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S01.E03: Series Premiere (3)

Tara Ariano

By Tara Ariano
in Utopia (US) [V]

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Tara Ariano

Tara Ariano

Conclusion of the three-part premiere of a one-year social experiment involving 15 people who try to create their own civilization from scratch by deciding on a system of government, what food they'll eat and how they'll interact with the outside world.
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riverheightsnancy

riverheightsnancy

I have been in and out of the room while the show has been on, however, I think I saw a total of about 5 seconds of the animals. Way to cover up what is really happening there Fox. The live-feed recaps and the TV show are completely different.  They are glossing over so much of what is really going on. 

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kaygeeret

kaygeeret

The show actually manages to be a bit boring!

 

Except for the contractor and Rob, no one else seems to lift a finger.  The woman or two who tried to help with the garden were driven off by Bella, but no mention made of what they are planting - have they planted? or anything practical.

 

Just BB Outdoors, except I would actually be interested in a few more details of how they got running water and what the plan is for the garden.  Part of the problem I guess is that the people here have no compelling need to perform, so they must believe they will not be punished for, well, anything at all.

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JustAlison

JustAlison

Blech. Just blech.

 

How are we learning anything here? So, the lessons from week one seem to be---that a man who struggled to fit into mainstream society found he was no more successful in this environment? This person has been in prison since he was 17. He has talked about his horrific childhood, and lack of decent parenting, or anyone caring about him at all. He enters this compound angry and sad, but hopeful. The producers fed him a lie:  that he would be given a second chance in this new, brave new world, the chance to re-invent himself. But Dave never really had a chance at all. Nothing in his background would indicate to anyone with half a brain that he had any skillset to rely on in order to re-create himself. He needed help. He needed a friend. The producers handed him Red, just to fuck with him.

 

I am not suggesting that people aren't responsible for their choices. I understand that he was scary, and prone to violence. But I also understand that that kid never had a chance, and I am SO SICK of watching the kind of group bullying that I saw on this crapfest tonight. That he would feel the need to thank that group of entitled hipster poseur assholes for forgiveness? When they kick his ass to the curb? Nope. Cannot cosign that. The preacher and Aaron were right. Everyone deserves second, third, and fourth chances. So fuck you, show. You took a young, desperate, gullible and eager to please young man who really needed a chance to change things in his life, and fucked with him for some bullshit ratings. Just...fuck you, show.

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Wandering Snark

Wandering Snark

(edited)

Today's as-we go comments:

 

I love that the summary on my guide says that Utopia is in "a remote location". Yeah, so remote they get cell phone service and can order out for groceries...

 

Welcome new people, come on in... but don't trip over that trench we never back-filled...

 

Did Red say he wanted to make 5,000 neck braces?? As his money making idea?? He really needs full time captioning. But this was captioned:

 

"I've had several family members killed by other family members." Well, there's a neat talking point to work from with strangers!!

 

I think Bella's "garden" has about as much chance of flourishing as this show does.

 

I think that that bell they have is a little too like a gallows... it's looks ominous to me, no?

 

entering.png

 

I'd have said "Well Dave them thar is some purty words but we don't trust you further than you could throw any of our dead bodies so it's a 'No'." BTW that was one whiplashy redemption arc (half arc?).

 

I think I love our long haired lawyer, that microwave convo was awesome.

 

ETA:

 

When the narrator is talking but not being shown, he speaks like the voice that narrates those short films that classes used to use to teach kids about hygiene and sex.

I instantly thought of South Park with the 'That's right, duck and cover' psa.

Edited by Wandering Snark
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kaygeeret

kaygeeret

 

I am not suggesting that people aren't responsible for their choices. I understand that he was scary, and prone to violence. But I also understand that that kid never had a chance, and I am SO SICK of watching the kind of group bullying that I saw on this crapfest tonight. That he would feel the need to thank that group of entitled hipster poseur assholes for forgiveness? When they kick his ass to the curb? Nope. Cannot cosign that. The preacher and Aaron were right. Everyone deserves second, third, and fourth chances. So fuck you, show. You took a young, desperate, gullible and eager to please young man who really needed a chance to change things in his life, and fucked with him for some bullshit ratings. Just...fuck you, show

 

Thank you again JustAlison, your entire post is well worth reading - (I thought I had the entire thing sorry).

 

Anyway.  Yes, Dave was a loose cannon and a bit scary, BUT he should NEVER have been cast.  My god, the sign posts are all there.  He needs serious mentoring and help.  I believe he wants to make a change, but serious intervention is needed.  Unless of course he is an actor playing a part.

 

He is a smart kid I think and I am really hoping someone with some skills in that area can help him.  Is it too much to hope that someone in casting will have compassion?  Oh yeah, I forgot about the ethics involved.

 

A pox on whoever cast him and a new "ring in hell" for the people who greenlighted the casting.  Pompous, self righteous  jackasses interested only in money.

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kikismom

kikismom

 

 

Did Red say he wanted to make 5,000 neck braces?? As his money making idea?? He really needs full time captioning. But this was captioned:

 

 

 

Well that's a relief! I thought me (and my television) had a mini-stroke.

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ElleryAnne

ElleryAnne

(edited)

Bella really can't read a room, can she?  Between driving Rhonda away from the garden (though Rhonda seemed to have a short fuse), insulting the intelligence of people in the microwave discussion, and giggling at Josh, I cringed every time she was on screen.

 

 

So, Red's the pride of the Vanwinkle family?

 

 

Sounds like he's a hissy fit and a musket away from that title.

Edited by ElleryAnne
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backformore

backformore

Did Red say he wanted to make 5,000 neck braces?? As his money making idea?? He really needs full time captioning. But this was captioned:

 

I'm pretty sure he said " a thousand hemp bracelets", and that he could make  5 grand in two days. 

Though I'm also pretty sure that his idea of a hemp bracelet is a piece of string tied around your wrist.

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BusyOctober

BusyOctober

I know the censors would never allow it, but... these doofs are in CA right? They could get a medical marijuana license and make a boatload of cash. Red would have something to do and use his very limited "skill set" while staying out of everyone's way. If he gets his own "prescription" for his "pharmaceuticals" he will certainly mellow out & "gain an appetite" and scarf down quinoa, beets or whatever is put in front of him. Bella can let her chickens be free range in the crop rows and have something to do with all her compost. The chef guy will have free herbs to use in his recipes and Nikki will be thrilled because it's organic. Problem people pacified!

Does being poly amorous mean you can have intimate relationships without the consent or agreement of the other people in your love group?

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Etta Place

Etta Place

 

Does being poly amorous mean you can have intimate relationships without the consent or agreement of the other people in your love group?

Depends on the people involved; it's whatever guidelines they agree to. Some people want a vetting process, some people are "don't ask don't tell," some people have different requests for different situations (is it a one-night stand on a business trip or a long-term involvement close to home?). I imagine that since Dedeker is going to be away for a year, she's pretty much at her own discretion, but that's just a guess.

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JustAlison

JustAlison

 

Does being poly amorous mean you can have intimate relationships without the consent or agreement of the other people in your love group?

 

I think it means having sexual relationships with whoever you want, whenever you want, and pretending it will ever approach the level of intimacy two people can share when they are exclusive. It speaks to a marked immaturity across the board, and a fear of imtimacy. JMO, of course, but I have little patience for that nonsense.

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DeLurker

DeLurker

I love that the summary on my guide says that Utopia is in "a remote location".

Hmmm....Santa Clarita is the third largest city in Los Angeles County (by population).  Los Angeles County is the largest in the United States and is larger than 43 states.  They've got a curious definition of "remote".

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reggiejax

reggiejax

Timothy Treadwell vibe I'm getting from Bella.

 

 

They both do share a rather naive and ill informed view of nature. 

 

Though I don't think Bella is quite as bad as Timothy Treadwell. Treadwell played with bears and got eaten for his troubles. As silly as Bella is, I doubt her garden is going to grow any man eating plants that will devour her whole. Though we can always hope. 

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Wouldofshouldof

Wouldofshouldof

(edited)

Have any of the Utopians realized yet that when Amanda's baby is born, there will be copious amounts of crying, especially at night?  What about diapers?  Maybe Red can make hemp diapers, LOL.

 

ETA: Riverheightsnancy, what's going on with the animals?

Edited by Wouldofshouldof
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riverheightsnancy

riverheightsnancy

(edited)

 

ETA: Riverheightsnancy, what's going on with the animals?

 

I haven't heard anything in any way regarding the animals today-Saturday. I am also following the recaps of the live feeds to determine how they are doing and if we need to keep pushing to help them. If we want further discussion, we should move this to the thread specific for the animals. 

Edited by riverheightsnancy
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green

green

That was the most hilariously fake apology letter ever written since Dave obviously didn't write it.  He probably didn't know what half the words meant when the producers shoved it under his nose to sign.   They probably told him it will "make for great TV" and added that in return for playing along they would send him off with an added bonus of a free bunch of bananas so he would be like three bananas up on that "muskrat-ass" that stole his.  That will show 'em!

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RedheadZombie

RedheadZombie

I have been in and out of the room while the show has been on, however, I think I saw a total of about 5 seconds of the animals. Way to cover up what is really happening there Fox. The live-feed recaps and the TV show are completely different.  They are glossing over so much of what is really going on. 

 

There was a split second shot of a mooing cow greeting a brunette lady I didn't recognize.  Or the cow was in pain and bellowing to be milked.  Unfortunately, the second explanation is probably correct.

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oceanchild3

oceanchild3

I am honestly glad that Dave decided to leave. As stated in previous posts, he was NOT the right candidate for this type of situation and producer manipulated environment. They made it a big deal saying he prepared SIX MONTHS for this experience. I'm sorry, but after living the prison life, six months doesn't prepare you for this kind of nightmare. It was apparent he wasn't going to be able to handle the society pretty much from the beginning and to throw him in there for drama was such an irresponsible move. I believe everyone has the right to redemption, forgiveness and a full life after paying their dues, or whatever, but this isn't the place to start. I would have been scared to live with him.

 

I also hated the "bring him back to baptize". And again...production. But it all felt so gross and almost a mockery of people that really do hold ceremonies like baptism as sacred. Everyone finds some kind of Jesus/high power/etc in prison and maybe this was the same. But Dave didn't last much more than a week. His baptism in the pond is not going to mean much if he doesn't get some real direction and help. 

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kikismom

kikismom

They both do share a rather naive and ill informed view of nature. 

 

Though I don't think Bella is quite as bad as Timothy Treadwell. Treadwell played with bears and got eaten for his troubles. As silly as Bella is, I doubt her garden is going to grow any man eating plants that will devour her whole. Though we can always hope. 

I'm not worried about Bella being eaten (disappointed, sure) and it's more than the very true naive and ill informed view of nature:

What I meant really was that they are both (IMHO) people with deep psychological issues, that are using nature as a self-therapy device. Treadwell had tried many things before the grizzlies actually; he veered from one addictive OCD focus to another. No matter how much he claimed it was for the bears or the children who read his My Weekly Reader dispatches (in retrospect, and ill-advised choice), it was his own self-absorption he was working out.

I'm just honestly feeling that the constant pacing, the easy bursting into tears, the frenetic need to control the placement of every carrot seed, the very pre-pubescent style of flirting all indicates someone who is long past neurotic.

Somebody once described an actress as someone you thought "might start screaming one day and never stop." I think she's there.

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kikismom

kikismom

Oh, BTW:

Bella has been reminding me of someone besides Treadwell; but I couldn't dial in to who it was...til now!

 

If anyone here watches Criminal Minds, there was an episode called "I Love You Tommy Brown" with a thin blonde highstrung schoolteacher who is very impatient with other people who just don't understand dammit! Now do it exactly the way I told you to, you idiot! Do I have to explain everything you aren't LISTENING!

She and Bella look like twins. They act alike also.

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quickjessie

quickjessie

Oh, BTW:

Bella has been reminding me of someone besides Treadwell; but I couldn't dial in to who it was...til now!

 

If anyone here watches Criminal Minds, there was an episode called "I Love You Tommy Brown" with a thin blonde highstrung schoolteacher who is very impatient with other people who just don't understand dammit! Now do it exactly the way I told you to, you idiot! Do I have to explain everything you aren't LISTENING!

She and Bella look like twins. They act alike also.

Exactly!  You are quite right and I hope when Bella eventually flips out it isn't violent.

 

This show is a trainwreck.  So much lost potential.

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reggiejax

reggiejax

Oh, BTW:

Bella has been reminding me of someone besides Treadwell; but I couldn't dial in to who it was...til now!

If anyone here watches Criminal Minds, there was an episode called "I Love You Tommy Brown" with a thin blonde highstrung schoolteacher who is very impatient with other people who just don't understand dammit! Now do it exactly the way I told you to, you idiot! Do I have to explain everything you aren't LISTENING!

She and Bella look like twins. They act alike also.

 

 

I have not seen that episode of Criminal Minds, but I looked it up and I presume the actress you are referring to is Teri Polo. She and Bella definitely do bear a great resemblance to each other. 

 

As for the Timothy Treadwell comparisons, I admit I was not going nearly as deep as you were with it. Frankly, I just wanted to make a cheap crack about being eaten alive. But you do make a lot of good points. I still hold hope that Bella's antics and personality flaws are being magnified greatly by the fact that she is on a reality show. I think it is part editing, part Bella acting up, and part real issues she has. 

 

Still, Bella is bringing the entertainment in a way most of the other cast members are not, especially among the women. Bri is just hanging off of Chris, Hex is doing a very boring Katniss Everdeen impersonation (which admittedly reaches heretofore unknown levels of boredom, as the character of Katniss isn't exactly a boiling cauldron of personality herself), and Amanda, Nikki and DooDooker are total nonentities. 

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kikismom

kikismom

oh, reggiejax, it's fine, I do enjoy suggesting these people get eaten alive.  :-)

You know the confession booth thing they do on these reality shows? If you get a copy of Grizzly Man, you'll see Treadwell do the same thing in his tent and it's like her, hysterical but also perceiving reality through this weird p.o.v.

I hope she's acting. Or trying for a job as Teri Polo's stand-in. But sometimes when she does the pacing thing with both palms squeezed up against her temples, I get thinking the voices in her head might make her do something we'll all regret.

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ghoulina

ghoulina

(edited)
I also hated the "bring him back to baptize". And again...production. But it all felt so gross and almost a mockery of people that really do hold ceremonies like baptism as sacred. Everyone finds some kind of Jesus/high power/etc in prison and maybe this was the same. But Dave didn't last much more than a week. His baptism in the pond is not going to mean much if he doesn't get some real direction and help.

 

weird glitch, quadruple post.

Edited by ghoulina
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clod

clod

well, Dave is gone.     when he came back in briefly,  it looked like he got a little choked up when he finally realized the group was not going to let him return.     scratch one life-changing opportunity.  

the whole thing had the potential to keep him off the street for three years, IMO.  one year living in the show, and the cast money he would have received could have been rationed to provide food and shelter for another two years  (cheap living in a cheap cost of living area).

 

 

 

I am not suggesting that people aren't responsible for their choices. I understand that he was scary, and prone to violence.

 

/

 

The preacher and Aaron were right. Everyone deserves second, third, and fourth chances

 

 

IMO, the group is too small, stressed, and vulnerable to give violence multiple chances.   

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kassa

kassa

Though I don't think Bella is quite as bad as Timothy Treadwell. Treadwell played with bears and got eaten for his troubles. As silly as Bella is, I doubt her garden is going to grow any man eating plants that will devour her whole. Though we can always hope.

 

 

The editing made it a little jumbled, but it seemed to us in the first episode that she seemed to be endorsing using their human waste as compost/fertilizer, which definitely COULD seriously endanger people.  Coupled with her "microwaves are dangerous" beliefs, this indicates to me that she's the kind of person who wallows in the ignorant shallows of the internet, where ideologies wrapped in pseudoscience convince the witless that they alone really understand what's going on, and it's their mission to save the rest of us.

 

I'm not sure why the more sensible women haven't stepped in and said "You know, while you're working on that, we're going to start a traditional garden over here and get some seeds in the ground.   We've love to incorporate some of your ideas once things get going, but we've already lost ____ days of growing time and this isn't a hobby garden we can fiddle with until it's just so."  

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DeLurker

DeLurker

 

I'm not sure why the more sensible women haven't stepped in

There seems to be a dearth of women meeting that criteria (well, men too but they seem to be doing a bit better after a slow start in that regard).

 

Bella's propensity for talking over other people seems to preclude having an actual productive conversation.  It's possible that Josh or Taylor could use their masculine wiles to have some sway over her, but given her overt interest in them, I would fear for their safety.

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Andromeda

Andromeda

(edited)

The editing made it a little jumbled, but it seemed to us in the first episode that she seemed to be endorsing using their human waste as compost/fertilizer, which definitely COULD seriously endanger people.  Coupled with her "microwaves are dangerous" beliefs, this indicates to me that she's the kind of person who wallows in the ignorant shallows of the internet, where ideologies wrapped in pseudoscience convince the witless that they alone really understand what's going on, and it's their mission to save the rest of us.

 

I'm not sure why the more sensible women haven't stepped in and said "You know, while you're working on that, we're going to start a traditional garden over here and get some seeds in the ground.   We've love to incorporate some of your ideas once things get going, but we've already lost ____ days of growing time and this isn't a hobby garden we can fiddle with until it's just so."  

 

YES, this. Not only does "microwave cause death" thinking drive me up the wall -- I would have demanded to know what peer-reviewed scientific papers prove this -- her commandeering of the garden with her new-wave ideas would scare me because what if they don't work? They have to have a garden NOW. I still have yet to see tilled ground, amendments added (and NO, human waste is NOT AN OPTION), and seeds sown. It appears she's put some seeds in the ground (why she didn't let Dave just look over the envelopes is beyond me), but did I hear right that she wants grass growing with her seedlings? Wouldn't they suffer from the competition for nutrients, and struggle too hard to get to the sunlight? I have done a fair bit of gardening, and I have no idea what in the heck she's talking about calling growing grass "natural mulch." Uh, it ain't mulch if it's ALIVE. Now, if you pull it out and leave it lying there between the preferred plants, that would provide good ground-cover and mulch (which is definitely a necessity in the hot, droughty place they're in.) But the grass has to be uprooted first.

 

I think she's an Internet surfer who picks up ideas here and there and thinks THAT'S how it should be done! Then she refuses to listen to anyone who has a different idea. The visit by the farmer (maybe that's the next episode) proves it -- she wanted him to say her keyhole style plots where how it "should" be done, but he said no, it's ONE way to do it. She is just so unreasonable, and I don't understand why everyone has given such a huge responsibility over to her. Surely some of them have gardened at some point? It's a pretty common hobby.

Edited by Andromeda
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