America! Cocking Up British Television Shows for Decades
By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under TV Reviews | Comments (24)
I may be one of the six people stateside familiar with the brilliant British family comedy drama, Shameless, about an overlarge family mostly living on welfare and in subsidized housing (over in the UK, the early seasons featured James McAvoy). It was an amazing show for around four seasons, until the revolving cast kind of killed it (it’s hard to stay invested in one family when the family members keep leaving the show only to be replaced by neighbors and in-laws). They are, of course, remaking it for Showtime, and while I didn’t like the idea at first, the announced cast — William H. Macy, Emmy Rossum, and Joan Cusack — assuaged my fears to a degree.
And then I saw the trailer. For those who haven’t seen the UK version, it may hold some appeal, but for those who have seen David Threlfall’s brilliant Frank Gallagher, you’ll probably agree that William H. Macy feels very pale (and slow-talking) in comparison. I suspect I’ll warm up to it over time, but the trailer suggests they’re using the same story lines and even many of the same shots, which mean comparisons will be inevitable. Macy or no Macy, it’s not a contest that an American version wants to be in.
Likewise, MTV is doing for the UK show, “Skins,” what Showtime is doing for “Shameless.” And there is nothing good about this trailer. It just looks like bad American actors doing very poor impressions of their British counterparts. Ironically, even, the US actors aren’t even half as attractive as their UK counterpoints, and where the diverse cast felt natural in the UK version, it just feels forced here. Also, the bulimic: That is some seriously bad casting.
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Comments
Posted by: BarbadoSlim at October 22, 2010 9:29 AM
Anything MTV touches is automatically turned into the equivalent of synthetic excrement-product. It all started after the first season of The Real World. That's their formula now and they never stray from that Real World model. Shame on them, there was a time long ago when they did produce interesting original productions.