Utopia: Episode 1- "Series Premiere, Part One" Review

Utopia: Episode 1- "Series Premiere, Part One"

*Disclaimer*
I would just like to note that I will be giving my opinions on the series not my opinions on the cast personally. I write to review shows, not to review people, their personalities or their personal lives.

Let me start by saying that I am probably the target demographic for this show. I'm in my mid-twenties, watch (during Sept-May) easily 20-30 hours of TV a week, and am a loving fan of reality TV in general. I watch pretty much any kind of reality TV that is out there, excluding any reality dating series (The Bachelor/The Bacherlorette) which just don't interest me. 

The concept for this TV series is simple. The cast of 15 men and women from all over the United States are isolated together from the rest of the world and need to create a society and figure out how to survive. They will be filmed 24 hours a day for a year. Again, I am no stranger to reality TV and have been a faithful viewer for many many years. I can clearly see that the people they cast for the show were all cast specifically. They are going to pick the people with the loudest opinions and beliefs, not just the average person. Being introduced to the characters by their personal promo videos this was made evident. One person is a vegetarian and the next one hunts animals for sport. One is a pastor and the other is a criminal who doesn't believe in Jesus. It's all just a set up. If you were to pick average people this would turn out a completely different way but it wouldn't make for very good TV.

There are several things that I had a problem with during the first episode which I only made it 75% of the way through before I gave up and turned it off.
1) There is going to be 2 episodes aired a week for a year. That is a LOT of TV hours for any show and quite a big commitment on the part of the viewer.
2) These people volunteering to live isolated and create a new society are really getting nothing out of it, except for maybe personal growth. They do not win any money or job opportunities.  
3) Us the viewers really get nothing out of it. Why are we supposed to care if they create a new society or not? I don't care if they can figure out how to get power working in order to use a cell phone. I don't care who get's along and who's constantly fighting. I don't care how they live off the land in order to produce their own food. In short, I don't care. There are no competitions for us to watch and there is no ultimate winner. 
4) They claim that there are "no laws or rules" but lets be honest, they are still on US land and US laws would still apply.

In my opinion no matter what type of people they cast it will never deliver the same results as if something happened to the world and we really needed to create a society of our own. If for whatever reason the world were to come to an end with little survivors left, it would be different. There really WOULDN'T be laws because there would be nobody to enforce them, they would have to find their own food, learn to develop a society but most importantly, they would know that they don't have a choice. These cast members can choose to go back home to their regular world comforts any time they would like. But in a real survival situation, they don't have that choice. They would be forced to work together in order to survive and their common goals would be the same. They want to live. 

This is in fact not the first American reality TV show to isolate people and have them create their own society. Back in 2007 on CBS there was a reality show called Kid Nation. There were 40 kids, ranging in age from 8-15. They lived in a fake town for 3 months and had to figure out how to survive and create their own society. Even though this series only had the one season, it was much superior to this one. The kids worked in teams, had challenges and all children received $5,000 for their participation as well as "Gold Stars" which were awarded to outstanding participates as decided by the elected Town Council. The "Gold Stars" were valued at $20,000 and $50,000 and were to be used for further education. Any time I have the choice to watch a show with children or watch the same show with adults, I always pick the children (Masterchef I don't watch but Masterchef Junior I love). While adults are set in their ways and their beliefs, you can see children change and grow. Even though they may have grown up one way, they are still adaptable enough to change and to consider that their way isn't the only way. 

If this show had aired during the summer, with only one episode a week and only lasted until September, I would have continued with it for lack of something better to watch. However when you are airing TV shows in prime time (Sept-May), they better be ranked high on my list because with 20-30 hours mostly booked up, shows that are only mediocre, don't stand a chance. 

Not only will it be competing with prime time shows but it's also going up against sports seasons throughout the year. Typically, viewers like me have short attention spans which is why most reality shows are only 3 months. I fully believe that this show will be cancelled before the year experiment is up. Actually, I would be surprised if the series makes it to January. If you are looking for a show that demonstrates isolated people trying to create a society, live without rules and work together to survive, I'd highly recommend Walking Dead. If however you are looking for a show where people are constantly disagreeing with each other and flipping out for no reason, I'd recommend Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

Grade: D+

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