Utopia Two Cancelled

 

See here for essential background: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2020/11/utopia.html.
The second season of Utopia has been cancelled. When I heard this I was pretty surprised because, as you'll know if you've watched the first series, it ends inconclusively and on a massive cliff-hanger. There are a list of unanswered questions, such as why did Wilson betray the others? What really happened in Jessica's traumatic youth? And, most of all, will Kevin Christie and his evil cohorts get away with their dastardly plan? According to Amazon this was because of poor reception. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 51%, a fairly low rating. The Hollywood Reporter critic Inkoo Kang (real name!) called it "too hackneyed to be timely. Too grim to be escapist." I certainly agree with the second bit, it's as grim as hell; but hackneyed? Not at all. It is actually very groundbreaking and imaginative. Many other films and TV series have had bad reviews, yet their franchise continues such as the interminable Police Academy series. Leaving aside propaganda pieces, such at the latest Doctor Who, the decider for a producer and distributor is purely bums on seats. How many paying customers actually watched Utopia? Unfortunately Amazon never releases these figures. Utopia was commissioned very soon after the Channel 4 original was made, which I have never seen; but it took six years to produce due to various legal and financial problems. The creators must be very disappointed and I feel sorry for them. It is actually a Rotten Tomatoes critic who may have stumbled upon the true motive, that the viewer "may find the whole thing too timely, in a bad way." Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/utopia-canceled-at-amazon. That's a major understatement. Avoiding spoilers: Utopia is about a global pandemic of an influenza-like virus that is far more deadly than any other previously, but then a vaccine suddenly emerges onto the market. The vaccine has its own apocalyptic secret effect... It astonishes me that the plot for Utopia goes back a good decade. How did the creators know that the iron they would strike ten years later would be so incredibly hot? Amazon have seen fit to put up a warning message before each episode to remind viewers that the series is not based on real events; and that statement rings a bit hollow. The second season of Utopia may well have been cancelled because a few people might be afraid of what true ideas it is putting in people's head.
See here for background: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-mind-set-podcast-programme-428.html.
And: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2020/08/ben-emlyn-jones-live-at-truth-seekers.html.
And: https://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.com/2020/08/programme-381-podcast-nick-kollerstrom.html.
And: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2014/06/anything-to-save-planet.html.