I was watching doctor who last night and thought it was ok but then I thought how much better would it be if someone like Fox or Universal done it and it would have huge explosions, massive special effects and a massive budget to go with it. When I watch british tv it's always more talking and story and it's really slow paced and terrible but when the americans do something it's really blockbuster type like the x-files was, that's finished now but even then it was way ahead of anything we have in the country now. Law and order in America has cars blowing up and people getting shot at and stuff but in this country it's all boring talking. I wish our tv would get budgets and special effects like american tv then I might start watching it more.
Id say 90% of my favourite shows are American Homeland 24 Game of Thrones Etc etc We are really good at comedy panel and chat shows but not a lot else. We pay a licence fee to bbc, bar motd I cant name a single programme I watch on it. Bbc2? Couldnt name you a show on that channel. Hate the soaps, they are all garbage.
Budgets are better over there, simple as that. It's also a struggle when filmmakers over here want to do something and Ray Winston is pushed upon them time and time again. We have lost our touch, simple as that. The talent is there but the money is not. Worth pointing out that the last SFX/editing/sound/whatever oscar winner was Gravity, done by Framestore. Framestore are a three minute walk from Oxford Street, London. Law and order, is ****ing **** bad example.
We were right guessing you being 12, weren't we? Americans have the attention span of a gnat, just like children. So they put lots of action scenes in to keep the kids hooked. And the shows they actually do well are the cerebral ones for intelligent viewers not the CGI ones for the kids. House. M*A*S*H CSI The original series with William Peterson. The Big Bang Theory. Even the big budget series like the Star Trek franchises had very few special effects. as part of the story.
Yeah but have you also noticed how the picture looks crisper, when you compare programmes from different countries the american pictures look crisper and brighter whereas ours look gloomy and not as good. Is that because the americans have the budget to use better equipment?
Many British shows go over there, eg the Office, Inbetweeners, Men Behaving Badly etc that our dimwitted cousins do very badly indeed.
There are some cracking American shows, with Game of Thrones right at the top of the list of my current favourites. However, I just don't like American comedy and can't think of a single one that I have liked..
There's a few Canadian Comedies I liked, Trailer Park Boys and the Tom Green Show. But the only American comedy i like is Family Guy and American Dad, and those are written by the same bloke. the rest are ****e.
I think we make some really good multi part dramas, "The Driver" on at the moment on BBC, "Happy Valley", "The Fall", anything with John Simm, etc. The yanks do seem to do better for the long running series.
A friend of mine who is a muslim is staying with us watching brit tv for the first time ever did ask a question about star trek the other day ,he noticed the captain was an american,the mechanic was a scot ,another crew member was black another was asian and so on ,he asked why there was not a muslim on board and i had to say the programme was set in the future. i didnt know tbh
Corrie Emmerdale Casualty Holby The yanks don't and can't do that Game of Thrones is pprobably the best TV I've seen recently, want to watch Breaking Bad when I have time as I'm told it's class Some of the stuff they produce is drivel though, sat through all episodes of 100 and wouldn't be surprised if series 2 doesn't appear. Recorded them and uses FF a lot though. Anybody watch Carnivale about 9 or 10 years ago, made by HBO I thought it was excellent and they ended with the lead in to the next series (3 I think) but it didn't happen. Really enjoyed that one The only American comedy I sometimes watch is Big Bang
Most of the good American shows are from the cable networks, Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad etc all have big budgets. I only watch about 2-3 on regular tv. Many new shows start in the autumn, often they're terrible and only last a couple of episodes before they are pulled. Don't agree totally on the comedy Modern Family is very funny. Hardly see any British comedies on TV over here, which ones are worth looking out for?
I agree that American drama is better than British, not because it has more explosions though. I thought Luther was very good for the first two seasons at least but I don't watch any soaps or reality TV so a lot of British stuff passes my by. Especially compared to the likes of Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Banshee, True Detective, Sopranos. If it was a boxing match it'd be called off in the first round.
