I don't know who to trust. I don't know what to believe.
Arby breaks my heart and I agree with Letts.

I always said that under this veneer of bleeding heart liberal I was a a raging right wing Telegrapgh reader. Turns out I am also a genocidal maniac. Kill them all and let history sort them out.

Wilson Wilson bled for nothing.

Foots, I remember Stephen King writing something about the difference between broadcast signals here and in the US. We have more lines? Makes our pictures clearer although not as bright? Bandwidth or frames per second or something. That was years ago though. Oh, it may have been Bill Bryson. No, I don't know what I'm talking about :rolleyes:

All I can say is the show is beautifully shot. I expect the lighting team/ DOP to be up for awards for this. It's cinematic.

Years ago, when tv was analog, the UK had higher resolution than the US. It was a better picture.

But I don't know what the deal is now.

Yes you do

Europes PAL = 576 lines, 25 frames per second
Americas NTSC = 525 lines, 30 fps
France SECAM = 625 lines, 25 fps (Frogs, always gotta be different)

Thus NTSC, less resolution but smoother motion than PAL

But it doesn't matter any more because:

Modern HDTV = 1080 lines, 1920 long, 60 fps

And BTW, the next big thing to spend money on will be:

Ultra High Definition (4K) = 2160 lines, 3840 long

Save your shekels for when content is available in this format. You will have to replace all your stuff again.

The lighting and colour palettes for utopia are very distinct. They've used them well to create atmosphere and also pick out certain themes. The use of yellow rapeseed crops on a long shot feels like a kind of scene cue, almost like something out of the graphic novel at the centre of it all.

I havent seen the latest ep yet. Looking forward to it, but also putting it off a little, because there's only two left to the end.

latest meaning 4 or 5?

Some of the scenes have what looks like something called 'cross-processing' a look that originated from film days at first an accidental thing, then it became a 'look.' Other scenes have perfectly normal color. Often those differences can imply fantasy and reality. I'll have to watch them over to look at the show more analytically. I'm too into the storyline right now.


btw, have you seen Wild Palms?

Thanks ba. I'm always wary of things I know I am simply parroting..
It does remind me of When Will There Be Some Good News bookcover, I admit. And yes, more subtle than M Night Shyamalan, but the themes are there. Not giving away any plot points (because they're not involved) but there are two absolutely stunning shots in this ep, in terms of position and lighting. TV as artwork..
Shekels, consider them saved. I haven't bought a new TV since I was married. Which was in the Land of Long Ago. Of all the things I may waste my money on, electrics are not one.

Still, I guess this means there's no point in sending Foots a DVD of Utopia as a Secret Santa gift, right? I'll buy one for Dani then. And watch any extras before I send it [snicker]

ETA I do think of The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover when I watch Utopia. Maybe it's the Mirren connection (pink hair is all.)
Don't know about Dani, but I've never heard of Wild Palms. I watch primarily British TV simply because it's trailed during the programmes I already watch. They're smart about knowing what tickles their audience's fancy.

Am off to research.

Let's not be too hasty. I do have a region free DVD player...

But would a DVD produced here look as purty on your tv??
Still, it's on my possibles list...

Wild Palms was brilliant. I can definitely see how Utopia might put you in mind of that.

Early 90s, iirc. seemed so futuristic at the time... aside from the hologram tv characters in and around your living room it wasn't that far off :P

I own Wild Palms on VHS! Do I win a cookie? I also have a copy of the screenplay in book format with various tidbits of creator commentary, including scenes the network cut because they were too creepy even for Wild Palms.

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Too creepy for WP? I must know.

Spoiler:

Remember the young soldier son who is implied to have died, but they never really explain it, the mom just starts sobbing? In the script they have a scene with him buried up to his neck out in the desert, eaten alive by ants. There were others, but that's the one I remember most vividly. Of course by today's standards it would be no big thing... I'm comparing it to, say, that one drug dealer's severd head on the tortoise's back in Breaking Bad.

I guess there were still a few shreds of innocence remaining in the late 80s or early 90s.