This past week’s remakes

[american_arcane]

Originally published at Toob Talk. You can comment here or there.

This past week saw the premiere of a handful of U.S. remakes of shows originally done for other channels in other countries. Life on Mars, Eleventh Hour and Kath & Kim seem to be the three big ones currently being pushed. I caught all three. I also haven’t seen the original versions

Comments

[salemsmom]

I SO wanted to see Life on Mars and missed it :-(
Watched about 5 minutes of Kath and Kim...and TURNED OF OFF...yeech!

[caligulette]

You know, that's a shame, because Kath and Kim was originally an Australian programme which was very successful both there and in the UK. And it was really, really funny. :o(

Molly Shannon ruins everything. She is not now, nor has she ever been, funny.

Life on Mars was a British programme first, as well....what up, USA? Make up your own shows!

[american_arcane]

Nope. We can't.

And when we do, we borrow actors from the UK and Australia. May as well grab the shows from there, too, right?

*sigh*

It would be something else all together if we could do them at least as good. But that's only happened, what, once? Maybe?

[caligulette]

Well, tough call. In recent memory, gosh....all I can think of is The Office, the American version of which is easily as good as the UK version.

Let's see...hmm...yeah, you're right. Just the one. Boo.

[crossbonesdj]

I was very interested in seeing the American version of Life on Mars, just because I LOVED the original so much...sounds like a good thing I missed it!

[american_arcane]

It wasn't bad per se... it just wasn't smacking of originality. Even not having seen the British version, it reminded me exactly of a half-dozen other shows that haven't lasted... and some of them were more compelling in their presentation.

I'd love to hear your opinion on it as someone who's seen the original version. :)