leaving utopia

I admit it - I have an addiction. I actually do schedule my life around BB. So a year ago when my family started planning a family reunion and there was some debate between mid- and late-September, I lobbied hard for late. I didn't tell them why, but it was completely because I was sure BB would be over by then. As it turned out, this season was pretty much "over" in August, but that's beside the point. Anyway, I wasn't counting on Utopia. So last weekend, I packed up for my trip and tore myself away from the feeds for about 4 days. I had my phone, my iPad, and a laptop (plus Internet access everywhere I went!) and I did check in at least once a day, but it wasn't quite the same. I was reading tweets, but not posting hardly at all. I was reading recaps, but seeing almost nothing first-hand. It gave me an interesting perspective. It took me more than a full day to even re-engage after getting home. It was sort of like being a TVOV--do you really care about the minutiae of these people's lives if you don't see them every day?

My little trip away from Utopia also coincided with the first vote-off. So I missed the drama of the UTs voting, and whatever nonsense led to Red volunteering to break the tie and go up instead of Bri. Bri was, of course, the viewers choice. Just imagine if the tie-break had gone the other way. I'm convinced Aaron was the viewers second choice, though we'll never know. In any case, I'm pretty sure it wasn't Red. Most likely Bri would be gone now. But in the end, it seems Red wanted to leave. He's been threatening to go since early on, though he'd definitely reached "boy who cried wolf" status, and none of us were taking his threats seriously. I think he really was just holding on until the first eviction. He's a character for sure, but he really didn't want to spend a whole year away from his family and fighting with all these people. In the end, Red's just not one for communal living.

Just before my trip, another major event occurred in Utopia, but this one was an arrival: the birth of baby calf Ca$h. I was so thrilled it happened not only before I left town, but since I had the day off from work (I was supposed to be cleaning my house and packing) I got to see it all play out. It was so cute and fun. But a lot of feeders went batshit crazy, screaming about how the UTs were doing everything wrong. How dare they separate the baby from the mother? (Never mind the vets had recommended this.) Why are people going back inside and not helping with the cows? (Never mind that Red had taken charge, and told most of them to back off.) Why is Mike talking about eating the placenta? (Okay, I have no counter point for that one. Yuck.) And this all led to the chorus of "I'm not watching anymore! I'm canceling my feeds!"

My reaction to that is always, "okay, but why are you yelling at me about it?" I hear it every season during BB. People threatening to stop watching because they don't like something that's going on. I really don't care. I respect their right to make that choice, but I never get why they tell me about it ("me" in the broad sense, being everyone who is still watching). Are they trying to convince the rest of us to stop watching too? Do they want us to beg them to stay? I had to laugh because just like with Red's repeated threats, one person who tweeted me that they were "canceling right now" tweeted me the exact same thing a week a later.

Unfortunately, it does seem like the TV viewers are leaving Utopia in droves. While the twitter traffic has steadily increased, the ratings are beyond horrible. It doesn't help that Utopia is down to one night a week in the timeslot of death, Fridays at 8PM. And they're going to get pre-empted at least a week for baseball. If Fox really wants to save this show, they need a major campaign during the baseball hiatus to draw viewers in. They also need to do something about the disastrous parts of the cast.

Right now there's about a third of the cast that actually seems to want to build a community, a third that are just obnoxious douche-bags out for self-gain and self-promotion, and the other third follows along with whatever is easiest. The other thing I've recently realized is that the 3 biggest bullies have a disproportionate amount of power in Utopia. Aaron controls the food, Mike controls the money, and Kristen controls the computer and the business aspects of Utopia. If they could be taken out of those roles, even if they were still in Utopia things would be much better. It's starting to happen a little after they were caught abusing the computer access by deleting emails sent to Nikki. It was made clear that their email activity is being monitored, and that behavior won't be tolerated by production. At the same time Kristen lost access to the website.

Over the next few days we'll get an idea of the direction things are heading. They have to choose between the Newtopians: the relatively useless (unless you need big boobs) Katie, whom the bullies want to keep, and Cal, whom I'm convinced is a production plant. Cal has actual real world experience in communal living, was part of the Utopia test cast, and has shown some clear signs of wanting to steer things in a direction of change. I say he's a "production plant" just meaning that I think he's the one production wants to get in there because he will be good for the show. I don't mean they're controlling him. I also think this might be just what the show needs.

In other news, Rob's fiancée Jess came to visit. The UTs have been talking since early on about Rob and Jess getting married in Utopia. So it was no surprise (to me) when he suggested this to her, she readily agreed, and he asked the others to support it. It's technically a "rule violation" to have a family member return for a second visit, but production wants this to happen so they're allowing it. This again sent many on Twitter into a tailspin screaming about how this was all for ratings and clearly production knew about it. Well, duh.

I was legitimately shocked by the reactions of some people. Did they think "no production interference" meant "no production involvement"? It's still a TV show, still produced, and still all about ratings. Of course they knew about the wedding idea, and of course they encouraged it. Just like they know that if Amanda has her baby in Utopia that will be a draw. This is also why I won't be surprised in the least if they bring in PBJ to perform the ceremony. Which, by the way, is next week - just in time to make TV before the World Series hiatus.

Hopefully Utopia can survive all this. There were some who tried it and found it wasn't for them, and the gates are always open for them to leave. But I still think there are those who would be happy in Utopia who just haven't come inside yet.