Fox cancels *Utopia*, effective immediately
I haven't posted anything about Fox's Utopia reality series, and its well-meaning poly representative Dedeker Winston, since the first few episodes. Because I haven't been able to bring myself to watch it, and nobody said there was anything Poly-in-the-News-worthy. It was an intriguing concept killed by cynical casting and seemingly deliberate network stupidity. At a reported expense to Fox of $50 million.
Read at TV.com, Fox Cancels Utopia, Effective Immediately (Nov. 2, 2014). Further details from The Wrap (Nov. 2).
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| Attempting to jump the shark, and failing. |
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3 Comments:
I never watched a single episode. Thanks for letting me know I didn't miss anything.
Nothing's more enlightened than hating something you didn't see, then posting about its cancellation simply to reinforce an uninformed opinion post.
For anyone interested in what the show actually was about, I will let you know since I watched every episode. Unlike a lot of "competition based" reality shows, Utopia was largely about the challenges of living together, working through differences, and finding forgiveness.
Additionally, Dedeker was by far the best representative of polyamory I've ever seen on TV or in any documentary. She is centered, calm, wise, and loving...and I was proud to see her represent polyamory to those who were new to the idea.
I was disappointed to see the show end, but not surprised since it wasn't exploitative as more successful reality shows. I was curious to see how the relationship between Dedeker and the poly beekeeper she met would unfold. Oh well...hopefully there will be more poly in the mainstream soon...despite egotistical attempts by this blog to sabotage poly participation due to pre-judging shows.
Anonymous,
I did watch the first four hours of the series, and that's what turned me right off. From the first scene with the crates in the barn, the producers had clearly set everything up -- from the outside -- to create drama and fights for the cameras. The first night we got a drunk idiot abusing and scaring women, a stereotyped New Age ditz-head for the audience to laugh at, a stereotyped hillbilly getting in fights every 10 minutes and smashing things when he didn't get his way, and so on. It got no better before I quit. Maybe it did later, but by then most of the audience had quit too, which is why it got cancelled.
People who build *real* attempts at intentional communities -- I've seen them, some quite successful over the years -- get to plan their own structure and setup among themselves, choose their own people, and *self-govern.* Rather than be governed by a producer's cynical casting and arbitrary rules designed only to make drama for the cameras.
Fox built a cage, put incompatible species of monkeys into it, and shook the cage for us to watch.
I hear the Dutch version was not so blatantly cynical, and it has lasted into its second season now.
I'm glad to hear that Dedeker represented poly well. We only saw a little of her in the first first few episodes (except when she went skinny-dipping, then they showed us a lot), and in this little time she seemed like the sanest of the bunch. Which is probably why the cameras mostly ignored her (when clothed) before I quit.
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