PM/TOPSECRET: James Nasium

Utopia SPOILER HEAVY POST - do not read if you have not seen all of series one, and episode one of series two.

Children. And this is the thing I find most fascinating (morbidly, though) about the narrative, and also most troubling about the series itself.

How ironic that the central subtext of the series - the ruination of childhood, through abuse, neglect, exposure to cruelty, medical experimentation, outright violence etc etc - should be thrown into sharp relief by the ethical hoops the producers must have jumped through to ensure the wellbeing of their child actors. Because they've really put some kids through the wringer - made them act in some horrible scenes (the little girl seeing her Mum get shot in the head by a supposedly friendly copper, the kids in the school - particularly the one Arby almost has a moment of clarity over) and exposed them to, and actually use, some very bad language: Grant particularly.

And, Children II: How. The. Fuck. Did they get the little boy that played toddler Pietre to do those scenes with the rabbit? That kid was dead behind the eyes. Dead. That kid was acting Neil Maskel acting Arby, and that kid was 18 months old. Two words: Im. Possible.

It's almost as if they found the child actor first, and got Neil Maskel to watch him saying "this is how we want you to play Arby," but that's impossible, because that little boy wasn't even born when series one was shot.

Posted By: Arizona Bay on August 5th 2014 at 19:26:35

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