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Offline asdf  
#1 Posted : 29 May 2009 08:39:26(UTC)
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What do you think of American shows if you are not American, and what do us Americans think of foreign television?

Personally my favorite American show of all time is Roseanne, strangely and I love Agatha Christies Poirot from England.
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Offline forkboy  
#2 Posted : 29 May 2009 09:01:28(UTC)
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There are good shows (Deadwood, The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, The Sopranos, Mad Men, Sons Of Anarchy, The West Wing, Curb Your Enthusiasm) & awful shows (some of your sitcoms. King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond, Big Bang Theory. I'm not a retard, I do not need a laughter track, it goes in all the wrong places and tends to be overbearing and horrendously irritating. Which is at least a part of why Curb is so good). American TV shows do seem to have a much higher budget than British shows, and they tend to be spectacular. I mean if you compare a revered American take on American politics, The West Wing with a recent British show on British politics like the fantastic The Thick Of It, The Thick of It is quite claustrophobic. Nearly all the scenes are essentially in one office, or the adjoining rooms. Over two whole series, focusing on about 5 people in that Department. Where as obviously The West is over a much larger scale. It's about the bloody President!

I think that American produces more good shows than anywhere else, but then I'm biased. Only the actually good shows tend to get picked up and shown in the UK. :)
Offline Gildermershina  
#3 Posted : 29 May 2009 09:08:33(UTC)
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Well, since the Sopranos and The West Wing, America has had about a million excellently written, acted and produced drama shows. Just off the top of my head, I've personally enjoyed The Sopranos, Deadwood, The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, House, Fringe, Monk, Heroes, and there's a whole bunch I'm yet to get around to. And that's not to mention comedy shows like Arrested Development, The Office (it being entirely different to the UK version), Curb Your Enthusiasm, Scrubs, Flight of the Conchords, South Park, Futurama, King of the Hill, etc.

The UK doesn't have the budget for the high-end drama, plus we only really do 6-8 episode runs compared to 22 or 24 in the US. Generally US shows have a writing staff, while here in the UK, it's usually just one or two guys. There's upsides and downsides to both, the big downside is that if you take the premier US sci-fi show at the moment, Lost, and compare it production-wise to the premier UK sci-fi show at the moment, Doctor Who, there's just no real comparison. Nobody's going to spend that much money on an adult-oriented drama series in this country because there's not a large enough audience. They spend the money on family shows like Doctor Who. Our drama series' are inevitably period costume adaptations or low budget police detective shows.
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Offline Aj  
#4 Posted : 29 May 2009 09:08:36(UTC)
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Whenever i watch an American channel its always really weird picture quality, or at least a different type. Do you guys use different cameras or something?
Buh otherwise i dont pay much attention. Is sky american? their dicks. oh and fox news are cunts, especially that old man that had a go at that guy when he cried about the trade centre. that guy i love tho, :L i know im making no sense but oh well. Whats his name? hes so cool.
Offline Gildermershina  
#5 Posted : 29 May 2009 09:14:07(UTC)
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NTSC is a different standard from PAL.

Sky is UK based, but owned by Rupert "Moneybags" Murdoch, who also owns Fox. As for the Fox News guy, are you talking about Bill O'Reilly?
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Offline Aj  
#6 Posted : 29 May 2009 09:22:42(UTC)
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Gildermershina wrote:
NTSC is a different standard from PAL.

Sky is UK based, but owned by Rupert "Moneybags" Murdoch, who also owns Fox. As for the Fox News guy, are you talking about Bill O'Reilly?



Hmmm, not sure. There all dicks though as far as ive seen :L

EDIT: JON STEWART! Thats the guy, hes funny

Edited by user 29 May 2009 09:24:33(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Offline Rincewind  
#7 Posted : 29 May 2009 09:42:50(UTC)
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god i love billo... so over the top and angry....
I hate it when people see me at the supermarket and they are like:
Hey, what are you doing here?
and im just like:
Oh you know, hunting elephants
Offline forkboy  
#8 Posted : 29 May 2009 09:49:54(UTC)
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Gildermershina wrote:
Well, since the Sopranos and The West Wing, America has had about a million excellently written, acted and produced drama shows. Just off the top of my head, I've personally enjoyed The Sopranos, Deadwood, The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, House, Fringe, Monk, Heroes, and there's a whole bunch I'm yet to get around to. And that's not to mention comedy shows like Arrested Development, The Office (it being entirely different to the UK version), Curb Your Enthusiasm, Scrubs, Flight of the Conchords, South Park, Futurama, King of the Hill, etc.

The UK doesn't have the budget for the high-end drama, plus we only really do 6-8 episode runs compared to 22 or 24 in the US. Generally US shows have a writing staff, while here in the UK, it's usually just one or two guys. There's upsides and downsides to both, the big downside is that if you take the premier US sci-fi show at the moment, Lost, and compare it production-wise to the premier UK sci-fi show at the moment, Doctor Who, there's just no real comparison. Nobody's going to spend that much money on an adult-oriented drama series in this country because there's not a large enough audience. They spend the money on family shows like Doctor Who. Our drama series' are inevitably period costume adaptations or low budget police detective shows.

I tend to think that we do low budget shows far better than the Americas though. But that's primarily because in the US if your show is low budget then you've been turned down by 18,000 channels already, where as here it's pretty much low budget or nothing. I'm also split on the 6 episode series against the longer US run. I like it from the perspective of watching stuff, especially on DVD. But on the flipside if you have a 6 episode show it's not likely to have any one episode significantly weaker than the rest. In a US season you are likely to have at least one or two episodes which just seem filler. I guess I prefer the HBO length, your 12-13 episode series. It's a good compromise.

I do think we can do low budget gritty drama shows rather well. Alot of them do end up being cop shows like Taggart, Cracker, Rebus or Life On Mars, but hey, they are still really good pieces of TV. And there is The Thick Of It which I think stands up as one of the finest British television shows of the last 5-10 years. The problem is that British television is really at a spectacular low point right now. In the past we had fantastic pieces of really good serious drama, 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' & 'Smiley's People', 'Edge Of Darkness', 'The Singing Detective', 'A Very British Coup' & 'Threads' all coming to mind as critically acclaimed examples from the 80s.

These days our television is dominated by populist swill that cares more about ratings than anything else which is frustrating because the BBC should be above that sort of nonsense. The BBC is paid for by license payers and so while still having some elements of light entertainment in the schedule to appeal to large segments of society, it should not be the case where serious drama is either dressed up in a 19th century costume or otherwise ignored in favour of soap operas, reality shows, decorating shows and other shows which are intellectually bereft. Why does ITV exist if not for that sort of thing? I'd even happily sacrifice sport from BBC TV if we got more in the way of serious new drama shows.
Offline asdf  
#9 Posted : 29 May 2009 09:57:45(UTC)
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Europe has some really poor shows but what I find in Poirot is while it has a some what low budget it still has the story power and the acting is good. Course the story is just good cause they are taken from books written over 60 years ago. Lol. Most of our sitcoms are bad but I like King of Queens and the Big Bang Theory is interesting on occasion. I never did care for The Office or 30 Rock, and the fact that King of the Hill has been canceled is absolutely insane.
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Offline Raphaela  
#10 Posted : 29 May 2009 10:29:21(UTC)
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Some shows are worth seeing and some don't deserve 1/5 of the budget they receive (reality shows mostly).
I don't watch much television and when I do I either watch Animal Planet or series like House, Weeds, American Dad, etc.
But it's much better than brazilian soap operas or the brazilian versions of reality shows like Big Brother, so it's pretty entertaining when I have nothing else to do.
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Offline Lepelbos  
#11 Posted : 29 May 2009 11:01:59(UTC)
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Oh My Big Brother. Im realy ashamed that's origanily an Endemol production from Holland. Its trash TV. Give my Seinfeld. I like Jerry.
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Offline vampirexkid  
#12 Posted : 29 May 2009 14:08:41(UTC)
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I think foreign shows are weird because they aren't American and I think American shows get dumber and dumber over the years. I hate reality shows, especially American Idol. Most of America's reality shows are stolen from other countries anyway. The only shows I usually watch consist mostly of cartoons or anime.
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Offline Rincewind  
#13 Posted : 29 May 2009 18:23:00(UTC)
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alas i don't watcvh television anymore.... But when i think about the shows i used to watch and enjoy, it was about half and half. Big American shows are always going to look better because of funding, however ive always found the writing and acting better over here. I also think we take more risks than the Americans when it comes to commisioning shows, for example the Office or being Human...
I hate it when people see me at the supermarket and they are like:
Hey, what are you doing here?
and im just like:
Oh you know, hunting elephants
Offline Gildermershina  
#14 Posted : 29 May 2009 20:41:59(UTC)
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If there's one thing the UK is particularly good at TV wise, it's comedy. Even panel shows like Mock the Week, Have I Got News For You, QI, etc. Can't really think of many of those from the US.

And sacrilegious as it may seem to internet liberals worldwide, I'm not THAT into Jon Stewart or Stephen Coal Bear.
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Offline Rincewind  
#15 Posted : 30 May 2009 01:50:27(UTC)
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who's line is it anyway, used to be very very good
I hate it when people see me at the supermarket and they are like:
Hey, what are you doing here?
and im just like:
Oh you know, hunting elephants
Offline Gildermershina  
#16 Posted : 30 May 2009 02:27:19(UTC)
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Yes it did, and that was literally imported from the UK.
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Offline TheCDs  
#17 Posted : 31 May 2009 15:53:22(UTC)
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I am kind of hit or miss on foreign TV, and by foreign I mean predominantly British as I can understand it for the most part. I really like some stuff like Monty Python's Flying Circus and Doctor Who (especially the most recent revival) but then at the same time shows like Coupling never got my attention. I also don't really like the short season (series is the term used in the UK I believe) when I like a show (such as with Scrubs) I want as much as I can get. With shows that are pretty much straight up copies of their UK counterparts such as Whose Line I prefer the American version simply because I get more of the jokes, "rogering the fishwife in the crumpet shop" just doesn't mean anything to me (5 points if you can name the show that line is from).

As far as budget goes, I don't think it really matters. I mean it matters as far as my expectations for a show's production values, but most of the time I don't think it affects quality all that much. I mean the most recent Doctor Who series is pretty fantastic in my opinion and it doesn't have near the budget of a show like Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The only factor is that I do like the fact that most American shows are now being shot in HD and with surround sound, whereas the budget on British shows usually necessitates SD and stereo sound.
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Offline mouj  
#18 Posted : 31 May 2009 16:55:42(UTC)
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Anything from HBO is good (The Wire, Madmen, The Sopranos) but the rest is pretty crap.
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Offline warningsound  
#19 Posted : 01 June 2009 09:44:59(UTC)
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House is a rather brilliant show. A couple of my other favorites are Dennis Leary's Rescue Me and a show not on anymore, The Shield. Another one i try not to miss is NCIS. I also still take a look at reruns of King of the Hill and JAG.

I miss my cheesy Filipino TV on occasion.
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Offline Instead of the Everyday  
#20 Posted : 01 June 2009 13:23:09(UTC)
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I absolutely love British comedies. And that's everything from Blackadder, to the Office, to Mr. Bean, to Coupling, to Monty Python, to Keeping up Apperances...

You call it a British comedy, I laugh heartily. It's always been like that. Something about British humor that just tickles my funny bone. As for American comedies, it's pretty much crap. There are a few gold ones, less so now than in recent years.. 30 Rock is about as dead on hilarious as you can get at the moment. HBO shows, as was mentioned are relatively brilliant. I never could get into The Wire though... it always seemed as though NOTHING EVER HAPPENED during any show. Just a lot of tense moments. I can recall a 3 or 4 episode span where this white guy was running for mayor. And he never actually RAN. They just kept TALKING about it. I got bored and moved on.

As for dramas, I don't really know a lot about foreign dramas. Reality TV I just don't watch, period.

And here in America, other than maybe a few soccer (football, what-have-you) matches, we don't really get much in the way of foriegn sports. Unless it's the olympics, then it's whoever's racing against Michael Phelps.

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