History Series / Utopia

* GenderMisdirection: The alias "Mr. Rabbit" neatly deflects scrutiny off of Milner.

** [[spoiler: Arby/Pietre convinces the group to trust him, and specifically Donaldson when he points out he could have "neutralized" him if he was still with the Network... he still sells Donaldsonout to them, to ensure the safety of his girlfriend and her daughter]].

* LivingMacGuffin: It is eventually revealed that Carvel hid Janus inside his daughter, Jessica Hyde and that finding the manuscript was only the second goal of the Network... and they knew Jessica was also searching for it.

* AnimalMotifs: Various allusions to rabbits abound, and the BigBad is known as [[IronicNickname Mr. Rabbit]]. Arby (real name Pietre, "Peter") and Jessica Hyde are revealed to be siblings. Peter and Jessica... Rabbit. Rabbits breed like crazy, sort of like humans.

* BeardOfEvil: the Assistant sports a bizarre tiny goatee.

* BigBad: Mr. Rabbit [[spoiler:aka Milner]].

* {{Determinator}}: ''Utopia'' is full of characters who will stop at nothing to fulfill their "missions", whether self-imposed or in service of a cause. Jessica Hyde, Arby, and Terrence from the Series 2 finale are primary examples.

** In the Series 2 premiere, Milner is shocked when Philip tells her that Pietre's behavior - which leads to Philip's wife had him arrested for child endangerment - is due to experiments Philip performed on him. His excuse is that Pietre was the only human test subject he had on hand. In the same episode, when Philip implies that Janus could be designed to only work on people with certain genetic traits, the Assistant gets very offended and compares Carvel's work to The Third Reich. Ironic, considering that we later learn that Carvel was influenced by [[spoiler: being a victim of the Third Reich]].

* FourEyesZeroSoul: Mr. Omida, the TortureTechnician.

* HeelFaceTurn: Arby, after he reads the manuscript and finds the truth about his traumatic past.
* HeelRealisation:

** Donaldson's dickishness is taken up to eleven in the second series finale, where it's revealed that [[spoiler: the drugs he'd been giving Becky to manage her disease were nothing but a combination of heroin and caffeine.]]

* LikeAGodToMe: [[spoiler:Philip Carvel is this to Milner]].

* LoveMakesYouDumb: [[spoiler: Milner's love for Philip Carvel definitely invokes this trope. He is forgiven by her for doing things (trying to leak Janus to the press on more than one occasion) that would have any other person killed by the Network. After Jessica is born, he's allowed to keep the baby. And when he reveals that his 'adjustment' to Janus nullifies the vaccine for Russian flu - meaning that 98% of humanity would be sterile and then die horribly and quickly, as opposed to the Network's original plan of 95% of humanity dying quietly over a generation or two - she ''still'' goes ahead with the plan.]]

* TheLoinsSleepTonight: When Ian and Becky try to have sex after a night of drinking.
* MacGuffin: The first series is essentially a chase after the manuscript.
* MadArtist: Mark Deyn, the author of the titular ''Utopia Experiments'' graphic novel, aka Philip Carvel.
* MadScientist: Philip Carvel.
* TheManBehindTheMan: The Assistant, rather than Letts, is revealed to be the ''real'' power behind the throne at Corvadt. And ''he'' is just a decoy for the real Mr. Rabbit.

** The group is initially composed of people who just happened to be in the online chatroom when Bejan made his announcement; an aspiring media studies grad student, an office IT worker, a ConspiracyTheorist, and a delinquent child.

* SensualSlavs: Dugdale is seduced by a Russian call girl so he can be blackmailed into joining the Network. It turns out that [[spoiler: she's actually British]].

** In s02e04, Marius rightly scolds Ian and Becky for mistaking the Roma people for the Romanians, and explains that those are two different things and that not all Roma people come from Romania.

* StartOfDarkness: The Series 2 premiere focuses on how Philip Carvel and Milner first became entangled with each other.

* TheUnfettered: Milner; [[spoiler: even after learning that the Russian flu vaccine will be rendered useless by Janus and that millions will die horribly, she still carries out the plan to spread Russian flu. It's partially hinted that her love for Carvel and his work influenced this decision]].

[[caption-width-right:350:''"It's a graphic novel. It's about a scientist who makes a deal with the devil."'']]

The story follows four unlikely companions - IT worker Ian, medical student Becky, troubled child Grant and the ever-paranoid Wilson. These characters are brought together by an online forum who come into possession of an [[MacGuffin original manuscript]] for the long-awaited second volume of a graphic novel called ''The Utopia Experiments'', written by a ReclusiveArtist in a mental asylum who [[DiedDuringProduction died before it could be published]].

However, when the fifth member of their group is murdered by a pair of brutal assassins, the rest find themselves on the run while trying to figure out what secret hidden in the manuscript could be so important and why the shadowy organisation known as the Network want to keep it under wraps.

The cast includes Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Alexandra Roach, Oliver Woollford and Adeel Akhtar as the main quartet of Ian, Becky, Grant and Wilson; Fiona O'Shaughnessy as Jessica Hyde, Neil Maskell as Arby, Creator/PaulHiggins as Michael Dugdale, Alistair Petrie as Geoff Lawson, Geraldine James as [=MI5=] agent Milner, Creator/StephenRea as Conran Letts and Creator/IanMcDiarmid as Anton.

An [[Series/UtopiaUS American remake]] was set to air on Creator/{{HBO}} with Creator/DavidFincher and Creator/GillianFlynn as co-showrunners. However, after negotiations with HBO fell through, Creator/PrimeVideo picked it up for a single season with Flynn as the sole showrunner, and released it in late 2020.

** Ian, Becky and Wilson over the course of the series, use methods of kidnapping, breaking & entering, forceful interrogations edging towards [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique Jack Bauer]] levels, eventually become [[PragmaticHero Pragmatic Heroes]]. Becky [[HeelRealization realises it]], and is horrified by what they're becoming. Wilson, however, eventually does a FaceHeelTurn.
** Jessica Hyde is an UnscrupulousHero, even edging towards NominalHero, taking Grant away from the group and having him drink liquor to reveal the location of the manuscript. Her desire to stop the Network is less over for concern for the world and more of a big case of ItsPersonal.
** Dudgale fits the ClassicalAntiHero mold, constantly being screwed over by the Network over what he knows.
* AntiVillain: The Network. Though its members are attempting to indiscriminately and forcefully sterilize 90% of humans on the planet and willing to do whatever they feel is necessary to accomplish that, they're doing so to avert massive suffering in the forms of poverty, war and starvation on an unprecedented scale.
* ArcWords: "Where is Jessica Hyde?". When Arby starts asking this, the audience and our heroes have no idea who Jessica Hyde is. As a recurring phrase, it sets a tone for the rest of the series; everyone is always looking for something, or someone, and never is anyone is possession of the full set of relevant facts.

** Donaldson is on the run from the Network during the whole show, but he is such a jerk, manipulating and double-crossing everyone for petty gain, that it is really hard to sympathize with him. [[spoiler:In Series 2, he is so insufferable that nobody (either viewers and in-universe characters) feels sorry when he's killed by the Network.]]
** [[spoiler:Geoff]] also gets what he deserves in the Series 2 finale.
* AssShove: Dugdale asks Jessica how he's supposed to arrange a rescue attempt for [[spoiler:his wife and adopted daughter]] when he'll be checked for items on his person. Jessica tells him to shove the required item up his arse. [[ExactWords She was being serious]].
* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler: The show ends with a cliffhanger. While the original flu plot has been averted, the Network has a back-up plan, and most of our heroes are captured. Only Pietre awakening from a coma gives hope for a possible comeback]].

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: [[spoiler: In Series 2, #2, Ian has grown visibly bored with going back to his normal life, and it's implied that his search for Becky is the only exciting thing he's got going for him. At the end of episode, he's found Becky... and is now back on the run with her and Grant.]]

* BlackSite: The pyramid within which [[spoiler:Jessica]] is imprisoned in Series 2, #2.

* CallBack: Wilson experiences some SanitySlippage and threatens to kill Letts for being a part of the organisation that killed his father, he then rants to Ian after he tries to stop him: "I've lost someone, Becky's lost someone, WHO HAVE ''YOU'' FUCKING LOST!" In the next series, [[spoiler:Wilson has Ian's brother killed and says to him, "At least now you've lost someone."]].

** Ian's IT experience doesn't really factor into the plot until season 2, when he [[spoiler:tracks down Becky with a face recognition program]].

** This trope is also invoked by Milner concerning Jessica Hyde. From the moment she was born, Carvel loves Jessica enough for him to have doubts about the his work, causing Milner to comment that she's "losing him". When she captures Jessica at the end of Series 1, Milner takes special delight in telling her that Janus was inside her ("Can't you feel ''Daddy's love'' inside you?"). And in Series 2, #5, when Carvel reveals that [[spoiler: he altered Janus so that Jessica would survive and carry on humanity,]]

* ColorMotif: Bright, vivid and solid colors of blue, yellow, green and sometimes red are seen in the setting and sometimes in the costumes.
* ColourWash: The cinematography is highly over-saturated, in-keeping with the references to comic books.

* ConspiracyTheorist: Wilson Wilson, though given that a shadowy cartel of politicians, scientists and cold war spies are in fact secretly planning to sterilise the world, he has [[ProperlyParanoid good reason to be paranoid]].

* CorporateConspiracy: Corvadt and Pergus Holdings, massive multinationals spanning dozens of different industries and part of the Network, are working on [[spoiler:a SterilityPlague that is formed of two parts, genetically modified corn starch and a flu vaccine, that only activate when combined in a human]].

** In Series 2 it's [[spoiler:Arby]] that pulls this.

* CPRCleanPrettyReliable: [[spoiler:When Becky takes poison, Ian revives her with CPR. She pukes, but is almost immediately fine afterwards]].

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: For all of his flaws in terms of social skills, diction and personal hygiene, Arby is scarily competent and tracking and anticipating people.

* DebateAndSwitch: When the nature of Janus is revealed, a question emerges as to whether the protagonists should let the Network go through with their scheme to sterilise 95% of the human race or to stop them and let things go on as usual, which only stalls the seemingly inevitable bloody conflict for resources down to a generation or two. This drama even breaks up the original team as one of them sees no logical reason to oppose the Network. However, much later, it's discovered that [[spoiler:Janus will not just sterilise the human race, it will precipitate its agonising demise, as hundreds of millions will die by the virus with only the Roma people surviving.]] This reveal negates much of the series' previous ethical ambiguity.
* DeathByChildbirth: Carvel's wife dies immediately after she gives birth to their second child, Jessica. Though framed as this trope, [[spoiler:Milner's presence - and her words - when Philip gets the news suggest something more sinister at play.]]

* DepopulationBomb: Russian flu, once we learn that [[spoiler:the vaccine doesn't work.]]

* DoubleAgent: At various points, Dugdale tries to betray the Network from within, with varying degrees of sucess. Milner presents herself as such, though she's really a DoubleReverseQuadrupleAgent.

** In Series 1, Wilson shoots his torturer, Lee. When he finds [[spoiler:Lee is alive]] in Series 2, Wilson's still traumatised from the encounter, fearing Lee [[spoiler:until the penultimate episode, when he asserts his authority over him, and in the finale, when he executes him]].
** In the finale, Geoff tries to make Dugdale an offer. He promises Dugdale £5 million, but when Dugdale realises his family isn't protected by Geoff's plan, he kicks the shit out of him, tells him where to shove his offer, and tells him not to ever speak to him again or he'll personally kill him. After 2 seasons of Dugdale being Geoff's whipping boy, this is a long time coming.
* DownerEnding: The show ending is made even worse by the show's cancellation: [[spoiler: Wilson assumes command of the Network as the new Mr. Rabbit, even going so far as to make the cuts on his stomach, and is going ahead with the plan to release the Russian flu pathogen on a smaller scale. Dugdale faces even more scrutiny (cameras installed in his home) and is once more under the Network's thumb with his family being threatened. Philip Carvel, Ian, Becky and Jessica are all captured by the Network. Pietre wakes up in the hospital as armed thugs are capturing everyone, but his fate is unknown.]]
* TheDreaded: Arby. Lee says, "Nothing scares me. Nothing in the world. Except him."
* EaglelandOsmosis: In Series 2, #2, Milner orders in "a SWAT team", despite SWAT teams being American units, Milner being a MI5 agent, and the whole show being set in the UK.

** In the Series 2 premiere, Milner is shocked when Philip tells her that Pietre's behavior - which leads to Philip's wife having him arrested for child endangerment - is due to experiments Philip performed on him. His excuse is that Pietre was the only human test subject he had on hand. In the same episode, when Philip implies that Janus could be designed to only work on people with certain genetic traits, the Assistant gets very offended and compares Carvel's work to The Third Reich. Ironic, considering that we later learn that Carvel was influenced by [[spoiler:being a victim of the Third Reich]].
** When it's revealed that [[spoiler:Janus doesn't protect against the Russian flu]], the top leaders of the Network work together to stop the plan from going through so as not to kill millions of people. However, [[spoiler:they then reveal that they ''can'' stomach a smaller flu epidemic that only kills a few thousand]].
* EveryManHasHisPrice: Dugdale manages to turn the tables on his blackmailers by [[spoiler:obtaining evidence that the Russian flu outbreak is actually a mass poisoning carried out by the Network]]. Using this new leverage, he negotiates a deal whereby he will stay quiet in exchange for a substantial annual stipend, which helps to convince them that he doesn't pose a threat to their plan.

* EyeScream: Lee's torture method of choice: chilis, sand, bleach and a spoon. Applied to the victim's eyes in that order.
* FatSlob: Arby, his paunch accentuated by a much-too-small leather jacket. When he's not scoffing [[TrademarkFavoriteFood chocolate raisins]], he's wolfing down fry-ups, and the constant wheezing of his troubled breathing is quite unsettling. Despite this, he's very deadly, and his appearance contributes to his ObfuscatingStupidity. He changes his diet in between Series 1 and 2 and loses some weight, although he still eats the raisins.

** In episode 2, Wilson realises the others have gave him heroin for pain relief, leading to this exchange that foreshadows the purpose of Janus.

** Donaldson offhandedly mentions his fondness for [[HookersAndBlow cocaine and prostitutes]] when the viewer is introduced to him. [[spoiler:The Series 2 finale reveals what Becky's medication actually was: an opiate concocted by Donaldson to which she has become addicted]].
** In the flashback episode, Milner asks Philip Carvel if he has ever been in a genocide, as she has. [[spoiler: Series 2 #4 has "Anton", who is in fact Carvel, reveal that he survived the Holocaust, ''and'' that the adjustment to Janus will spare only the Roma people]].

* FrameUp: The Nework's modus operandi for its targets. Grant is eventually framed by the Network for a massacre at a primary school through a digital alteration of the CCTV footage of Arby committing the act. As Jessica points out, it is not designed to hold up in a court, but it makes Grant a fugitive, and that much easier to apprehend him. Likewise, Ian is framed for sex crimes [[spoiler:and, later, for the murder of his brother.]]
** Subverted with Donaldson, who was discredited by the Network with due to a scandal involving drugs and prostitutes, [[{{Slimeball}} which they didn't have to make up.]]
* FreezeFrameBonus: Several times characters sum up what is in articles, emails etc. which are briefly shown on the screen. These actually are all fully written out, coherent texts which do tell what characters claim they do.

* GenocideSurvivor: The chemically engineered Janus plot [[spoiler:to make the entire population sterile in order to share resources more effectively]] exempts one set of people: [[spoiler:the Romani people, [[{{Hypocrite}} Philip's own.]]]]

** Only two of the school shooting deaths are shown, and only one in detail. The others happen off screen, with the final one being a SoundOnlyDeath over the title.
** We don't get to see [[spoiler:Wilson carving the Chinese symbol for 'Rabbit' on his stomach]] at the end of the second series, but we hear him screaming throughout and get to see the finished work.

** [[spoiler: Philip Carvel has one in the Series 2 premiere after he processes what it is he's done, and refuses to hand over Janus to the Network]].

* HumansAreBastards: The Network don't think there's any reasonable way the human race will stop breeding past the planet's ability to support them, and fear poverty and war once resources start to run out. Our heroes don't exactly do a bang-up job of proving them wrong.

** Network operative Terrence meets a woman in a coach bus waiting area who is on her way to France with her son. When she tells him they are travelling by bus instead of by plane for environmental reasons, he asks her why she decided to have a child in the first place, since his lifetime carbon footprint will be the equivalent of nearly six and a half ''thousand'' flights to Paris.

** Dugdale informs the Network when Ian, Alice and Grant turn up at his door looking for help, which leads to Grant's capture. His other choice would have led to his wife being raped and his pregnant lover kept in jail indefinitely. He feels guilty about his decision, even moreso when he finds out the truth about Anya.

** [[spoiler: Arby/Pietre convinces the group to trust him, and specifically Donaldson when he points out he could have "neutralised" him if he was still with the Network... he still sells Donaldsonout to them, to ensure the safety of his girlfriend and her daughter]].

* IHaveYourWife: The Network regularly gets what it wants out of people by threatening their loved ones, including Dugdale's wife and both Grant and Alice's mothers. [[spoiler:It happens to Dugdale ''again'' in Series 2, with The Network holding both Dugdale's wife and Alice in a cell at an undisclosed location, forcing him to cooperate with them. He manages to break them out, but is later betrayed by Wilson, who threatens to kill each of Dugdale's loved ones in a specific order unless he goes along with his new plan.]]

* INeverSaidItWasPoison: [[spoiler: Milner incriminates herself by revealing that she knows Ian is travelling with Becky in Series 2.]]

** Jessica is a generally unpleasant person. [[FreudianExcuse Though, with the life she had]], it's hardly a surprise. Donaldson, however has little excuse for being a dick.

* LackOfEmpathy: Pietre and Jessica, both of whom were experimented on as children by their father, grow up to be remorseless killers. [[spoiler:They both make progress by the end of Series 2]].

* LeaveNoWitnesses: The Network doesn't like loose ends, so they kill anyone who knows anything about them, even old members of their organisation, so that no-one can figure out what they're up to.

* LivingMacGuffin: It is eventually revealed that Carvel hid Janus inside his daughter, Jessica Hyde, and that finding the manuscript was only the secondary goal of the Network... and they knew Jessica was also searching for it.

* LoveMakesYouDumb: [[spoiler: Milner's love for Philip Carvel invokes this trope. He is forgiven by her for doing things (trying to leak Janus to the press on more than one occasion) that would have any other person killed by the Network. After Jessica is born, he's allowed to keep the baby. And when he reveals that his 'adjustment' to Janus nullifies the vaccine for Russian flu - meaning that 98% of humanity would be sterile and then die horribly and quickly, as opposed to the Network's original plan of 95% of humanity dying quietly over a generation or two - she ''still'' goes ahead with the plan.]]
* LoveMakesYouEvil: Anton [[spoiler:aka Philip Carvel]] believes this is often true.

* ManipulativeBastard: [[spoiler: After his death, Donaldson is revealed to have been one: when Becky turned to him after discovering she inherited a mysterious illness, he takes advantage of her by sleeping with her, giving her drugs and telling her it's an experimental treatment called Thoraxin, when really it's a mildly addictive opiate, slowly turning her into a drug addict, and sending her out to get info on The Network and its plans with the promise of more 'life-saving' drugs (at one point throwing the drugs into the lake knowing she'll come back to him), just so he could get blackmail the Network and get rich]].

** Jessica Hyde's bears a resemblance to "Jekyll and Hyde," foreshadowing her dual role of good and evil and of being the carrier of Janus, the genetic trigger named after the two-faced god. In-universe, it also references the fact that she's "hiding" from the Network.

** A few apparently referencing ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'': There's a little girl named Alice, a very important character named Milner (someone who makes hats, referencing the Mad Hatter) and a Mr. Rabbit (referencing the White Rabbit).

* MoodDissonance: The series combines bright colors, upbeat music, pastoral surroundings and gory murders.

** When Wilson returns to the group in Series 2 [[spoiler:working with the Network]], he freaks Ian and Becky out by attempting to kill [[spoiler:a SleeperAgent despite him still working at his cover job]], and his lashing out when they don't accept his ruthless pragmatism.

* OrphansPlotTrinket: The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acasta_Gneiss distinctive stones]] owned by Jessica, Arby and Milner all link them to Philip Carvel, aka Jessica and Pietre's father.

* PaintingTheMedium: The season 2 premiere is a WholeEpisodeFlashback set in the 1970s. To highlight this, the show assumes a 4:3 aspect ratio, and is made to appear as if it were shot with lower resolution cameras.

** Dugdale [[spoiler: beats up Geoff when he realises that the latter wants out of The Network, but won't cover his family, telling him he'll kill him if he threatens his family again]].

* PopUpTexting: In the first episode a group of characters have a conversation on the forum dedicated to a cult GraphicNovel called [[FictionalDocument The Utopia Experiments]]. Each line of text appears floating next to whoever the camera is focused on. If it is the person that is typing the message, it appears next to their head. At one point, a line text distorts as it passes behind a glass of wine.
* PragmaticVillainy: [[spoiler: Lee describes post-FaceHeelTurn Wilson as this: he can't take life unless he decides that he logically should for The Network's plan to work. For instance, he doesn't kill Lee, who tortured him previously, even while holding has a gun towards him, and the latter is holding a crowbar towards him, because he on some level recognises The Network needs him. Contrasted with Ian's brother and the two MI5 agents who captured him and know nothing of The Network but heard the sentence "Milner is Mr. Rabbit"; Wilson reasoned they can't be left alive and so brought himself to kill all three of them]].
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: [[spoiler:Wilson]] goes from trying to stop the Network, to begrudgingly admitting that they're right and [[FaceHeelTurn joining them]] while still being opposed to some of their more extreme actions, to carrying out murders himself when he believes them necessary, and finally [[spoiler:becoming the new leader of the conspiracy]].

** The group is initially composed of people who just happened to be in the online chatroom when Bejan made his announcement; an aspiring media studies grad student, an office IT worker, a ConspiracyTheorist and a delinquent child.

* RealEventFictionalCause: Donaldson discovered that the 2002-2003 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severe_acute_respiratory_syndrome SARS]] outbreak wasn't actually a viral epidemic, but rather a bunch of unconnected respiratory infections. The Network responded by disgracing and discrediting him so that no one would take him seriously. The Series 2 premiere devoted a major part of its running time to linking real world events to the series' backstory. For example, the assassination of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldo_Moro Aldo Moro]], the Conservative Party's victory in 1979, the murders of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sykes_(diplomat) Richard Sykes]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airey_Neave Airey Neave]], along with the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident Three Mile Island incident]] all happened due to the actions of the Network.
* RealNameAsAnAlias: Despite going to great lengths to ensure he can't be tracked online, Wilson still goes by the username "Wilson Wilson," precisely because it's such an implausible name to begin with.
* RedRightHand: Arby's obesity and chronic mouth-breathing give a creepy aspect to his character. Notably, [[spoiler:he loses weight and closes his mouth after doing his Heel Face Turn]].
* ResignationsNotAccepted: [[spoiler:Arby/Pietre]] is forced to come back to the Network, after his girlfriend and her daughter are subtly threatened by [[spoiler:Lee]].

* SensualSlavs: Dugdale is seduced by a Russian call girl so he can be blackmailed into joining the Network. It turns out that [[spoiler:she's actually British]].

** At the start of the second episode Jessica disarms Ian with the "the safety catch is on" trick, and immediately afterwards notes there's actually no safety catch. The specific model of gun used, Ruger [=P97DC=] indeed does not have a safety catch but a decocking lever which doubles as a safety.
** In s02e04, Marius rightly scolds Ian and Becky for mistaking the Roma people with the Romanian, and explains that those are two different things and that not all Roma people come from Romania.
* SleeperAgent: The Network has these across five continents, [[spoiler:who wait to recieve an order for them to move canisters containing Russian flu, release it, and after it's done, kill any relations they live with along with themselves]].

* SociopathicHero: Jessica Hyde, having narrowed down the identity of Mr Rabbit to one of fourteen people, suggests killing all of them just to be on the safe side. The others are all horrified by this. Granted, a lifetime of [[FreudianExcuse abuse]] and running from people trying to kill you is not the recipe for an empathetic, well-balanced individual and her ruthlessness is the main reason she's managed to survive for so long.
* SoundtrackDissonance: Much of the series' soundtrack is bouncy, almost comedic, samples and synth lines underlaid with a dark, almost dirge-like backbeat.

* StrappedToAnOperatingTable: What the Network scientist want to do to [[spoiler:Jessica Hyde]] when she refuses to talk.
* TakingUpTheMantle:[[spoiler:With Milner dead, Wilson becomes Mr. Rabbit]].
* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: One half of Janus is already present in foodstuffs due to genetic modifications in commercial corn.

* TimeshiftedActor: The series 2 premiere is a WholeEpisodeFlashback set in the 1970s. Milner, the Assistant, Jessica Hyde and Pietre are all portrayed by younger actors than they are in the present day.

** Lee. Specialising in EyeScream.

* TragicVillain: Arby the assassin, brainwashed and having had all the empathy beaten out of him by the Network, gradually comes to realise the error of his ways. The fact that he is unable to feel guilty over killing so many people upsets and confuses him, and he unwittingly reveals to Jessica during the cafe scene that [[IJustWantToBeNormal he just wants to be normal]].
* TrappedInVillainy: Dugdale is initially blackmailed into buying the vaccine through his relationship with a [[LawOfInverseFertility prostitute whom he's gotten pregnant]]. Once he rebels and finds out that the flu epidemic is fake, he is shown that his wife is being tailed and will be raped on command if he doesn't comply.

* VillainBall: Lee has one with [[GoodSmokingEvilSmoking smoking]]. The first time he tries to light up, he's standing next to an open gas main and nearly blows himself and Arby up. The second time, he gives away his position in a parked car to Grant when Arby opens the window to let the smoke out. The [[RuleOfThree third time]], he leaves Wilson tied to a chair to go out for a smoke; when he comes back [[spoiler:Wilson has freed himself and shoots Lee with his own gun]]. He seems to have learned his lesson by Series 2, as he is shown to have switched to an electronic cigarette.

* WildCard: Arby/Pietre, after he finds about what happened to him. It becomes more apparent in Series 2.

** Arby. It's difficult not to have some sympathy to his [[AmbiguousDisorder mental state]] once the reason behind it is revealed.
** Philip Carvel. [[spoiler:He was so traumatized by his experiences in the Holocaust (where his entire family was killed and he - a toddler at the time - survived by hiding himself in a mass grave for two days), that he modified Janus to ensure that only his fellow Roma would survive to carry on humanity.]]

** Mr. Omida from the flashback episode of the second season premiere. He'd been instructed to torture [[spoiler:Jessica]], who was four at the time, the same way he would torture her father. And then repeat the same thing, only this time with her in front of him!
** [[spoiler:Wilson tells Dugdale that he'll have his adoptive children Alice and Grant killed - along with his wife - if he steps out of line again.]]

* YouKilledMyFather: Alice takes her revenge for the death of her mother, and [[spoiler:Wilson also exacts vengeance on Lee for the death of his father.]]

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Wilson reacts to the InternalReveal that Grant is a preteen with incredulity, "You said that you drive a Porsche and live in a hotel shagging supermodels", to which Grant replies, "Yeah, I've got ambitions", which Wilson finds hilarious. [[ColdBloodedTorture Given what he'd recently been through]], he needed a good laugh.

* IllGirl: Becky, who's suffering from the same disease (Deels' Syndrome, which combines epilepsy and locked-in syndrome) that killed her father. [[spoiler: Subverted at the end of series two, with the revelation that she never had Deels' Syndrome, and the drug she was taking was an opiate concocted by Donaldson.]]

** Donaldson's dickishness is taken UpToEleven in the second series finale, where it's revealed that [[spoiler: the drugs he'd been giving Becky to manage her disease were nothing but a combination of heroin and caffeine.]]

** Also implied with Milner, whose son has Deels syndrome. ''If'' the person we see in her house is actually her son, anyway...

** Subverted with Donaldson, who was discredited by the Network with due to a scandal involving drugs and prostitutes, [[Slimeball which they didn't have to make up.]]

''Utopia'' is a British ScienceFiction ConspiracyThriller created by Dennis Kelly that ran for two seasons on Channel 4, with season one airing in early 2013 and season two in the summer of 2014. The story follows four unlikely companions - IT worker Ian, medical student Becky, troubled child Grant and the ever-paranoid Wilson. These four are brought together by an online forum who come into possession of an [[MacGuffin original manuscript]] for the long-awaited second volume of a graphic novel called The Utopia Experiments, written by a ReclusiveArtist in a mental asylum who [[DiedDuringProduction died before it could be published]]. However, when the fifth member of their group is murdered by a pair of brutal assassins, the rest find themselves on the run while trying to figure out what secret hidden in the manuscript could be so important and why the shadowy organisation known as the Network want to keep it under wraps.

The show is unique in the way it's presented and shot. Wide shots are common and almost ubiquitous, and many important details are shown out of focus forcing the viewer to scrutinize the background, much like [[ParanoiaFuel characters themselves]]. The show is also highly over-saturated which makes the already loud and bright colors (see page image) look almost neon, much like how an artist would illustriate a graphic novel.

->''"We all have a mission in life. This is yours."''

** At the start of the second episode Jessica disarms Ian with the "the safety catch is on" trick, and immediately afterwards notes there's actually no safety catch. The specific model of gun used, Ruger P97DC indeed does not have a safety catch but a decocking lever which doubles as a safety.

* ShownTheirWork: in s02e04, Marius rightly scolds Ian and Becky for mistaking the Roma people with the Romanian, and explains that those are two different things and that not all Roma people come from Romania.

--->'''Donaldson''': All I know was within the next few weeks I was embroiled in a sex scandal. Professor Pervert, addicted to coke and prostitutes.
--->'''Dugdale''': So they just set you up?
--->'''Donaldson''': [[ByNoIMeanYes Yeah. Well, no]]. *{{beat}}* I.. [[HookersAndBlow I do like cocaine and prostitutes]], but they didn't have to tell anyone.

-->'''Arby''': I need to do... the other one. There might be some noises.

-->'''Jessica''': I'm Jessica Hyde. Come with me or you'll all die.

-->'''Leah''': Newsprint. How very traditional.

-->'''Wilson''': Did you pricks give me heroin?
-->'''Ian''': We had to. For the pain.
-->'''Wilson''': Oh. Well, I hope it wasn't Afghan. Taliban have been altering it for years to make us infertile.

-->'''Becky''': "We're ''scary''. That's what we've become. We're just like them now."

-->'''Donaldson''': "All I know was within the next few weeks, I was embroiled in a sex scandal. 'Professor Pervert', addicted to coke and prostitutes."
-->'''Michael''': "So did they just set you up?"
-->'''Donaldson''': "Yeah. Well... no, I do like cocaine and prostitutes, but they didn't have to tell anyone."

-->'''Marius''': "That not ''Romanian''. That ''Romani''. Romani? Language of the Roma people? Gypsy people, yes? You racist bastards... you think all Roma is from Romania. Is not! Roma many places: Bulgaria, Poland, Spain. Romani different language, like Welsh to English. Do you speak fucking Welsh?"
-->'''Becky''': "[[YouKnowImBlackRight Yeah. I do, actually!]]"
-->'''Marius''': "Doesn't matter. You're still racist.
-->'''Becky''': "But he ''was'' speaking Romanian!"

--> '''Dugdale''': Don't do this, please! This is not you.

-->'''Lee''': Chilis. Sand. Bleach. A spoon.

--->'''Letts''': You accuse us of being genocidal? Not acting is genocide! Where do you think your food comes from, Ian? A third of the world's farmland is now useless due to soil degradation. Yet we keep producing more mouths to feed. And what's your answer to that? Energy-saving lightbulbs?

-->'''Wilson''': I mean, what he's saying... isn't that... right?

The cast includes Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Alexandra Roach, Oliver Woollford and Adeel Akhtar as the main quartet of Ian, Becky, Grant and Wilson; Fiona O'Shaughnessy as Jessica Hyde, Neil Maskell as Arby, Creator/PaulHiggins as Michael Dugdale, Alistair Petrie as Geoff Lawson, Geraldine James as MI5 agent Milner, Creator/StephenRea as Conran Letts and Creator/IanMcDiarmid as Anton.

The cast includes Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Alexandra Roach, Oliver Woollford and Adeel Akhtar as the main quartet of Ian, Becky, Grant and Wilson; Fiona O'Shaughnessy as Jessica Hyde, Neil Maskell as Arby, Creator/PaulHiggins as Michael Dugdale, Geraldine James as Agent Milner, Creator/StephenRea as Conran Letts and Creator/IanMcDiarmid as Anton.

''Utopia'' is a British ScienceFiction ConspiracyThriller created by Dennis Kelly and Marc Munden that ran for two seasons on Channel 4, with season one airing in early 2013 and season two in the summer of 2014. The story follows four unlikely companions - IT worker Ian, medical student Becky, troubled child Grant and the ever-paranoid Wilson. These four are brought together by an online forum who come into possession of an [[MacGuffin original manuscript]] for the long-awaited second volume of a graphic novel called The Utopia Experiments, written by a ReclusiveArtist in a mental asylum who [[DiedDuringProduction died before it could be published]]. However, when the fifth member of their group is murdered by a pair of brutal assassins, the rest find themselves on the run while trying to figure out what secret hidden in the manuscript could be so important and why the shadowy organisation known as the Network want to keep it under wraps.

''Utopia'' is a British ScienceFiction ConspiracyThriller that ran for two seasons on Channel 4, with season one airing in early 2013 and season two in the summer of 2014. The story follows four unlikely companions - IT worker Ian, medical student Becky, troubled child Grant and the ever-paranoid Wilson. These four are brought together by an online forum who come into possession of an [[MacGuffin original manuscript]] for the long-awaited second volume of a graphic novel called The Utopia Experiments, written by a ReclusiveArtist in a mental asylum who [[DiedDuringProduction died before it could be published]]. However, when the fifth member of their group is murdered by a pair of brutal assassins, the rest find themselves on the run while trying to figure out what secret hidden in the manuscript could be so important and why the shadowy organisation known as the Network want to keep it under wraps.

''Utopia'' is a British ScienceFiction ConspiracyThriller that ran for two seasons on Channel 4, with season one airing in early 2013 and season two in the summer of 2014. The story follows four unlikely companions - IT worker Ian, medical student Becky, troubled child Grant and the ever-paranoid Wilson. These four are brought together by an online forum who come into possession of an [[MacGuffin original manuscript]] for the long-awaited second volume of a graphic novel called Utopia, written by a ReclusiveArtist in a mental asylum who [[DiedDuringProduction died before it could be published]]. However, when the fifth member of their group is murdered by a pair of brutal assassins, the rest find themselves on the run while trying to figure out what secret hidden in the manuscript could be so important and why the shadowy organisation known as the Network want to keep it under wraps.

An [[Series/UtopiaUS American remake]] created by Gillian Flynn ran for a single season on Creator/PrimeVideo in 2020.

The cast includes Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Alexandra Roach, Oliver Woollford and Adeel Akhtar as the main trio of Ian, Becky, Grant and Wilson; Fiona O'Shaughnessy as Jessica Hyde, Neil Maskell as Arby, Creator/PaulHiggins as Michael Dugdale, Geraldine James as Agent Milner, Creator/StephenRea as Conran Letts and Creator/IanMcDiarmid as Anton.

''Utopia'' is a ScienceFiction ConspiracyThriller that ran for two seasons on Channel 4, with season one airing in early 2013 and season two in the summer of 2014. The story follows four unlikely companions - IT worker Ian, medical student Becky, troubled child Grant and the ever-paranoid Wilson. These four are brought together by an online forum who come into possession of an [[MacGuffin original manuscript]] for the long-awaited second volume of a graphic novel called Utopia, written by a ReclusiveArtist in a mental asylum who [[DiedDuringProduction died before it could be published]]. However, when the fifth member of their group is murdered by a pair of brutal assassins, the rest find themselves on the run while trying to figure out what secret hidden in the manuscript could be so important and why the shadowy organisation known as the Network want to keep it under wraps.

Due to the series' high volume of plot twists, spoilers up to Series 2, #1 are not hidden; scroll responsibly.

''Utopia'' is a ScienceFiction ConspiracyThriller that ran for two seasons on Channel 4 between 2013 and 2014. The action, set in the present day, follows four members of an online forum who come into posession of an [[MacGuffin original manuscript]] for the long-awaited second volume of a graphic novel, written by a ReclusiveArtist in a mental asylum who [[DiedDuringProduction died before it could be published]]. However, when the fifth member of their group is murdered by a pair of brutal assassins, the rest find themselves on the run while trying to figure out what secret hidden in the manuscript could be so important.

The show is unique in the way it's presented and shot. Wide shots are common and almost ubiquitous, and many important details are shown out of focus forcing the viewer to scrutinize the background, much like [[ParanoiaFuel characters themselves]]. The show is also over-saturated which makes the already loud and bright colors look almost neon, much like how an artist would illustriate a graphic novel.