Channel 4 has garnered somewhat of a reputation in certain years for developing quality, dark-horse dramas that have often been somewhat left-field and utterly inspired - from teen dramas like
Skins,
Misfits and
My Mad Fat Diary to intense shows like
Black Mirror,
Complicit and a little show called
Utopia.
Utopia follows the converging storylines of a group of five strangers who meet on an Internet forum about a mysterious graphic novel called The Utopia Experiments. These five strangers arrange to meet when the novel's sequel is revealed to be circulating but find a secret group - the Network - are willing to kill indiscriminately in order to retrieve the manuscript, which is said to have predicted the worst disasters of the 20th century - and to access the secrets it holds. This is all connected to an ongoing pandemic of Russian flu, an assassin named Arby, a government agent named Milner and the ever-elusive Jessica Hyde, leading to a series of events that no one could predict or prevent. It's easily one of the best dramas in the past decade and
Utopia deserves the second series hinted at by the finale's final moments - creator Dennis Kelly has created an engaging, terrifying, colourful (both literally and figuratively) world of death, intrigue and secrets, and here are my top five suggestions for things that should be implemented or included for
Utopia's second season...