Utopia and the Deadly Virus

A TV show recommendation

It may be a little close to home but I thoroughly recommend the TV show, Utopia.

This British conspiracy thriller/drama was first broadcast on Channel 4 in 2013 but you can now watch it on Amazon Prime. An American version of the show was released in September 2020 but watch the English version, it is much better! And if you have watched the American version then watch the English version to get the full experience.

SPOILER ALERT - If you don’t want to know what happens in the show then stop reading here!

Furthermore, the show received a lot of criticism due to its graphic violence and dark subject matter. Many viewers and commentators argued that it was unnecessarily brutal and disturbing so if you are easily offended don’t watch any of the clips below.

This is the opening scene to whet your appetite or put you off. However, if this intro doesn’t intrigue you, keep reading to find out how many of the themes in the show could have been written in 2023.

One of the most striking things about Utopia is its unique visual style. It was shot with a distinctive colour palette that made it instantly recognisable and gave it a surreal, dreamlike quality. Bold, saturated colours were used to give the show a distinct look and the unusual camera angles and movement added to the tense and unsettling atmosphere.

The story centres around a group of people who discover a manuscript for a graphic novel called The Utopia Experiments. Some comic book fans believe these novels have predicted disastrous epidemics such as mad cow disease. There is rumoured to be an unpublished sequel which contains information about an event that is to unfold around the world.

A Utopia super fan gets hold of the unpublished sequel and together with a group of friends they quickly realise they are way over their heads. Whilst trying to decipher the puzzles and hidden messages in the novel the group are pursued by a mysterious organisation.

Central to the plot is a mysterious group of people called Janus who are behind the creation of a deadly virus known as the Russian flu. A vaccine is initially believed to be a cure for the deadly virus but in fact it has a dark secret behind it. The vaccine is not a cure but rather a means of spreading the virus more efficiently and rapidly.

Not only that but the vaccine contains an undetectable element within it that only works when combined with another protein in the brain. Once they combine, the vaccine becomes a sterilising agent, not only for the individual who gets vaccinated but also for their children.

How is this conspiracy allowed to go ahead? Because key people around the world believe that the world is over-populated and that we will soon run out of food and energy. Whilst they see the evil in what they are doing, ultimately they think they are saving humanity before it wipes itself out.

If you don’t want to watch the whole show then the clips below give you a flavour of how the storyline merges with what has happened over the last few years. Whilst the show is fiction, it is easy to conceive how a billionaire with a God complex might think such a plan was a good idea to save the planet. It serves as a warning against blind trust in rich people such as Bill Gates who come up with wacky ideas such as blocking out the sun to stop climate change.