Misfits which is all sorts of awesome

Actually I think you'll find the main reason is British actors are cheaper & usually better trained.



Game of Thrones is an exception but would it be as good if it had used American actors?

Yes there are good US shows but I don't agree that they are better than British. The reason there may be a limit in the variety shows we produce is probably due to the fact we don't have as much money and you get people like Jonathan Ross being paid stupid money to host a crap 'we've seen it all before' show.

The panellist comedy shows in this country are great. 8 out of 10 cats always gets proper belly laughs in our house. The one after the Jimmy's tax scandal was brilliant TV.

We do reality TV really well. Location Locaiton, Grand Designs & Come Dine with Me are still going strong & always interesting to watch & entertaining.

Comedy - The Inbetweeners has been a shining star and has already been made in to a film.

Give British TV a chance because if we don't support it there will be less shows produced here.

I find American comedy apart from Big bang theory and a rare few like Scrubs to be incredibly patronising and simple, mostly due to the fact that they need to get a joke in every 10 mins before ad breaks.
Never in a million years would the US have been able to produce gems like Black books and Spaced.

^5 (high five) Camille

I think we're talking about different kinds of television.

You're talking about what you enjoy, what makes you laugh etc.

I'm talking about genuinely groundbreaking, well-written, immersive shows that are more movie-like in their character development, arcs and look.

Game of Thrones uses English actors for a a specific plot purpose. But if American actors could do a Northern or Southern British accent as well as natives, I don't imagine there'd be as many. Also remember that in the case of that particular show, one of the standouts is Danish.

The US have been pushing the envelope in television production for well over a decade now.

I think you'll find the fact they pay massively more money to famous names might be a more significant factor. There's no show in the UK that will pay Hugh Laurie £600,000 an episode, no matter how good it might be.

I'd suggest the number of British actors fronting US shows doesn't mean their shows are better, it means our actors are.

The shows I listed were good shows and not all about enjoyment and making me laugh. Downton Abbey is a very well written and well acted drama which is HUGE in the US. Prisioners' Wives was exceptional and one men or women could enjoy. Stella is a fantastic show that anyone in your family could watch. Ruth Jones is a legend in my book.

If you want to think that US TV is briliant and the only decent thing on the TV then that's up to you. We have US content thrown down our necks at work and locally produced regional shows are not given as much welly. In their words poor US content makes more money being dubbed & shown worldwide than a regional show. Yet as the developing market we are making more money for them. Shame.



I agree

This sounds to me a bit like you're saying that comedy is less valuable than drama and that only serious shows can be seen as "ground-breaking".
Sadly it seems that's a common thought as very few comedies have won academy awards. I personally think that it's a lot more difficult making people laugh at every episode than be serious.

Funny stuff is great, I love it! But it's not as memorable or engaging for me beyond the 30 minutes that I'm watching it.

And Caz, I don't think US TV as a whole is brilliant and the only thing worth watching. It's just a numbers game. Just like most of the best movies are American and not British, so it is with TV. And what happens is a shame, totally agree. But I can't think of one show made in the UK, that has been on the same level as the best US shows. And I'm not talking about House, or all the other network shows, I'm talking about the best of cable. There's just no comparison.

I watch TV to be engaged, immersed and provoked into thought. The same reasons I watch movies largely. In my experience, British shows do very well for the time they're on, and that's it. The runs are shorter, the characters less developed and the impact less. But perhaps I was born on the wrong side of the pond?

For me, the standout exceptions to this are Sherlock and Who. Nothing else comes close.

Horizon, Wonders of the Solar System, anything with Bruce Parry, The Tube and many more manage to blend information, intrigue and often laughs very well and are in a league of their own IMO. But they're not serialised television and that's what most people are referring to when they say "TV".

Which I still haven't seen anything of.

Mark

You list 15 shows above. I've seen only 3 of them, so I guess it's really no wonder most of the shows I've so far mentioned in this thread have been yank based.
For me, the UK just doesn't produce the sort of stuff I'd like to watch.
I guess that's partly because the yanks have that corner of the market so well covered that the Brits just don't see it as being beneficial to try and crack.
There's the odd exception, but on the whole, the UK still excels at the kitchen sink drama on the TV.
I'm not saying that in a derogatory way, it just is what it is. The documentaries and natural history the UK TV does are outstanding and should be lauded, but on the whole I don't agree that the UK can touch what comes at us from across the Atlantic with regards to drama serials.

Mark

Good call on Dexter!

I'm still watching it! Absolutely fricking awesome show!

Just found out about the journalist and the trinity killer!

I can't stop watching!

Yes America makes some great programmes, but they make some utter dross too.
Just remember that only the good ones will get shown in the UK. Most people will be thinking of all of our programmes versus just the best of theirs.

That's true. Misfits was awesome! Don't know what happened to it though? Is there another season or was it cancelled?

Blackadder and Fawlty also very good.

I can't think of another British TV show that I've watched every episode of because it was THAT good.

Oh, having said that. Red Dwarf is one I have watched all of. And I'm looking forward to the new series.

Ok, so Merlin was good too.

I liked NCIS.

But to be honest, there isn't anything on television at the moment that I say, oh, I must get home and watch that. I'll usually flip through the channels, decide there is nothing worth watching and I'll go and do something else instead. The same with the Internet, I spend much more time these days doing "real" things, rather than being stuck in front of a computer or TV.