All Episodes Talk: Utopia (US)

[riverheightsnancy]

So who won the pool? There must have been a cancellation pool, right?

Much like the Topes, we were too lazy to get organized to get one documented!  Although, people did make casual comments about when they thought it would be cancelled.

[photo fox]

Seriously, y'all, it's been a pleasure to mod this forum. Hate watching has never been so fun. ;-)

[MissMel]

So who won the pool? There must have been a cancellation pool, right?

We didn't have an organized pool, per say. I think kib came the closest though. (I'll find the post and edit to add here...)

ETA: found it! "KIB, ON 21 OCT 2014 - 11:07 AM, SAID:

I think we're about two or three weeks away from this thing evaporating, not with a bang but a whimper."

"Damn, missed the call by two days..."

Edited November 3, 2014 by MissMel

[DeLurker]

We're all winners when shows like Utopia get cancelled.

[hincandenza]

We didn't have an organized pool, per say. I think kib came the closest though. (I'll find the post and edit to add here...)

ETA: found it! "KIB, ON 21 OCT 2014 - 11:07 AM, SAID:

I think we're about two or three weeks away from this thing evaporating, not with a bang but a whimper."

"Damn, missed the call by two days..."

 

Aw, do I get no love? :) From September 20th, even:

 

My bet is this thing runs until the beginning of November, when the Sweeps period kicks in, by which time the network will see which new and returning shows are breakout hits or steadily continuing their audience shared.  They'll shuffle the schedule so their best-performing shows get more attention, axe the rest- including "Utopia"- and replace them with the B-squad new shows, and hope for a surprise performer...

[MissMel]

Aw, do I get no love? :) From September 20th, even:

Eek! I'm sorry hincandenza! My memory is not the best. I remember reading that post now. I probably even liked it because you stated it so well. Getting older is rough! ;-)

[clod]

Brichinos for everybody!

 

 

also,.....   Utopia has what it takes to make a great MST3K episode.  plenty of footage to work with.

 

Assign some interns to make a five-minute   Utopia-MST3K   short just for youtube.   that would be great.

 

to save people-time, here is a link

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_Science_Theater_3000

[MrHufflepuff]

Well, here's my last thoughts on Utopia.  Very few people watched the show, so I guess it's fitting that very few people will probably read this post.  But I've had some thoughts rattling around in my head that want to get out.

 

This was such a weird show from the beginning.  They seemed to expect people who clearly weren't trained in farming or animal care to become self-sufficient on their own.  And that's bizarre.  Farmers and ranchers have generational knowledge they pass down to each other.  And even back in the old days, people had things like the "Farmer's Almanac" to help them.  There's even that story about how the Native Americans showed the Pilgrims how to grow crops in the New World.  The idea that people would somehow be able to figure this out on there own was dumb, because nobody figures this stuff out on their own.  So, of course, we got the mistreatment of the cows and the inevitable backlash from the viewers.

 

And I think the idea that that the Udopians would be self-sufficient was pretty bizarre from the get-go.  Even subsistence farmers and hunter gatherers (with a few exceptions) routinely trade.  There was no way that these people were going to be self-sufficient, unless you really wanted to start seeing people with scurvy and rickets.

 

They also decided to cast people with, what I guess, were supposed to be diametrically opposing personalities (Polyamours Liberal!  Tea-Party Conservative!).   That would inevitably lead to some amount of conflict and drama, which I assume was the intent.  But then, they sanitized the editing for the TV shows.  Instead of showing us all the bad behavior, they limited it.  Now, I can understand wanting to take care of your cast to a certain extent.  But, since they had live feeds, all the bad stuff was going to get out anyway.  And by sanitizing the edit, they removed a lot of the drama and conflict that they intentionally set out to create.

 

One thing that I found amusing is that this has to be the only show were the feed watchers actually got to participate (by going to the Udopian Experience).  That's so different from anything else, that they really could have done some interesting stuff with it.  A reality show where the viewers are actually part of the reality show could have been really ground-breaking.  But, of course, they squandered that too.

 

So, in the end, we got a show that was hampered by all the decisions made by production.  And, yes, some of the cast are terrible people who didn't help matters.  But, production made so many bad choices that this was pretty much doomed from the start.

[DeLurker]

I think I can give a collective thanks that none of the Topes has to eat Shady Chef's special Thanksgiving dinner.

As I prep a never before tried recipe, I'll take comfort knowing that it can't possibly be as bad as Aaron's finest cuisine.