Top of My Thoughts
I grew up in Utah remembering how much better British television was than American television. Since I've been back, and been reinstated somewhat into British television, it has occurred to me that it still rings true; I wasn't sure what it was, but something about British television made it more entertaining than the American. Some of my housemates have staunchly supported the superiority of American television, but I've come up with a few reasons why the Brits have superior TV.1. British television airs American shows; quite a few of them, in fact. While many of my housemates pointed to this being a fundamental flaw in my theory, I pointed out to them that the Brits also air Australian and Irish shows. The fact that the Brits are willing to pick and choose means that they will generally have superior programming in general. In fact, this is true to a large extent throughout Europe. I nearly missed my bus for my flight back from Spain because I was engaged with a Spanish voiced-over version of a German cop show. The fact that American tv only airs American shows limits them.
2. The British shows are obviously run on a shoestring, with little to no budget and sometimes just plain silly antics. Some might see this as lacking quality. On the other hand, most of the actors are really good, being groomed straight from schools where Shakespeare is still standard fare. Sometimes this means the acting is over-the-top. Fair enough. But the quality is there; and more than that, there is no air of self importance which usually encounters American shows. British shows know not to take themselves too seriously, and are often more entertaining as a result.
3. Besides the fact that BBC runs no commercials, they choose superior movies to air at good times. They may not spend money on special effects budgets for their TV shows, but any extra money they have goes to licensing the best movies.
By the way, this is what I think of when I have to get away from being swamped by Medieval Philosophy and Contemporary Japanese history. All the necessary apologies are in order; I promise I'll get back to actual posting when I get a breather.
posted by Emmett @ 13:15
2 Comments:
I remember being trapped in Bursa this winter and spending about three days watching Ballykissangel on BBC Prime (which apparently shouldn't exist anymore but continues to linger on in Eastern Europe) because it was the only thing on in the afternoon. I can never thank my host family enough for putting up with such eccentricity. They certainly didn't understand the appeal but to me it was the televised equivalent of chicken soup.
I do miss European television, Turks may have a flourishing local music industry but their television programming needs work. I will admit to an attachment to a couple of comedies, but on the whole they don't hold a candle to the variety available in the EU. Then again that could merely be my linguistic ineptness preventing me from understanding the subtle but important differences between the shows.
~Sara
ps. Having commented means I'm no longer a creepy stalker, right?
Down with live action television! Up with cartoons! RELAPSE INTO CHILDHOOD!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
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Seriously, some cartoons are pretty good. Just grab the DVDs. And I haven't dared turn on the tv to see if what's actually running now is worth electricity required to run the machine.
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