General Television Thread 2023

[K]

I would be incredibly surprised to find it better than the UK version. Just an incredibly warm and funny television series. I'll check out the US one though

[Colly]

I've watched about half a dozen episodes of the US one and it is good, but the cast and crew of the UK version are so good now that it's ridiculous that they aren't far more famous and stupidly stinking rich. Just a perfect family sitcom and people don't make many of those these days.

[K]

1 hour ago, Colly said:

I've watched about half a dozen episodes of the US one and it is good, but the cast and crew of the UK version are so good now that it's ridiculous that they aren't far more famous and stupidly stinking rich. Just a perfect family sitcom and people don't make many of those these days.

Really looking forward to seeing Mike on taskmaster

[Lint]

16 hours ago, K said:

I would be incredibly surprised to find it better than the UK version. Just an incredibly warm and funny television series. I'll check out the US one though

 

15 hours ago, Colly said:

I've watched about half a dozen episodes of the US one and it is good, but the cast and crew of the UK version are so good now that it's ridiculous that they aren't far more famous and stupidly stinking rich. Just a perfect family sitcom and people don't make many of those these days.

One of the channels I watch on YT briefly talked about Ghosts.

The one guy said while he does really like the US version, he thinks the UK version is better

[Lineker]

UK versions are always better.

[Colly]

I think that's basically just because originals tend to be better than remakes unless there's a good reason to remake (modern audiences, language factor etc), any US remake of a sitcom tends to just tread over old ground but not as well. The obvious exception is The Office, but then the first series of that fell into all the same traps until it did it's own thing, and Ghosts does that to a certain extent from what I've seen so far. Are there any examples of an attempted UK remake of a US sitcom, or are we just accustomed to watching US TV?

It feels like it's happening less and less now, with US audiences able to cope with UK perspectives and actors (Veep, What We Do in the Shadows etc) as long as there's broad shite like Big Bang Theory along with it...

[Hobo]

1 hour ago, Colly said:

Are there any examples of an attempted UK remake of a US sitcom, or are we just accustomed to watching US TV?

A few but I don't think many were successful.

The only ones I actually remember are In With The Flynns which was a remake of Grounded for Life and the UK version of That 70s Show. I definitely watched the latter. It wasn't good.

But there were also remakes of Mad About You (Loved By You), The Golden Girls (The Brighton Belles), Who's The Boss (The Upper Hand which ran for 7 series) and Married ... With Children (Married for Life).

[Moses Julep]

TIL there is a UK version of That 70s Show and I am morbidly interested in seeing it. 

[Hobo]

33 minutes ago, Moses Julep said:

TIL there is a UK version of That 70s Show and I am morbidly interested in seeing it. 

It was called Days Like These. I think it was a pretty straightforward adaptation of the show from what I remember.

Thats always an interesting thing to look at. I remember an watching early episodes of Cosby, which was based on One Foot In The Grave. They did the minding a pet turtle bit but the turtle winds up getting burnt alive in a pile of leaves.

Of course on Cosby the turtle survived. Whereas it did not in the original

 

[Moses Julep]

3 minutes ago, Hobo said:

It was called Days Like These. I think it was a pretty straightforward adaptation of the show from what I remember.

Thats always an interesting thing to look at. I remember an watching early episodes of Cosby, which was based on One Foot In The Grave. They did the minding a pet turtle bit but the turtle winds up getting burnt alive in a pile of leaves.

Of course on Cosby the turtle survived. Whereas it did not in the original

 

I was mostly hoping it was grim and grey and kinda bleak leading to the rise of Maggie Thatcher.

[Ruki]

Just started season 2 of Miracle Workers, really liked season 1. Is it a completely different story/characters with the same cast? Because I am very confused so far!

[K]

I looked up some UK versions of American shows and there's an english spin off of sesame street called The Furchester Hotel.

With 104 episodes it might be one of the most successful non-quiz show UK remakes.

[Hobo]

28 minutes ago, K said:

I looked up some UK versions of American shows and there's an english spin off of sesame street called The Furchester Hotel.

With 104 episodes it might be one of the most successful non-quiz show UK remakes.

the show that brought us Cookie Monster's cousin The Biscuit Monster.

[GoGo Yubari]

2 hours ago, Kazuma KiRuki said:

Just started season 2 of Miracle Workers, really liked season 1. Is it a completely different story/characters with the same cast? Because I am very confused so far!

Yeah, it's an anthology show. They just keep changing the setting each season.

[Ruki]

Just now, GoGo Yubari said:

Yeah, it's an anthology show. They just keep changing the setting each season.

On the third episode, loving it so far! I think I am going to dig these different settings. 

[Colly]

4 hours ago, K said:

I looked up some UK versions of American shows and there's an english spin off of sesame street called The Furchester Hotel.

With 104 episodes it might be one of the most successful non-quiz show UK remakes.

It's fucking brilliant. There's our winner right there.

[livid]

Succession is back! 

And it was awesome. 

[Benji]

On the one hand, I'm incredibly thankful for the CW for giving Legends of Tomorrow 7 seasons and letting it grow and develop into one of the most fun sci-fi series that doesn't take itself seriously in the vein of Farscape among others, especially when most places wouldn't even have given it more than one. On the other hand, fuck the CW for cancelling Legends of Tomorrow right before we properly got Booster fucking Gold played by Donald Faison.

[GoGo Yubari]

Congratulations to Yellowjackets S2E1 for having what will almost certainly be the funniest needle drop in television in 2023.

Spoiler

CUT MY LIFE INTO PIECES

THIS IS MY LAST RESORT

 

[The Buscher]

Just a general Ted Lasso observation from something that happened in episode 2 of this new season, and just one of those things where I really appreciate the writing over the course of the series.

Spoiler

In a scene early in season 1, Roy Kent tells writer Trent Crimm "you're a colossal prick and you always have been".  It's the only time they interact in the entire series until season 3.

In a scene from season 2 where Kent is a pundit asked to give his thoughts on a debuting 17-year old prospect, Kent gets super emotional and basically dismisses the entire pundit job, saying it's bullshit that they have to try to sit there and predict what a kid is going to do and judge them when they're not out there with them.

Now you get to the current season, Kent and Crimm are forced into interacting with each other, and Kent reveals that he's kept a newspaper clipping from when he debuted at 17 and Crimm wrote a scathing piece on how shit his debut game was.  So in one moment they explained why Kent hated him and why he got choked up about young players being criticized.

Brilliant.