Utopia Waterfall Update: Hunger Games meets Glee on Hulu & # 39; s cast dystopia

Over the past decade, many fans of science fiction have experienced at least some degree of teen-dystopian-series fatigue. After the Silanne Collins & # 39; Hunger Games trilogy took over the world, movies and shows about young people on the far side of the apocalyptic event began to grow everywhere. There were some great fairy tales (The CW & # 39; s The 100) and some very large ones ( Tired trilogy), but also the best ones accumulated until he made fans question the new addition to the appendix.

Hulu's dystopian-future series The waterfalls of Utopia was already facing an uphill battle with fans of science fiction, before introduced the second half of the show: young people who are legally controlled in the opposition government have rediscovered ancient hip-hop, and then use music and dance to rebel. It sounds serious, but by explicitly integrating other youth shows and movies, creators have used point-blank betting. The waterfalls of Utopia looks designed to quickly draw fans, or turn it off during the first episode.

On top of that, the storyline looks silly. But really, what better ways can you use to question the current situation than hip-hop and science fiction? When hip-hop first appeared, it almost attracted frustrated artists who wanted to give an anti-social perspective on the illness they were experiencing. And science fiction is often a form of forethought, a way of thinking about new ways of life, and of the dangers that humans might face if the path of destruction continued.

Created by Canadian filmmaker R.T. Thorne again It's a dark story and Stargate Producer Joseph Mallozzi, The waterfalls of Utopia set in a futuristic city called the new Babylon, about 400 years later. The city is divided into two, Panel either Different style, in four sections: Industry, Progress, Environment, and Change. The people of these sectors are, respectively, city builders, thinkers, investors, and (presumably) agitators. Most of the citizens in the Reform are there to free themselves from the past through restorative justice – except for transgender children, sent to the Reformation and their families, and have to stay there until the committee decides their last days after their 18th birthday, or their parents are redeemed, or what comes first. But some Sectors are dedicated to keeping the city running.

Most of the new population of Babylon is headed by Chancellor Diara (Alexandra Castillo) and other members of the Tribunal, and is protected and managed by an attacking police force led by villainous Authority Phydra (Kate Drummond). The city is meant to represent a bright future. The idea is that the ancient people let their differences cause them to be destroyed, and the city's founder, Gaia, built the New Babylon as a new human element. Both a literal and figurative pillar – protected from the outside world by an army stadium, and completely eradicated from human history. The trivial stories of the struggles that the ancients suffered are used to explain how the current government keeps many people in line and uses deceit to make them afraid to go out of their way of life.

New Babylon children are expected to complete their careers in the field, but they are also expected to be trained in the arts, with the purpose of being selected for The Sample, an entertainment competition in which 16-year-olds enter the race to become the ambassador of New Babylon culture. Given that New Babel has been removed worldwide (and could be the only city in existence), that name makes no sense. But since most people do nothing but meet their criteria and vote for the winner of the Model, the race looks like fun to keep people happy.

All children are vocalists, dancers, and musicians. No other forms of art are encouraged, and the means by which they are allowed to be strictly regulated. Voices sing "classic" pop songs approved by the Tribunal. The dancers perform a kind of mix of modern dance and ballet, not as avant-garde as modern dance, but full of twists, pirouettes, and slippery arm movements. They are all accompanied by musicians, who seem to be in control of playing the piano.

Photo: Brooke Palmer / Hulu

This year's nominees for the show include Aliyah (Robyn Alomar), the dancer of her father's Progress Sector; her friend and potential love interest, Tempo (Robbie Graham-Kuntz); Sage (Devyn Nekoda), a quiet dancer from the Nature field; Temple's friend Apollo (Phillip Lewitski), an artist from the Industry; Brooklyn (Humberly González), an expert craftsman / industrial dancer who comes by jumping into the program in an effort to make his uniform donated; and vocalist Bohdi (Akiel Julien) and singer / dancer Mags (Mickeey Nyugen), two friends from the wrong Reform category, are shocked that they're both allowed to compete.

The dance of the first group of directors brings out the limits of the city's art with a clear sense. When they first arrived at the Model Training Center, they were full of stakes and pale. The singers, accompanied by the musicians, produced a beautiful cover but without the blood Alessia Cara's "Wild Things." On a professional level, dance is strong, too. High jerseys, clean pirouettes, movement is flooded and flowing. But it's intense and forgettable, and the head of the model, Mentor Watts (Huse Madhavji), dismisses the performance separately.

Then, during a one-on-one tour, the backdrop takes a shot of Aliyah and Bohdi where they find a strange thing: buried in a forest near the Sbonelo training center and a secret cave full of ancient art and literature. Soon, they discovered that it also had a cleverly run library system known as The Archive (portrayed, in a humorous throwback, by Snoop Dogg) that retains information about the ancients, especially focusing on the long-lost art and music.

Aliyah and Bohdi were almost immediately exposed to hip-hop. As an avid Reform resident, Bohdi specializes in messages of frustration and rebellion in the & # 39; 80s and 90s of East Coast hip-hop, and begins curating verses from Mos Def (“Mathematics”), Nas (“Hate Me Now”) and her favorite artist, The Not Bad B.I.G. (“The Sky Is the End”) in his works. As Archive's information gets colored in their exemplary categories, alarm bells are suggested to the Tribunal and authorities. City leadership celebrates diversity (this seems to be a world where apartheid and homosexuality no longer exist), but they regard any human speech as "controversial" and do little harm.

Photo: Amanda Matlovich / Hulu

It's exciting and fun to watch young players discover how to succeed and excel. At first, they are enthusiastic, but they are difficult and complex. They are not sure how to express themselves comfortably, without sweeping, the great motives they have been taught. The movement is as foreign to them as to music. But as they grew more confident about the material (and learned the classical dance techniques from the Archive), they began to incorporate other elements of hip-hop dance into their systems, including composition, waterfalls, and décor.

Dance in between The waterfalls of Utopia it is fun and well done (especially with the high tempo power, the Sobatic solos and the Sage & # 39; s fluamenco fashion performance), but the accompanying performance is nothing short of spectacular. They take a back seat to the piece. For most of episode 10, the characters don't seem to fully invest in the winner of the Model competition. They are not fighting to get a big solo, or they worry that all of their dance performances will be ruined if they fail to catch the company director's attention during the big show. Instead, they risk everything that comes in contact with the past stolen from them.

At first glance, The waterfalls of Utopia it looks like a run-of-the-teen teen show, with actors attractive enough to be on the CW, and a mix of mainstream stuff from The Hunger Games, Tired, Glee, as well as a cult-classic ballet movie Center Category. But the mysteries that unfold in the first season give the story its flesh and its origin. When teenagers deviate from the Tribunal's methods, they face immediate consequences. Their so-called peaceful city exposes its hypocrisy and oppression, and the government is free of powerful tactics.

The waterfalls of Utopia& # 39; Teens can be made heartbreaking, and the story occasionally comes up with the right details on where to get into the story. It is not yet clear, for example, why children would be busy in the Reform field, even if their perpetrators died. And if the strategy is not enough to win the Model competition, how can players expect to use “air” in their tracks, when any form of self-expression is affected and blamed?

The waterfalls of Utopia actually trying to tell multiple stories at the same time. It asks how people can learn from their history while removing all cultural differences, and has taken centuries of human life into a matter of awareness in the name of peace and prosperity. There is a triangle of teenage love, a mysterious cartoon behind the scenes, a government conspiracy, and a television dance competition, all happening at the same time.

None of this will work if The waterfalls of Utopia The band has misunderstood how much it is asking their audience to suspend disbelief. But as it is, the show takes on itself enough to be fun. It's done and normal, but for fans of hip-hop mythology and science – for people who still find themselves drawn to this familiar kind of backward throwing, even after a decade of overuse – it's worth a second look.

All episodes of The waterfalls of Utopia season 1 are available on Hulu now.