Amazon Prime Video’s new thriller Utopia arrives with a topical pandemic storyline and a premise that centers on a conspiracy etched in the pages of a comic book. This isn’t a comic-book adaptation, however. Instead, it’s a reimagining of a British show of the same name that's taken quite a while to make its way to the small screen. Creator and writer Gillian Flynn, the bestselling author behind the novels Gone Girl and Sharp Objects, has been attached to the series since 2014 when it was originally set up at HBO.

Now that this version of Utopia is finally seeing the light of day, it's noteworthy that it contains many elements that are reminiscent of another Amazon series, The Boys, which also traffics in conspiracies and extreme violence, although it tempers them with a large helping of irreverence and glee. On the other hand, while Utopia includes moments of humor and quirk, the mysteries it introduces are often overshadowed by its excessive body count and a narrative that withholds too much information for too long.

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The series begins as the manuscript to a comic titled Utopia is found. The book is a follow-up to the previously released Dystopia and the fan following around that book is desperate to get their hands on the sequel. A group of friends who've been working to unravel the real-world conspiracy they believe exists in the pages of Dystopia is among the buyers who bid on the manuscript at a comic-book convention. This group, which includes skeptic Ian (Dan Byrd), terminally ill Becky (Ashleigh LaThrop), true believer Sam (Jessica Rothe), doomsday prepper Wilson Wilson (Desmin Borges) and clever homeless tween Grant (Javon “Wanna” Walton), think there will be clues hidden in Utopia that will point to upcoming pandemics, as Dystopia did, although they believe the comic's story is fictional. That is, until Jessica Hyde (Sasha Lane), the comic's main character shows up and rescues them from members of The Harvest, a shadowy organization that's out to kill them and anyone else who's laid eyes on Utopia.

Meanwhile, a disease that kills children is ripping through schools in cities across America. It seems to be tied to a meatless protein originated at Dr. Kevin Christie’s (John Cusack) company, leaving Christie and his advisors eager to push out a vaccine that’s already been developed by Dr. Michael Stearns (Rainn Wilson) for a strain of the virus he discovered years earlier. Yet there may be more to this emerging pandemic than meets the eye, and Utopia could be the key to figuring out what's really going on.

There are a number of intriguing storylines swirling in Utopia, but especially in the earliest episodes, it’s difficult to care about the larger conspiracy at work when the immediate danger the core group finds itself in is so overwhelming. And while Harvest assassin Arby (Christoper Denham) casually dispatches a shocking number of people in the first few episodes, Jessica Hyde is just as cavalier in her attitude towards human life, killing her allies as easily as her enemies. That's because this Jessica isn't the badass heroine the comic fans know, but a feral loner who’s been on the run for most of her life. This makes her not at all fun to spend time with both for the comic-book nerds she kind of, sort of rescues or the audience.

Meanwhile, even though Jessica is the star of Utopia, she knows shockingly little about the conspiracies she’s supposedly a major part of. This keeps the story moving as Jessica and the others track down clues to get to the heart of the mysterious plots they've found themselves involved in, yet it isn’t until deep into the season that the show provides more than a sketch of a backstory for Jessica and the depths of the conspiracy surrounding her. Up until then, viewers are supposed to care about Jessica and the conspiracy because the comic-book group cares about them, but it never quite translates.

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Then there’s the matter of the show’s pandemic, which simply hits a little too close to home right now. This is far from the series’ fault, given it was filmed before the coronavirus became the biggest story of 2020. Yet, now that news about a real virus is a constant part of our daily lives, it would be almost impossible to avoid viewing the show through the lens of this experience. So, although the show’s pandemic isn’t exactly like the one we’re dealing with in the real world, at the moment, it’s hard to be entertained by a plotline involving confusion and anguish around a deadly virus and questionable behind-the-scenes machinations to get a vaccine to the public.

As a result of these issues, it isn’t until the latter half of Utopia’s eight-episode first season that it really starts to come together. At that point, the characters and their relationships are sufficiently developed and enough revelations have been made that it becomes possible to actually start to invest in the story. Perhaps this will lead to a more fully realized second season, but in Season 1, Utopia often feels weighed down by a combination of unfortunate real-world parallels, skewed focus and poor pacing.

Created by Gillian Flynn, Utopia stars Dan Byrd, Ashleigh LaThrop, Jessica Rothe, Desmin Borges, Javon "Wanna" Walton, Sasha Lane, Farrah Mackenzie, Christopher Denham, Cory Michael Smith, John Cusack and Rainn Wilson. The series premieres on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, Sept. 25.

NEXT: Amazon's Utopia Gets New Trailer, September Premiere Date