POLLS: Do American TV Shows Do Good Adaptations of British Series?

When it comes to sitcom TV’s top contenders, it was Ricky Gervais who half-seriously declared “Britain and America. Sorry, rest of the world.” And indeed, the two nations have been arm in arm in many a matter across the Atlantic. Perhaps more notable than being linked by a shared history, a common language, and a similarly shocking 2016 political outcome is the fact that the UK and the U.S. are indelibly tied together by their TV show remakes.

Of course, with similarities come comparisons, and passions surely run high when you pit a British Office loyalist against an American Office enthusiast. In the past few years, we’ve seen American remakes of British TV series (and the occasional vice-versa) cover all genres ranging from sitcoms to dramas to reality shows. But much like how the word “chip” means something different in England as it does in America, TV series under the same name and of the same root take on different forms in their respective cultural environments.

Many factors manifest these differences. Sometimes it’s the comedic contrast of America’s buoyant optimism and the Brit’s anchored realism; other times it’s a market difference of U.S.’s commercially-funded network production versus the BBC’s taxpayer-backed public broadcasting; and many times it’s just a matter of jargon — the fact that “England and America are two countries separated by the same language.”

As we take a brief tour of some “best hits” of American adaptations of British TV shows, we’ll see that some series have an obvious winner, while others are more debatable. Head to the poll below to cast your vote on U.S. remakes of UK shows, then share your thoughts in the comments.

The Office

An obvious but essential one. The Office is the archetypal comparison of American and British TV. It’s also one of the most telling differences of the two cultures’ comedic styles. Both series depict the most boring and aimless existence in the modern world: the day-to-day of a paper company office “where life is stationary.” While most of the premise and setting is an exact replica — a xeroxed pilot episode, the British version’s Wernham Hogg replaced by its U.S. counterpart Dunder Mifflin, and the remarkably unsexy settings shot in the same mockumentary style — the difference mainly lies in the characters and their American/British personas, particularly the leading roles of Steve Carell and Ricky Gervais. While the British Office may be credited for being the original, with edgier and saltier humor rooted in the grim and the awkward, the American series has more episodes to watch and a brighter humor that makes it arguably more accessible.

Skins

Perhaps one of the more infamous adaptations of a British TV series is the American remake of Skins. The original risque teen sex/drugs/growing up shenanigans drama series is based around a group of sixth-formers in Bristol, England. In 2011 Skins was adapted into a short-lived, almost scene-for-scene U.S. remake by MTV. Though losing some of its British edge, the American adaptation was puffed up by a large production and marketing budget. Some UK versus U.S. gems from the two pilot episodes’ scripts include the British version’s “I’m going to dock the ferry with Michelle” and the U.S. equivalent “I’m going to park my Chevy in Michelle’s garage” or Sid’s drug dealer in the UK show, “The Mad Twatter,” versus the American version, “Mad Mao Le Dong.” While the OG Skins was “teensploitation” at its best, “enabling youth to rejoice in the fantasy of their corruption,” as Troy Patterson of Slate put it, the American remake was a tamer, watered down version, that was still canceled due to accusations from U.S. audiences of child pornography, among other less illegal misconducts.

Top Gear

Top Gear’s UK versus U.S. debate really boils down to charisma. In 2002, BBC’s Top Gear aired with British trifecta Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, who together developed the motor vehicle series’s humorous, daring, and often politically incorrect commentary and presentation. While Top Gear is entertaining for its novel stunts and challenges such as “Can a stretch limo jump over a wedding party?” or “Can a nun drive a trucker?” for many, the driving force behind the British series was Clarkson: a true “bloke’s bloke” who really doesn’t care about what he says and also got fired for allegedly punching the show’s producer. In 2010, American Top Gear aired on the History Channel with presenter trio Tanner Foust, Adam Ferrara and Rutledge Wood. Although closely following the original British format, the U.S. version was met with mixed reviews, receiving criticisms that the featured cars were less international and mostly of American import, on top of the issue that the hosts lacked the zing of their British counterparts. Few complaints, however, beat former Top Gear host James May’s hilarious reason why he hates the U.S. presenters.

Shameless

The original Shameless is a British adult drama series set in Manchester’s fictional Chatsworth council estate, revolving around a dysfunctional family that constitutes a single, alcoholic father of six children. Receiving the “Best Drama Series” award from BAFTA and “Best TV Comedy Drama” at the British Comedy Awards, the original UK Shameless set high standards for any remakes. The American adaptation, which stars William H. Macy and Emmy Rossum and is set in the heart of Chicago, remained quite loyal to the original plot and characters. Both dramadies deal with working-class poverty and bad parenting in its respective cultural frameworks, with the U.S. version often borrowing lines from its British counterpart verbatim. However, after the first two seasons, the U.S. Shameless veered off course from the original’s plot line and set to define its own path. Now in its seventh season, the U.S. Shameless has received a loyal following and positive critical acclaim, giving the British original a run for its money.

House of Cards

Moving into the sphere of political dramas, it’s a bit more understandable why an exported British series may adapt an American version for its not-fluent-in-British-politics U.S. audience. Four seasons deep, Netflix’s hit web series House of Cards is an American remake of BBC’s political miniseries of the same name based on a novel written by Steven Dobbs. While both HoC iterations keep the Machiavellian vein of its characters in tact, the cold open, as well as the breaking of the fourth wall effect, the American HoC is a sleeker series focusing more on melodrama than the satire and political commentary that the British version pivoted on. Kevin Spacey’s version, while still laden with “nasty, brutish, and short” vibes of the OG British HoC, is still traced with a streak of American jauntiness and a touch more of glamour thanks to Netflix’s production value.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Although still in production due to a CW revival, this one’s a little bit of a throwback. The famed improv comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? was created in 1988 as a BBC Radio 4 show in the UK by Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson. After six episodes, it turned into a BBC TV series that lasted over 136 episodes and was hosted by Clive Anderson, Colin Mochrie and Ryan Stiles. The show was brought to the attention of Drew Carey, and in 1998 ABC televised an American Whose Line Is It Anyway? Both the original British version as well as its Drew Carey-hosted America counterpart maintained similar formats where “everything’s made up and the points don’t matter.” Topics are often chosen by the audience or predetermined, scripts are interrupted with humorous banter, and credits were performed in a comedic fashion to carry forth the BBC classic’s tradition.

The Thick of It and Veep

Based on the BBC political satire sitcom The Thick of It, Veep is an American political comedy series by HBO that revolves around the fictional Vice President of the United States played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Written by the original’s Armando Iannucci and his team of writers, Veep shares a similar tone, style and penchant for profanity with the UK’s The Thick of It. Starting out with positive reviews, and after four seasons of an entirely British writing staff, Veep’s fifth season received critical acclaim, scoring a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. While much of the original’s blueprint can been seen in its American iteration, as well as the same cinéma-vérité filming style, The Thick of It and Veep seem to prove a common TV remake pattern: the British version has stronger, grittier dialogue and much lower budget, whereas the American version is brighter in both the aesthetic and its characters.

The Inbetweeners

There isn’t much left to debate when the American remake of the British coming-of-age sitcom The Inbetweeners was canceled after just one season due to low ratings. The original Inbetweeners is a British cult comedy that falls in the tried-and-true premise of sixth-form youths. The classically English cringe series is ripe with “wankers,” sexual conquests, dim-witted humor, poor decisions, and critical moments of vulnerability and tenderness that accurately capture the experiences of adolescence, giving this growing-pains sitcom a secure position within British popular culture. When translated into an American version, however, the show became a total flop. With a similar Misfits U.S. remake in the works, it might just prove to show that we never seem to learn from old mistakes, or it might rewrite previous track records.