"The British are coming!"
It was one of those things that just made me go "What?".
I had pulled up alongside a bus shelter and saw a poster advertising "Life on Mars - New series - starts Feb 5". Wow! Great! A new series of "Life on Mars".
But hold on - something wasn't right. The "new series" was starring Jason O'Mara and Harvey Keitel - not John Simm and Philip Glenister. And the "new series" was to be on Channel Ten, not on the ABC. And then I looked and saw that the "coppers" had NYPD on their uniforms...
What had happened? Had I been hit by a car and woken up to a world which was strangely familiar and yet just that little bit different? Had someone stepped on a butterfly 30 million years ago on the other side of the world?
My wife was rather more blasé about the whole thing. "They're just copying the British again."
What is it with the US and the Brits when it comes to film and TV? It is so common to find British actors in US made films - but a whole lot rarer to find US actors in British films. Is that because the Americans love the British and the British don't have much time for the Americans? Is this some new sort of cultural colonisation going on between the Mother Country and the Colonies? Or is it just that the Brits can't afford American actors?
But then look what the Americans do to our best loved British actors. Take "House" for example.
They take one of our most loved and funniest British actors, Hugh Laurie, and make him into a sour, dour grump. I bet there are millions of "House" fans in the States who have never seen an episode of "Blackadder" or "A Little Bit of Fry and Laurie" or "Jeeves and Wooster".
I guess doing America pays better than England. The creator of one of Laurie's past characters, P.G. Wodehouse, certainly knew that.
Well, we will have to take a look at this new bit of American colonialism starting at 9:30 this Thursday. But first I will have to see if I can tune our TV set into to Channel 10. The dial appears to be rusted onto the ABC.
posted by Schütz @ 6:04 pm
10 Comments
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10 Comments:
Unlike the appalling US directed "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" film-is the meaning of life still 42 -,the Yank version of Life on Mars looks at the first instance as good as the Pommie version.
By the way did anyone see the episode of THE BILL in which Hugh Laurie was a barrister for a defendant,this would have been about 5 years ago,just before he went onto bigger things in HOUSE
What about era colonisation? The 70s stunk. Let's hear it for the 00s! Except for that part of it still acting like it's the 70s!
Judas, I'm posting as me. It's Past Elder really.
You've got a TV with a dial?
Now that is 70s!
SBS had an American remake of a British series about homosexuals - the original wasn't fit to pass the TV censor even today and the remake was pretty explicit.
SBS-to quote Cardinal Pole-Sodomite Broadcasting Service.
Life on Mars, this season, comes on right after my absolute favourite, but also only, prime time series, "Lost" -- which btw has a number of Aussie characters.
So of course they ran teasers to keep you watching, and to me they looked good -- hard hitting, grit, etc. Harvey Keitel always plays characters like that, and it seemed well cast. So I was interested in watching, until I saw it was set in the 70s. Then I passed, having quite enough of the 70s in the 70s.
Here, British TV shows generally are not seem except on the "public" or "educational" channels usually associated with each state's university. I was not aware of its British original.
Cop shows here have been defined by "Hill Street Blues" ever since, and this one with its strong ensemble seemed to fit that.
King of the Hill is "Law and Order", in several different ensemble versions. You might get a kick out of this -- when Cardinal Law was in Boston and Cardinal O'Connor in New York, they were sometimes called "Law and Order".
As to TV cops, Kojak man, all the way. Hey, that was the 70s!!
Who loves ya, baby.
Lost is my favourite too. Don't know when the new series will start here locally. It shows on
Seven however, not Ten. Only time I need to get the wrench out to change the dial from the ABC...
Schutz how about ABC 2 do you get a chance to look at that?
AS i tried to write yesterday we have Ausssie Idol but given the economic crisis it could soon become Australian Idle
What's a TV? I have turned one on in my house for the past three years. I can't say I miss it, and I still don't have time for anything...
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