Top 10 Awful American Remakes of Great British Shows

[Rimbaud82]

My wife is from England so we watched the UK version first...it was OK. I was able to make it through the 2 seasons of the show and they were semi-enjoyable, but the Christmas specials were where I drew the line and couldn't watch it anymore. Personally I'm not a fan of Ricky Gervais (sp?) and he really just killed that show.

The US version of the Office is monumentally better in every conceivable way outside of the 1st episode as it was a direct word for word copy of the British version.

When it comes to British Shows I think there's a TON of "rose tinted glasses." My wife saw "Red Dwarf" in the store and told me how great it was, so we bought the entire series for about $20. Neither of us could get beyond the 2nd episode...it was terrible. We made it to the 3rd episode of Fawlty Towers before it just became way too fucking stupid. There was another show we tried called "The Young Ones" with the actor who played Drop Dead Fred and it was just unwatchable. My wife remembered these shows as being awesome, but even she had to admit they were pure garbage.

Red Dwarf is shit, Young Ones is probably too much stuck in the 80s punk stuff to be funny now, doesn't mean British comedy is bad. Fawlty Towers is silly, light hearted comedy. There are many other good ones.

 

[usmctanker242]

Red Drawf is shit, Young Ones is probably too much stuck in the 80s punk stuff to be funny now, doesn't mean British comedy is mad. Fawlty Towers is silly, light hearted comedy. There are many other good ones.

Fawlty Towers is a perfect example of "British Humor" where they beat a joke to death...and then continue beating it some more even after it's been dead (and not funny at all). Don't get me wrong there are plenty of great and funny British shows...perfect example (IMO of course) is The Vicar of Dibley. That god damned show is shockingly funny and somehow it also makes you care about the characters. The Royle Family is also a great show and it really surprised me how watching a family watch TV could be so funny. I also enjoyed Little Britain, 2 Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, The Detectorists, and many others which aren't coming to me right now.

I was really just commenting on the remakes that had already been mentioned, and for me most of them were impossible to watch. As an American there are also so many cultural things that don't make sense to us. I often have to pause these shows and ask my wife to explain "the Britishness" of what's going on.

Edit : @ufcfan4 , I haven't seen that one but will check it out..thanks for the recommendation.