I admit: I bit. The premise of a group of 15 people from all walks of life living together for a year on mostly undeveloped land does sound intriguing. But after watching the entire two hour premiere of Fox’s new reality series Utopia ($50 million in the making) I have to say I’m done. I watched it so you don’t have to.

It might have worked in the hands of say, BBC America, which could have brought together thought leaders, resourceful professionals and hopeful innocents. But Fox populated its Utopia with exactly what you might expect of American reality TV: a group of ex-cons, nudists, flower children, exotic dancers, red necks, doomsday preppers and other incendiary characters, with an attorney and a preacher thrown in for “diversity.” There might be three college degrees between all of them, and the oldest, I think, is 44.  Most are also attractive, in some way, although even the most comely female looks raggedy when she strips down to her bikini bottoms and wears the tatty, flesh-colored bandage around her middle to hold her microphone on. Not to mention how it takes you out of the moment.

Most of them proceed to fight, shuck their clothes, get drunk and hook up in less than 24-hours of arriving. Surprisingly enough, there is no prize involved — just the opportunity to start over. But participation could get you invaluable fame — some believe it’s a small price to pay for leaving your loved ones behind for an entire year. (Who does that?) The preacher has good intentions of spreading the gospel, but I’ll be surprised if he lasts too long in what feels like a latter day Gomorrah.

Hosting and making inane comments throughout is a awkward-looking guy with glasses, fedora, vest and mustache. I suppose no introduction is necessary, because we get none, but a little research shows us that he is Dan Piraro, creator of the cartoon Bizarro. He looks and feels so out of place that I couldn’t help but wonder if this is some sort of inside hipster joke that I’m just too old to get. Maybe that’s why I have a problem with the whole show. I’m either too old to ‘get’ it, or it’s just bad, manipulated, contrived TV. What do you think?