British Telly

[wolf]

Can't decide if I actually like Murder in Paradise. It's too self-consciously quirky. And you can only do so many wool suit in the tropics jokes.

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[DanaC]

Yeah - I couldn't really get into that.


I'm a bit down on British TV at the moment, particularly drama.

[wolf]

Ripper Street? It has that fellow from MI5 in it ...

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[DanaC]

Oh, no, I adored Ripper Street. But what did the BBC do with Ripper Street? Cancelled after two series. Fortunately Amazon took it on and the bigger budget meant it was a much better show in the third series - and now they're making two more.

But - it's a few little gems in an otherwise fairly barren landscape right now. And when we do make a really cracking drama it tends to be very short run - Sherlock's awesome, but three episodes every 2-3 years is not enough. Utopia was fantastic - but it was cancelled after two series of six episodes.

I get into an American show and it's like it takes over my life for a few weeks while I immerse myself in 100+ episodes. Very few British drama or comedy series run to more than a handful of episodes a series - and those that do tend not to be that good - because they don't have the American writer's room culture to invigirate those longer series (there are a handful of exceptions to this - with Dr Who being the most obvious).

So, we end up with a few really awesome, quirky and creative shows that are highly compact. Great fun to watch but you can consume the entire product in a day.

Lot of great ideas - but not explored in anything like the scale or depth that American TV employs.

Nowadays, a lot of American drama is bringing all that creative quirk that comes from the creatrive freedom of cable tv and the auteur model (now spilling out into Network), but not limited to a total of 12 or 18 episodes across two or three years because that is also supported by a writer's room model and bigger budgets.






[eta] I should be clear that I'm not suggesting American TV is all Game of Thrones and True Detective - I know there is an awful lot of dross on the hundreds of available channels - but just looking at the good, original and well-made drama coming out of both the UK and the US - the balance has shifted noticeably over the past decade - and over the last three or four years drama production in the Uk seems to have fallen into a slump, to me.

[footfootfoot]

Dana, your complaints are exactly the thing I love about British TV; they don't milk an idea endlessly, recycling stale material, scraping the bottom of the barrel or padding out thin material to cover six episodes with content that would barely cover one.

I may be imagining it, but it doesn't seem like Brits have really embraced whoredom in TV like we have in the US

[wolf]

There was that script for script remake of Law & Order ...

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[DanaC]

Oh, no, you're imagining that. One of the reasons there is so little good, original drama and comedy is because of the onslaught of reality tv formats - that's how our TV whores paint their faces.

But even in drama - if a show has success, then there will be a slew of copies - fewer than in America, but that's because there is so little being made overall compared to America (obviously - there's a difference in scale). And a success from overseas will also set off a flurry - so we had loads of grim, besweatered scandi-style crime dramas. Some of them were decent - but for a little while it's like that's all anybody wanted to make.

There are some good shows. Every year there are some good shows. But they are so fleeting. Sure - those shorter runs tend to make for density and compression and that means much less filler - but the longer form runs allow for such depth of character arc in comparison. We do small and compact very well, but grandscale storytelling is a rarity. And I usually find, that even on the longer, network shows, whilst there are filler episodes, and sometimes runs of several episodes that are a very mixed bag - there is so much of it that you still end up with five times as much quality drama and storytelling. The collaborative nature of American writing means it doesn't get stale as fast as it might if it was one person trying to write at such length - and the willingness of the cable networks and newer production models to take risks means that some of the most adventurous and most innovative storytelling is coming our of the US.

Overall, I find I am less willing to commit to British drama - in much the same way as I rarely commit to standalone books these days - if I get into something, I want to be able to immerse myself in it. If I like a character, I want to see more of that character and delve deeper into who they are. I struggle with movies for the same reason.

I also am increidbly lazy in my viewing I think - I like genre tv and that's something the US does very well. I'm less inclined towards the drama of real life - which is what most Brit drama is concerned with.

[wolf]

I watch more British Mysteries than other Genres. And Downton Abbey.

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[Sundae]

I have to say I'm with Foot on this.

I'm certainly not denigrating American drama shows - there have been three I've "lived" as you say Dana.
But remember how you were saying one of the things you like is to immerse yourself in the show completely, watching lots of episodes at once?
The shows I really enjoyed (ftr Queer as Folk, Hannibal, The Walking Dead) I have been able to do that through the glory of dvd. Would I have watched them week in week out? Not. I'd have got tired of them being a part of my life, hanging around and expecting me to be home at a certain time, showing me their same faces. I wouldn't have forgiven them the odd bland episode, the downright weird one where the characters all suddenly behaved out of character, the plot points which meandered about rather than ever becoming a proper story arc. I don't need my drama to be realistic - I like precognition, even when it's not in a supernatural sense - I like defined cause and effect, I like spotting something coming a mile off and wondering whether I'm right.

But then I'm just not a fan of drama on TV anyway.
There always has to be an extra layer to it. So I guess I'm a fan of genre drama too. In my case it's usually humor - I think British TV often blurs the line between drama/ comedy (Misfits for example).

Then again I like some of the big reality shows.
Big Brother went to Channel 5 to die quietly, it's true. But I still love I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here... and Britain's Got Talent. I used to watch both with my parents every week. I miss them (and my parents )

[wolf]

The Midsomer Murders was good, if slowly paced, but I don't see how there was anyone left alive in such a small community after all the murders (similar to Murder She Wrote). I also didn't like the main actor change up.

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[footfootfoot]

Holy shit. I just watched the first episode of Catastrophe and I'm dying. Well, next door to dying. That is hilarious. Sadly, I only DL'd the first two episodes to test the waters.

I have to watch that again, the dialogue is brilliant.

And I'm a bit bummed at the 25 minute length.

[Happy Monkey]

I'm enjoying Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel. Good casting.

[BigV]

fuuuuuck.

first you tell me to watch Green Wing. I start it, trip the fuck out, and take a break. Now you're telling me I need to do the same with Catastrophe. OOOOOkkkkaaay.

Anyhow.

American tv is a many splendored thing. Mostly crap. Now, to be fair, I stream everything. Literally everything. I stream live the OTA broadcasts of the local channels, and I stream anything else via Netflix, HuluPlus, Crunchyroll, HBOGO, etc. MOSTLY because Fuck You Comcast. I fired them about ten years ago, and I've NEVER looked back with anything approaching a hint of nostalgia. Zip, Nada, Nothin.

Aaaaanywhooo.. I think there's a lot of great stuff out there, and plenty of dreck, but if I was twenty guys, and none of us had jobs or the need for food or toilet breaks, I couldn't watch a significant portion of what's *out there*. I know I can find something entertaining, something substantive, something worth watching without having Comcast sucking my wallet dry each month. My main problem is finding what's worth watching, not, how can I get updated on the most current episode so I can be part of the watercooler conversation.

As far as GB tv goes, I lurve Downton Abbey, via Netflix or PBS. Sherlock, of course. Luther, of course. Happy Valley, of course. I *KNOW* there are others, but I haven't been taking very good notes, sorry.

There is plenty of good stuff outside of British TV, but that's for another thread, right?

[Sundae]

Watch Catastrophe, V.
It's far more linear than Green Wing, so won't mess with your head as much.
But it's agreeably rude, sexy, sweary and straightforward funny.
One of those shows that makes you laugh and think.

Like a bouquet of barbed wire.

[footfootfoot]

Plus it's only six 25 English minute episodes, so that's like only an hour in American time.