Poll: American TV or British TV?
- Thread starter Spongebobdickpants
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Of course, the OP makes me think that there's not any point in posting here, but oh well...
Both have their solid points. People have mentioned that Americans are generally better at drama, but I only really watch American drama/action/scifi and don't have much access to Brit representatives of the genre so I have no opinion. Obviously there are a lot of really good American shows in those categories.
Comedy-wise, I would say we're even. Fawlty Towers, Monty Python's Flying Circus (times ten!), Yes, Minister, IT Crowd, Red Dwarf, The Office, Blackadder, Spaced to a degree... all of those are unspeakably fantastic, and I'm positive there's a few more contemporary ones and others that I simply haven't seen yet.
But America does have Arrested Development, Psych, South Park, Friends (maybe a controversial one, but I think I've established that I at least know what good TV comedy looks like, so this one's provisional
), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Parks and Rec, 30 Rock, Seinfeld, Scrubs (at least a few seasons, at least), Futurama... The Office! Seriously though, both versions are good, hehe. Anyway, there's a ton more that I just can't think of at the moment.
Mostly I think the perceived differences in quality are part cultural, part access (good American TV, as shown by my list above, does not always equal widely distributed American TV, whereas your sources for Brit TV are comparatively limited), and part matters of national pride. In any one case above, besides a few American shows, I would prefer the Britcom, but nevertheless the sheer quantity of good American programming over the years indicates that American TV does know what it's on about. The argument could fall either way, I guess, but it at least is not an easy decision.
Both have their solid points. People have mentioned that Americans are generally better at drama, but I only really watch American drama/action/scifi and don't have much access to Brit representatives of the genre so I have no opinion. Obviously there are a lot of really good American shows in those categories.
Comedy-wise, I would say we're even. Fawlty Towers, Monty Python's Flying Circus (times ten!), Yes, Minister, IT Crowd, Red Dwarf, The Office, Blackadder, Spaced to a degree... all of those are unspeakably fantastic, and I'm positive there's a few more contemporary ones and others that I simply haven't seen yet.
But America does have Arrested Development, Psych, South Park, Friends (maybe a controversial one, but I think I've established that I at least know what good TV comedy looks like, so this one's provisional
), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Parks and Rec, 30 Rock, Seinfeld, Scrubs (at least a few seasons, at least), Futurama... The Office! Seriously though, both versions are good, hehe. Anyway, there's a ton more that I just can't think of at the moment.Mostly I think the perceived differences in quality are part cultural, part access (good American TV, as shown by my list above, does not always equal widely distributed American TV, whereas your sources for Brit TV are comparatively limited), and part matters of national pride. In any one case above, besides a few American shows, I would prefer the Britcom, but nevertheless the sheer quantity of good American programming over the years indicates that American TV does know what it's on about. The argument could fall either way, I guess, but it at least is not an easy decision.
Well it depends I find that generally American TV is better at cartoons (Family Guy, American Dad, Futurama would be the cream of the crop), while British is better at Drama (Come on the American remake of Life on Mars was a travesty) the only exception to that however is The X-Files brilliant television one of my favourite programmes of all time.
In Australia, the worst of British television is filtered out as we (as a country) prefer our shit to be American. So, as a result, I enjoy a far high percentage of the British television that I'm exposed to, which in terms of number of shows/frequency, isn't really much better than the amount of American TV I like.
The only currently airing shows I go out of my way to watch are Breaking Bad and Top Gear so I guess, what we get from this, is a "I don't watch very much TV" influenced answer.
The only currently airing shows I go out of my way to watch are Breaking Bad and Top Gear so I guess, what we get from this, is a "I don't watch very much TV" influenced answer.
The yanks have some pretty good stuff for Drama / Sci-Fi stuff, things like Castle, NCIS, Stargate... but the poms kick the crap out of them when it comes to comedy.
I don't really care much for American comedy stuff, oh there are so funny moments in normal shows, but anything marketed as comedy generally descends into banality so quickly it stops being funny as anything other then a parody.
The British have given us Black Adder, Yes (Prime) Minster (and if they can make a smart and funny show about politicians they can do anything), The Britas Empire, etc.
And some of their drama is exceptional, take for example Life on Mars the UK version kicks the crap out of the US version, I don't even know why they had to make a US version....
I don't really care much for American comedy stuff, oh there are so funny moments in normal shows, but anything marketed as comedy generally descends into banality so quickly it stops being funny as anything other then a parody.
The British have given us Black Adder, Yes (Prime) Minster (and if they can make a smart and funny show about politicians they can do anything), The Britas Empire, etc.
And some of their drama is exceptional, take for example Life on Mars the UK version kicks the crap out of the US version, I don't even know why they had to make a US version....
You don't like Doctor Who but you like Jonathan Ross? Anyway back on subject - Americans have given us Twin Peaks and The Simpsons but we've got Blackadder, Doctor Who and co (Torchwood, Primeval), Have I Got News For You and other comedy stuff like that. And Americans made Scrubs which is ubiquitous on Sky and I hate how outrageously camp it gets so that takes a few points off what they got from the two absolutely phenominal American shows named before.