Little question:
Why does mainstream American TV refuse to run English-language comedy from England? I’m not going to say British comedy is the best in the world, or that no American comedy is good… though, of late, most anything I’ve seen that is funny has come out of Britain, not America.
I can’t deny the philistinery of mainstream American TV, and the unfortunate tendency of Hollywood to steal any plot concept and remake it (witness Solaris and Insomnia), but to be totally fair, NORTH America hasn’t been so barren recently: Trailer Park Boys, Corner Gas and the like aren’t a bad offering for a country with as few people as Canada has. And some Yanks might actually point out the existence of a parallel, but higher quality universe that exists on cable: Six Feet Under, Sex in the City, Desperate Housewives and the like. But yes, bring on the original Office in all of its glorious cringe-osity…
Oh, believe me, I’m not saying there’s nothing good in American (or North American) TV. I haven’t seen the Canadian shows you mention, though the Canadian show Regenesis is pretty interesting (so far, from the little I’ve managed to see).
I agree, Six Feet Under, Dead Like Me, Lost, 24, and other TV shows made by American teams interest me to no end. (Not sure I could say that of Sex in the City, and I’ve not seen Desperate Housewives, but I absolutely love Dead Like Meperhaps my favorite TV show of all timeas well as Lost and Six Feet Under.)
What’s philistine to me is the mangling of decent foreign shows into “Americanized” versions. What’s wrong with the original “The Office”? And how in the hell is it actually adaptable to American speech and culture? And why would such an adaptation be necessary? Certainly Americans can’t be so stupid that they can’t figure out the slang? It’s obvious, and when it’s not, there’s the Net. And it’s really not that hard to get accustomed to. (Another great British comedy was “Garth Marenghi’s ‘Darkplace'”, which I am sure will make you pee your pants laughing.
I didn’t know Insomnia was a ripoff of a Norwegian film, but it hardly surprises me.
The crossover that interested me was “Coupling”, which was a British take on “Friends”. Subsequently, a network in the US decided to make an American version of “Coupling”, which was so awful it was locked away, never to be seen again.
Hmmm. I’ve heard a lot about Coupling, but never seen itperhaps because I thought Friends was total manure. Did you like the British version of Coupling?
Coupling is comedy gold. Much, much better than Friends.