Channel4 Utopia cancelled, is the Network to blame?

It's official. Channel4 has announced Utopia won't return for a 3rd season.

The dystopian drama created by Dennis Kelly which got us glued to the couch has been cancelled due to low ratings. This is insane as it's hard to imagine a person not becoming enthusiast about Utopia after watching the first episode.
Here's my reactions, in this order.

I immediately blamed The Network for this. That would be its perfect final conspiracy, just think about it. But this is real and the only network to blame is Channel4. 

A Wilson Wilson picture posted on the Utopia official Facebook page confirmed this decision to the fans of the show.

'We are so sad to say goodbye, but we'll always have that spoon.'

Haha. We'll have that spoon, right. But we'll never learn more about Janus. We'll never find out if Pietre is going to save the day or if Wilson Wilson will be a better Mr. Rabbit than his charming predecessor Milner. But most important, we'll never know what happened to Jessica Hyde, Becky, Ian and Philip Carvel.

Well, at least not the British ones we got used to during the last two series.

Brace yourselves as a very unnecessary US remake is on its way. The American version of Utopia - directed by David Fincher (Fight Club, The Social Network and the dense political drama House of Cards) - is due to arrive on HBO in 2015. 

I've always been suspicious of US remakes of European movies or TV shows. Some are quite good, but most of them are just made to exploit another country successful ideas by adding Hollywood big money and names to impress. One for all, the American remake of the 2009 Swedish film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Speaking of remakes, I still have to take a look at Gracepoint, the US version of the British crime Broadchurch I loved to watch last year.

Back to Utopia, I'm not sure whether the US remake will be able to convey the same atmosphere as the original show, which had at least 5 strong points.

1. The plot can drive you crazy. I liked the fact that Janus, the project aiming for the sterilisation of the world in order to reduce population and consequently poverty, is presented like something horrible yet justifiable. Utopia is the perfect tapestry to reunite all the threads of several national, European and international conspiracies. The dystopic final design is made up of the worldwide known events and the almost unkown ones, both of them significant to understand the bigger pattern. I'm pretty sure Americans will add a little more 9/11 and JFK to the whole thing.

2. The photography is one of the marktrade of the British conspiracy thriller (season 2 premiere in 4:3 set in the 70s is a little masterpiece). The saturated, vivid landscapes almost seem a counterpart to the gloomy reality protagonists have to face.

3. There are three iconic elements in the C4 Utopia: the opening theme by Cristobal Tapia; the catchphrase of the show 'Where is Jessica Hyde?'; the particular technicolor yellow shade used for the opening credits and to emphasize details throughout the episodes known now as Utopia Yellow.

4. Jessica and the others of the gang makes a great team of characters. I can't even imagine other faces to embody the protagonists at this point. Not to mention their different accents. I'm sad thinking about the fact I'll never hear Paul Higgins's Michael Dugdale say "fuck" with his Scottish accent anymore.

5. Another Scot I'll miss is Rose Leslie. I've already declared my love for her and her Game of Thrones character Ygritte here. However, her portrayal of young Milner won me over for good. I hope they let her come back for the American Utopia on HBO, the same network as GoT.

I can't be anything but disappointed for this unexpected cancellation. No, I'm not psyched about HBO Utopia because Channel4 Utopia already had everything a good conspiracy thriller needs.

Trust no one. The Network can be watching us, but we're definitely not going to watch their network any time soon.