UK v US television 2001-present

Comparing these two because no other English-speaking country makes more than two shows a year.

Having sat through the first episode of Survivors and heard a critical breakdown of it on this, it's occurred to me that, for all the flashiness and wacky production values infusing British drama productions, they're not really doing very much anymore.

Survivors in particular isn't content to just let the fact that EVERYBODY IS DEAD be enough drama, it has to throw in more. Wossname's son being missing post-end-of-civilisation is plenty, but why does he have leukaemia as well? It's my understanding that the original didn't go overboard with added drama and conspiracy theories and an overblown soundtrack, and was more effective as a result.

Perhaps much of that is just the BBC trying to maximise licence fee payers' investment. That's well and good, but if it translates to channel controllers demanding shallow punch -- and I think it already has -- what you end up with is a procession of prefab pop in television form. Apart from Doctor Who, which I'm probably clinging to out of a deep-seated sense of loyalty, I'm not riveted or moved by any drama that comes out of the UK anymore.

American television drama is still 95% rubbish obv, but the stand-out productions are clever, measured, intelligent and frequently understated. This past season of Dexter was a bit naff, but the principle is magic: the hero is a serial killer. So much can be, and has been, done with that. I can't help thinking a British equivalent would be about an unlikeable bloke just killing the same types of people in the same circumstances for 3-4 years, with punchy production values and an orchestral/drum & bass soundtrack to keep the audience interested.

^ Stream-of-consh thoughts about drama before bed (not broached comedy/variety/soap/etc yet). Please flame me.

The answer's "American", quite clearly.

spooks is the only decent thing on uktv.

The number of UK TV shows that started post 2001 that I'd willingly sit down and watch is in the single figures.

us and uk tv: which is the wire, and which is the sopranos?

cosign xpost

There's a lot more talent over there

British comedy's losing its way, too. I want to rant about the unwelcome resurgence of catchphrase comedy but I also want to go to sleep.

And what little talent there is in the UK is spread too thin

UK = better in general
US = far better peaks

There's a lot more talent over there

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Tom D.), Thursday, December 18, 2008 11:09 PM (10 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

What in the '80s and '90s did the US produce that stood out? Off the top of my head I can't think of anything apart from Roots.

Various cop shows

Hill Street Blues, stuff like that (or was that 70s?)

What in the '80s and '90s did the US produce that stood out?

miami vice, nypd blue, e.r., x-files, homicide: life on the street, twin peaks, hill street blues and the like.

lots of sitcoms too obviously.

Yeah, the turnaround point is probably when Britain stopped knocking out quality sitcoms regularly, which would have been... mid 80s?

For a couple of years I was massively impressed by stuff like Hustle, but I realised that the shoestring-budget Australian productions are probably just as good when you strip away the gloss.

xxxp Miami Vice was pretty shallow, wasn't it? NYPD Blue I remember being okay. X Files was unique for a while but retained all the old cliches and threw them into a conspiratorial setting. Twin Peaks, yeah, definitely.

There's a strong element of subversiveness and convention-breaking in recent US output. I suppose that's what I'm getting at.

Freedom of choice. Give the public what they want. BBC "too elitist". All that shite. I blame Thatcher of course.

Um and yeah, the new US stuff doesn't require all the progressive camera angles and colour filters and wacky electronic soundtracks to engross people because it has substance.

The BBC spends far too much time apologising now. It's the new BBC, one in which everyone must pleased all of the time. The fact that that is impossible doesn't seem to have got through yet.

must be pleased

Oh yeah, and "We must make sure the younger demographic are watching telelvision and not doing something else"

TV Departments the UK seems to have an advantage over the US in:

Kids shows
(Live) Music
Soaps lol
Egomaniac-led Cookery
GRAPHICS

and maybe nature/wildlife (Attenborough etc.)?

british tv in the 80s was still decent -- even in 1989 you had 'traffik', 'elephant', and 'the firm'.

there's still good comedy like 'the thick of it' (8 eps i think of that?) but atm literally all i watch is charlie brooker and harry hill: two shows saying how rubbish everything is.

xpost

im not saying the 80s/90s us shows were all total classic material -- but they're the obvious precursors for lost, the wire, etc.

Torchwood vs Threshold

i'll say it again: "the thick of it" is the only post-2001 UK TV show I genuinely like

spooks is the only decent thing on uktv

funny, i think it's toss

When did the UK fall off? around 1985?

TV Departments the UK seems to have an advantage over the US in:

Kids shows
(Live) Music
Soaps lol
Egomaniac-led Cookery
GRAPHICS

and maybe nature/wildlife (Attenborough etc.)?

I never watch nature/wildlife shows, but I imagine they are good. Horizon is good - what is that, popular science? News and current affairs... for the moment anyway

thread needs cutty to rep for 00s UK comedy (Peep Show, NB, Boosh, IT Crowd, Human Remains, Gavin & Stacey, maybe that second series of Spaced...)

that ross kemp in iraq thing was quite good i guess

spooks *is* kind of toss but it's also addictive.

thread needs cutty to rep for 00s UK comedy (Peep Show, NB, Boosh, IT Crowd, Human Remains, Gavin & Stacey, maybe that second series of Spaced...)

― Timezilla vs Mechadistance (blueski), Thursday, December 18, 2008 1:20 PM (4 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

hmmmm

I have the weird feeling the best TV show the UK has produced this decade is Dragons' Den, which I'd hesitate to call "great" because it's effectively a reality show.

I intensely dislike that Jimmy McGovern strain of UK TV drama

cracker i liked.

I get the feeling that McGovern and Redmond actually helped cause more bad TV than good.

Like Reeves and Mortimer.

Clunky, overblown, worthy shite

...not Reeves and Mortimer

so basically when UK TV is slated it is done entirely on JUST drama, comedy and dramacomedy.

McGovern's The Street seemed v good. The Broadbent-centred one especially.

Top Gear has been my favourite UK show for the last 18 months or so.

World's Strongest Man ftw

so basically when UK TV is slated it is done entirely on JUST drama, comedy and dramacomedy.

― Timezilla vs Mechadistance (blueski), Thursday, December 18, 2008 1:25 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it's a fairly natural comparison because brits watch US drama, comedy, etc -- but not US sports, current affairs, soaps (as much).

Top Gear has been my favourite UK show for the last 18 months or so.

only saw once but it's the most reactionary shit ever, dnw.

they should get Gok Wan to host that instead of his vile crap xp

only saw once but it's the most reactionary shit ever, dnw.

there's nothing i enjoy more than watching a trio of curmudgeons winding each other up

dys

lemonparty.tv

Where is he now?

http://www.skeptics.org.uk/graphics/Derek_Ogilvie.jpg

lawl

xposts

I'm pretty sure there are oceans of utter shite that never gets exported from the US to here but as I don't watch it, I can only judge on what we do get.

Peaks of US TV >>>>>> Peaks of UK TV. I've still got the feeling the overall quality of US TV is lower but who cares about that?

Peaks of US TV >>>>>> Peaks of UK TV

Lost s3 finale isn't necessarily better than that Planet Earth with the dancing bird

poll

Planet Earth with the dancing bird

Rachel Stevens?

u mean the superb bird of paradise

best shit ever tbh

yes, Lisa Snowdon

The Street was really good, Spooks is on a ridiculous downwards trajectory and has been since the original core cast all left, Hustle is a load of old cock.

Apart from Peep Show and bits of Doctor Who/Torchwood (really!), I am genuinely struggling to think of proper good British comedy or drama (agree that nature docs on the BBC are brilliant). All this shite where they spend a fuckload of money on hiring Robson Green/Sarah Lancashire/Tamsin Outhwaite/David Tennant/James Nesbitt or whoever, then forget to leave any money over to pay a scriptwriter is the worst thing ever. And even Peep Show is losing its way a bit.

spooks is the only decent thing on uktv.

― special guest stars mark bronson, Thursday, 18 December 2008 12:07 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Spooks is on a ridiculous downwards trajectory and has been since the original core cast all left

not even! it used to be really lame librul-bbc shit about militant vegans and the like. now it's openly about the russians and iranians teaming up to kill us all. the last season but one where it was all about the iranians was particularly good, but otoh i like the new guy lucas more than rupert penry-jones (if that is his real name), and with this last season they'd finally got rid of all the dead wood characters.

lol

good 00s US comedy apart from The Office: AAW?

30 rock

Curb
Lucky Louie
Chappelle's Show
Everybody Hates Chris
The Boondocks
Family Guy
Malcolm in the Middle

That's just off the top of my dome

arrested development

My Name Is Earl?

My Name Is Earl
Entourage, if that counts

arrested development
entourage
wonder showzen
chappelle's show
xxxxp

re Spooks, the bigger overarching plots are better, but it's too emo, too soap-opera-like, and FFS they defused a bomb by putting it in the fucking microwave, also too many moles and traitors and people coming back from the dead and shit.

I agree that Armitage is better than Penry-Jones though.

I have the weird feeling the best TV show the UK has produced this decade is Dragons' Den, which I'd hesitate to call "great" because it's effectively a reality show.

The Dragons' Den credits suggest that it's an imported format, so I wouldn't have thought it counted anyway.

The first series of Life on Mars was pretty good as British telly goes, but like so many things, it was stretched out so thin you could see right through it, especially with the invention of the god-awful Ashes to Ashes.

You guys need to bring "Eerie, Indiana back", I loved that show.

― ^likes fat girls (The stickman from the hilarious 'xkcd' comics), Friday, 19 December 2008 14:15 (31 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

no one willing to rep for mighty boosh, my new best friend, 15 storeys high, or snuff box?

I discovered the hard way that Eerie, Indiana is one of those things better remembered than rewatched.

(still probably better than most shows made now that are aimed at that demographic, I guess; but I don't watch them on TV any more)

15 Storeys High = overlooked gem?

how i met your mother should be repped in american comedy as well imo.

repping for boosh and mother

i like some of these shows but hate others. Arrested is the only one i really love. still not seen 30 Rock (!) and never heard of Lucky Louie or The Boondocks (are they on Paramount? i kinda miss cable)

is Entourage actually that funny? i can watch it but it's not particularly lolsome is it? i mean like more than Gilmore Girls or whatever.

i liked light-hearted US stuff more in the first half of this decade (Scrubs, Ed, Popular).

all of these shows are costlier, longer, more writers...so maybe it follows that they'd be funnier? but i'm not sure most of them are as funny as the UK shows i listed above - the level there seems roughly the same.

i know i'm alone on this, but...
http://pplibraryreviews.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/studio60.jpg
pour one out...

(okay the last few eps were bad, but...)

eh, dramacoms...

aw blueski, <3 ed

you get just as many jokey bits in CSI really

all of these shows are costlier, longer, more writers...so maybe it follows that they'd be funnier?

I don't find many of them all that funny either, more clever than funny for the most part

studio 60 was fuckin wack.

stevem -- 30 rock is on channel 5. they're repeated series one from next week i think.

I got so bored with Studio 60, and I'm a big Sorkin fan. Matthew Perry & Steven Weber were the best things about it by several very long streets, Bradley Whitford was nigh on unwatchable by the time he hooked up with Jordan.

all of these shows are costlier, longer, more writers

this is a big factor. the Peter Serafinowicz highlights show on last weekend made it seem a lot better (like best sketch-based show since Big Train) because it was condensed and super-fast (so fast they had to add canned laughter in case people got too confused) but stretched out to just 6 30 minute episodes he came off lacking. effectively the same thing happens with many of these US shows running to 24 episodes.

still, so not stoked for the new Rab C Nesbitt and Royle Family shows this lousy Xmas...

If the trailer is the best bit of the Royle Family, it will be beyond shit.

you're still gonna watch it tho

I would put the worst Nicole Richie fake reality bullshit show against whatever the fuck the Mighty Boosh is any day

not sure what that means but if you're hating on the mighty boosh then i'm with you.

Curb
Lucky Louie
Chappelle's Show
Everybody Hates Chris
The Boondocks
Family Guy
Malcolm in the Middle

That's just off the top of my dome

― ^likes fat girls (The stickman from the hilarious 'xkcd' comics), Friday, December 19, 2008 9:33 AM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I have no idea if this is a serious post or not, but Lucky Louie is all kinds of awesome

I will watch The Royle Family, yes, and I hope to be pleasantly surprised.

xposts

Royle Family is back?? omg awesome.