There’s been a trend lately of bringing British TV shows to our airwaves … revamped and Americanized. The Office, Life on Mars, Being Human and about a gazillion others.
Now, the news has broken that Denis Leary is bringing Sirens to USA Network, a humorous British series about young paramedics. On the one hand, it seems like something right up Leary’s alley and he’ll probably do it justice. But are we overdoing the whole re-imagining thing? The CliqueClack team sounded off about British TV remakes … and I interject with [].
Ivey: I could care less if born out of it is a good show about paramedics. Trauma was a vastly underrated show, and if what Leary brings is half as good, I’m on board.
Brett: It’s not just a UK thing. It’s a ‘Jesus tits, are you out of fucking ideas?’ thing. From time to time, there is reason to re-imagine something. Battlestar Galactica is a good example. It was certainly based on the original, but it was its own unique, and very different, show. But those attempts really need to be given special consideration. And lately, it seems like the bar for getting a green light is set far too low.
The other thing Battlestar had going for it that many of the recent, UK or not, remakes didn’t was age. I think back to NBC’s short-lived Coupling attempt. The original series was still making new episodes. Why did we need another version? Of course, TV isn’t alone in this. It’s a problem plaguing movies as well. A remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo? It’s only been two years! And good grief, Superman and Spider-Man are both being rebooted again?
Ultimately, the biggest disappointment from the remake-palooza is the lost opportunity. How many good original shows have never seen the light of day because programming executives were too busy bringing us new versions of Bionic Woman, Life On Mars, Skins, Eleventh Hour, V, Knight Rider, Kath & Kim, Fawlty Towers, Cracker, Men Behaving Badly, etc., etc.?
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go totally ignore the ridiculous Charlie’s Angels reboot. [A good call; I only lasted ten minutes until I wanted Farrah Faucet and friends back.]
Ivey: How does your last paragraph integrate to your opinion that popular/good shows get ratings no matter who they’re up against … Does the same theorem not apply to pilot pickups?
Brett: No, it doesn’t apply, because all of the networks have proven that they will green light really bad shows. For example, Viva Laughlin was never going to get ratings, no matter what it was or wasn’t up against. [I was the one person who rather enjoyed Viva Laughlin.]
Ivey: So if only the networks had you?
Brett: Good lord no. I’d be horrible at picking shows because my tastes are bizarre in comparison to the general television viewing audience, and I am regularly boggled by what it is they choose to watch, or not watch. [Maybe bizarre, but this man got me to watch Supernatural and I’m soon to be checking out Republic of Doyle based on his recommendation.]
Keith: I’m just purely guessing here, but it could be that remakes/re-imaginings are easier to get a green light for, since the creator can simply point to the success of the foreign version as proof it would work. Obviously it’s not always proving to pan out.
Michael: I agree with Keith. And it is a good guess.
There’s a precedent set that can be pointed at. “Hey, it’ll work!” So it makes things a bit easier. “We’ll put our own spin on it for the local market and it’ll be terrific!” is how that particular marketing meeting could go.
Chuck: There was a lot of talk about the US Being Human running concurrently with the UK version and, so far, that has turned out pretty well. It’s all in the execution. Not everyone who might watch a US version of a show would watch (or even know about) a UK version, you know, because they talk funny. That’s the main reason a UK show gets the US treatment … because the mentality is that Americans are too stupid to watch and understand a “foreign” TV show because of the accents (that’s why the original Mad Max was dubbed into “American” from it’s original Australian — its original language track as since been restored). So, blame this mentality that (a) people are too stupid to understand Brit accents and (b) there are a ton of people in the US who won’t watch a show because of the Brit accents. [Sadly, I’m thinking about Keith right now who won’t watch Shakespearian movies with me because he’s convinced they are in another language … and I think that’s why he likes the American version of Being Human better than the BBC one. …]
OK, readers — do you have anything to add about the re-imaginings of all things British, or simply all things unoriginal?
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Jun 27, 2011 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
I think American networks should just pay the British some money so we get more than 5 episodes a year of the British shows. :)
We forgot to even mention Shameless.
Deb, I’m with you right up until you reference Farrah Fawcett in bringing up the OG Charlie’s Angels. Everyone knows that Kris (Cheryl Ladd) was far and away the best angel.
*POST AUTHOR*
HA! I referenced FF b/c I thought she was the most famous Angel, but if I had to pick a favorite it would be Jaquelyn Smith.
I am with Brett on the whole “are you out of ideas” thing. Seems like Hollywood and the entertainment industry in general just can’t seem to think up anything new. This includes movies for me. Sure there have been some shining moments of brilliance but if they can’t think of anything new to make, maybe it is time turn of the TV and take up knitting for this girl.
it’s not just TV that is out of ideas … I mean they are making a movie of the board game Battleship …
as for TV … shows like V … they completely misunderstood the premise of the original show and made a plodding farcical copy of it … I would think that there would have been a fantastic number of allegorical stories that could have been told through an alien invasion … but instead we got a show that pretty much sucked until the last episode
Like so many of you I’ve complained about the constant stream of reboots, remakes and reimaginings, but after finally watching the first two episodes of “Falling Skies” my daughter said something I’d like to see happen. She said, “This show sort of reminds me of ‘Survivors.’ I wish that was still on.”
A couple of years ago we had a chance to marathon watch the original ’70s version and then enjoyed the hell out of the short-lived remake from 2008. I don’t know what it was about that series, either version, that made us like them so much. I guess it was just finding interest in how one would survive in a world even more devoid of people than the one in “Falling Skies.”
It was interesting, didn’t need any real science-fiction elements (like aliens) to create drama, humans do enough of that on their own, and it felt real. We were so sad to hear the BBC decided not to give the remake more than 12 episodes. One would think with so few people to cast and really no special effects that the show would be fairly cheap to produce, but hey, I/we always fall in love with the losing shows!
Anyway, if I *had* to pick one British series to be remade in the US I’d pick “Survivors” hands down.