Liverpool sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Jessica Brown Findlay, Harry Lloyd, Nina Sosanya, Joseph Morgan, Kylie Bunbury, Sen Mitsuii, Hannah John-Kamen, Sophie McIntosh, Matthew Aubrey, Ed Stoppard, Kate Fleetwood, Stuart Walker, Ann Akin, Sophia Naziris, Sally Kennington, Demi Moore, Naomi Yang, Lara Peake, Ian Whyte, Rich Hall.

At some point or another, we have all been taken in by the glossy appearance, the fresh paint job on a house and congratulated the owner on their upkeep, the marvellous effort they have put in, and not realising that underneath the exterior lays a house that is not what you’d expect if you walk through the hallway and poke around in the cupboards, the sense of decay is absolute, the unravelling of the Brave New World the owner hoped to have you believe as they presented the lively and bright offering, collapses around your feet as entropy continues its relentless march onwards.

It is to be argued that humanity cannot cope with the stark realisation of utopia, that the ultimate expression of society is in truth an anathema to our very existence; we may want to envision it, to believe it is possible, but we are creatures who revel in the dust, the memory of the past, of individuality has a far greater hold on us that the possibility of what be achieved if we allowed ourselves to be absorbed as one, as a society of no secrets, of accepting that everyone has a right to know what you are thinking as you are able to access their wants and desires at a whim.

Based on the superb, and in many ways more frightening than George Orwell’s vision of the future of 1984, Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World, what is placed on screen is perhaps a perfect analogy. Brave New World is a symbol, for the overreach of humanity’s efforts to paint over a house that inside is crumbling apart. For behind the glossy exterior in which the nine-part series is presented, the knowledge that all is not fully explained, that the feeling of sudden endings broken by the understanding of non-renewal, too much focus on one particular area which can leave a bad taste in the mouth, and the despair that the novel is not consulted to its maximum potential, leaves the house inside one where the owner did not take responsibility, did not use the money they spent, wisely.

It has to be said though that the saving grace of the series is down to the performance of the actors, the sense of battling against the odds keeping them on their toes, and in Harry Lloyd, Alden Ehrenreich, Jessica Brown Findlay, Nina Sosanya and Hannah John-Kamen, the exceptional melding of youth and the insidious belief of what New London stood for was at least capturing the spirit to which the audience would have expected.

Utopia or dystopia, it is easy to see which concept sells and is readily accepted with greater enthusiasm, and it could be argued that in any Brave New World that is offered to us, will surely be on the back of those who resisted giving away their individuality in return for a shiny, glossy appearance.  

Ian D. Hall