Life on Mars - U.S Version

[Rawrrrrrrr]

Nothing short of an assasination

 

What a truly terrible remake, anyone concerned in the production of it or the decision to let it be made should be incarcerated

 

Well and truly an hour wasted

[Heaven98]

Nothing short of an assasination

 

What a truly terrible remake, anyone concerned in the production of it or the decision to let it be made should be incarcerated

 

Well and truly an hour wasted

 

Damn - just saw it advertised today and thought "ooh I'll check that out." It's got Harvey Keitel in it as well who I quite like.

 

Probably won't bother now.

[Rawrrrrrrr]

Damn - just saw it advertised today and thought "ooh I'll check that out." It's got Harvey Keitel in it as well who I quite like.

 

Probably won't bother now.

 

 

It was the pilot I watched and the whole cast- except Sam Tyler - was changed after it to include Keitel

 

Tbh I can't see it making much difference, the problems lay in the writing and the americans not getting why the whole thing was good/humourous in the first place

 

Theres something a bit pointless about them beating everyone up when their backed up by a swat team:rolleyes:

[jamboinglasgow]

I think america has to shake this idea that a good foregin drama needs to be "americanised" i.e. filmed so that its set in america and has an american cast. It loses some of it shine. We dont do this to american shows, you cant imagine us getting the wire and deciding to film it in birmingham or six feet under set in a london funeral parlour.

[blondejamtart]

Why do they insist on doing this? Has there ever been an American "remake" of a British drama which has actually been an improvement on the original version?

[BlackJAC?]

The reason shows get rehashed for American viewers and we get non rehashed shows in return is purely because American sitcoms tend to be popular here in the UK regardless, whereas UK shows tend to flop more often than not.

 

Different lifestyle, different humour and so on, so it's understandable why shows are rehashed for the American audiences as they have to compete with many other networks. I'd be surprised if most Americans understood some of the little quirks and I doubt they would be able to relate to things like the cars, clothes, our housing schemes, the BBC test signal etc that were in the British version.

[Heaven98]

Very true. By and large, it's the cultural and nostalgia references that make us laugh/identify with something - like an in-joke. They can take the general premise over here but so often it's the thread of wee nuances throughout that make a UK program effective. They can't do that here - nuances are out! They're playing to such a massively diverse audience.

 

It's a bit like the cheese analogy - the reason mass market cheese is so rubbish here is that to sell across multiple states, you have to eradicate any semblance of originality and ensure that the stuff is bland enough not to offend anybody. Which is much like the majority of network TV.

[chewbacca]

I'd be surprised if most Americans understood some of the little quirks and I doubt they would be able to relate to things like the cars, clothes, our housing schemes, the BBC test signal etc that were in the British version.

 

 

Americans probably think Britain is still the way it was in the 60`s so ALL of the humour would be lost.

[wibble]

Very true. By and large, it's the cultural and nostalgia references that make us laugh/identify with something - like an in-joke. They can take the general premise over here but so often it's the thread of wee nuances throughout that make a UK program effective. They can't do that here - nuances are out! They're playing to such a massively diverse audience.

 

It's a bit like the cheese analogy - the reason mass market cheese is so rubbish here is that to sell across multiple states, you have to eradicate any semblance of originality and ensure that the stuff is bland enough not to offend anybody. Which is much like the majority of network TV.

 

The US show that I remember capturing the nostalgia, nuance thing was The Wonder Years (which was ace) and I suppose Forrest Gump was the ultimate U.S. nostalgia trip.

 

Trying to remake anything that has been great in a previous era or in another country is usually a BIG mistake.

 

The U.S. version of the Office was beyond cringeworthy.