Damn near killed me to watch it. Highly, highly recommended!
That's almost the plot of the tv show Utopia.
The Prisoner (1967-1968) is mesmerising.
Le Voyage dans la lune - Georges Méliès 1902 (link provided) holds up after 115 years. Don't be so surprised! Timeless storytelling and design transcends it's delivery medium.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FrdVdKlxUk
To the people questioning whether good television is still being made, yes of course it is, it might just take you a few years to find it. True Detective, Fargo, Utopia are all great. A la carte streaming (eg select any 10 shows, 10 movies, $10/month) is the future for media consumption. Which platform will deliver this first only time will tell. At the moment original content is the model and there are some evident growth pains.
If you want to hear a truly unique soundtrack, check out Utopia (British television series): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2f6MfEzhvo
I've never heard anything like it. Highly creative and matches the show's sinister plot perfectly.
For me Season 1 was perfection, Season 2 was close to perfection but a little rushed towards the end, and then I wished that they have developed a Season 3 (with a red/blue schema)
Don't you wish you found out what happened with W.W?
The characters were terrific, especially J.H.
The storyline was the very best. There was so much world left to explore and and I wish we'd seen a Utopia derivative/side story from David Fincher's version of it. I think it would have been a perfect fit for the director of Fight Club and still a tall ask for him to live up to.
Like the author of that imdb review I felt it was very real for some reason despite the decor.
If you enjoyed Black Mirror you have to watch Utopia by Channel 4 in the UK. It's remarkable. Don't search for a synopsis online. It's a sci-fi conspiracy thriller like none you'll have ever seen before.
This is an imdb review that echoed my sentiments:
"First of, I made an account at IMDb solely so that I could submit this review.
Utopia is exceptional. It is a masterpiece. It gets 10\10 from me.
I won't explain what Utopia is about because I don't want to give any possible hint of what is to come, so I'll describe it by comparing it to other things.
Buy the DVD or download the show and your life will get.... stranger. Its rather unsettling how Utopia gets under your skin.
There are a few television shows that share some similarity to Utopia.
For example, if you enjoyed Fringe, the X-Files, then you'll be quite at home with Utopia's paranoid wanderings.
So then you cross the weirdness of Fringe and the paranoia of the X-Files with the violence of Kill Bill and the action\suspense of the Jason Bourne series.
Now cross that already bizarre hybrid with a series of scientific TED Talks given by Joesph Mengale, yes, the Nazi who chopped countless pairs of twins to pieces for the greater good.
I'm not sure which is more bizarre. That description or that incredibly, it works.
However Utopia is much, much darker than any of those. It is the darkest TV series I have ever seen. It also as others have said, feels very real.
A note of warning. When I said Utopia was dark, I was not joking. If you suffer from excessive anxiety or you're squeamish, then do not watch Utopia. Because this TV show is nothing like you've ever seen before, it will affect you. You will be thinking about the themes in it long after you've watched it.
The violence in Utopia isn't actually that strong at all, most of it occurs off the screen. But the intense atmosphere of paranoia which accompanies it makes it brutally real.
On the other hand since the governments of the world have apparently taken a leaf out of Utopia's manuscript lately with regard to surveillance, Utopia could well seem prophetic in a few years time. This really is a TV series for 21st century of flying killer robots and universal surveillance.
The Sopranos changed the way I thought about television. I thought television was for lightweights until I watched The Sopranos. It was like thinking books were mostly about erotica and then coming across Shakespeare and entering a world full of subtle complexities on a bunch of levels.
Utopia is nothing like The Sopranos. But the way it'll change how you view television is very similar.
Just one last thing. There is an American show called "Person of Interest" or something like that which has similar themes. Watch this instead.
In a word: this is intense. "
It also has one of the strangest soundtracks you'll ever hear. Listen to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2f6MfEzhvo
Warning: Do not watch if you are especially prone to paranoia, depression or anxiety.
There is a TV series better than Black Mirror believe it or not. I'll shill for it because it's an amazing work of art.
It's called Utopia, it's a conspiracy thriller from Channel 4, and if it doesn't send chills down your spine and raise your hackles then you aren't alive.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/utopia
Utopia - Season 2, Episode 6 - Opening scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcx-nf3kH_M
I'll refer you to the opening scene from season 2, episode 6 of "Utopia": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcx-nf3kH_M
A reference from Utopia. An amazing TV show you should go and watch.
I hope that it is not the most honest, but I do agree that it is the best.
If you like The Thick Of It, you may also like the film 'In The Loop' and 'Veep' (both also 'created' by Armando Iannucci) as well as the Australian 'The Hollowmen'. 'Utopia', the sort-of follow on to The Hollowmen (which is excellent), is quite good too. There is also the 'Armando Iannucci show', which is very good, but also very different.
There is also supposed to be the Afghan version of the 'Thick Of It' too, although I have not found a source for that with translation.
Where are you getting your data from? It seems like you're running into problems with new shows/shows that share the same name as movies. For instance Utopia (UK sci-fi/thriller/mystery) or Fargo (TV show).
sorry I edited out the bit about good tv series, noticed your post was more about the surrounding crap than the quality of the shows themselves :) I've recently watched some UK series and they're great: Hit&Miss, The Fall, Utopia, and some conspiracy one I forgot the title. too bad many of great UK shows aren't recapped (US usually exploits the franchise to death, the number of seasons of The Office as an example). to capture some bits about the difference on how British vs American tv works, check out 'Episodes' ;)