| Genre: | Drama Sci-Fi Music |
| Creator: | R.T. Thorne |
| Composer: | Nikhil Seetharam |
| Country: | Canada |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | |
| List Episodes: | List of Utopia Falls episodes |
| Location: | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Runtime: | 60 minutes |
Utopia Falls is a Canadian science fiction television series.[1] Created by R.T. Thorne with Joseph Mallozzi as showrunner,[2] the show premiered on the streaming service Hulu on February 14, 2020.
In the distant future, a colony of humans live in a city called New Babyl under a dome to protect them from the aftermath of a great war that killed all other life on Earth. The city is divided into four sectors—Progress, Industry, Nature, and Reform—and is ruled over by a governing authority known as the Tribunal.
A yearly performing arts contest called the Exemplar[3] is held for teens who have turned 16.[4] While competing, a group of the competitors discover an ancient archive hidden in the forest on the outskirts of New Babyl filled with forbidden historical, cultural and musical relics which forces them to question everything they have been taught.
Each sector in New Babyl has a distinctive coloured uniform that is a type of jumpsuit/overall. Progress citizens wear blue, Nature citizens wear green, Industry citizens wear Orange, and Reform citizens wear grey.
Principal photography for the first season began in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on March 1, 2019.[5]
Series creator R.T. Thorne says of the show:
Utopia Falls premiered on Hulu in the United States and CBC Gem in Canada on February 14, 2020, with all 10 episodes available to stream.[6] It is not yet known which overseas territories that do not have access to Hulu or CBC Gem will broadcast the show. The show premiered on South Korean channel AXN in July 2023.
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave season 1 an approval rating of 43%, with an average of 4.51/10 based on reviews from 14 critics.[7] Metacritic gave the series an average score of 39 out of 100, based on reviews from 5 critics.[8]
Tai Gooden of Nerdist compared the premise to that of the Hunger Games series and Divergent, and said: "it’s a musical sci-fi dystopian mystery/drama where kids try to dismantle a system through creative dance. It is both unlike anything on TV and exactly like a lot of what fans have seen before in terms of typical genre tropes.[9] Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter said: "think of Utopia Falls as a Child's First Guide to Dystopia and a Child's First Guide to Hip-Hop. It skews really young, really basic and really simplistic, but if you can accept how primitive and occasionally even amateurish it is, maybe you'll be able to fixate on the terrific soundtrack and promising young cast and ignore how many times you've seen basically this story delivered with vastly more polish.
Nicole Hill of Den of Geek wrote "Utopia Falls, Hulu’s latest TV series offering, has a premise straight out of young adult fiction. Every year, New Babyl hosts 'The Exemplar,' which sees twenty-four teenagers participate in a musical competition to win the title, and make history. It’s Divergent meets Step Up and how you feel about either or both of those franchises is probably a good barometer for how you will feel about Utopia Falls."[10] Joel Keller of Decider said: "Hulu is billing Utopia Falls as 'the first ever sci-fi hip-hop television series,' and it’s easy to see why such a thing hasn’t been created before. Sci-fi has been a generally white genre, and one that’s more concerned with drama than dancing, singing and rapping. That may sound like we’re being wiseasses, but nothing could be further from the truth; the idea that a sci-fi show could be made from a younger, more diverse perspective is a welcome change. But is Utopia Falls that show?"[11]