TV Guide Reviews : Remakes and Retreads
Jan. 17th, 2011 11:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shipperxFrom TV Guide:
Does no one have an original idea in TV land anymore? Judging from tonight's latest batch of mid-season offerings, it hardly appears so. Programmers have either gone to England for inspiration, rarely improving on the source material, or back to the drawing board of tried-and-true formats like the courtroom drama, resulting in an unhappy epidemic of deja view viewing.
The best of tonight's premieres is Syfy's remake of Being Human (9/8c), and even it is a pale imitation of the provocative British original. Given the relatively limited reach of BBC America, and the inexplicable reluctance in some corners to embrace anything with a European accent, I get why Syfy would snap up and adapt this fetching premise for the American audience. In terms of production and casting, though, it leaves quite a bit to be desired.
For the unacquainted, this is the story of three supernatural roommates sharing a house in working-class Boston: an immortal and broodingly Byronic vampire (Sam Witwer, who comes the closest to embodying the spirit of the thing), a mild-mannered werewolf still awkwardly adjusting to his monthly curse (Sam Huntington, whose rhythms are a bit too sitcom-like) and a female ghost (shrill Meaghan Rath) who can't leave the house in which she died under mysterious circumstances. If all of this is new to you, the appealing mix of humor and horror may very well hook you. If you've already fallen in love with the British version, as I have, this uneven carbon copy will seem wildly unnecessary. And like me, you'll just find yourself counting the days until BBC America begins airing new episodes later this year.
Still, Syfy's Being Human is a gem compared to the mess MTV has made of Skins (10/9c), another British transfer that could just as well be titled Barely Human. What in the original incarnation was shockingly cheeky, in its graphic and profane depiction of teens indulging in sex-and-drug debauchery, has been neutered and tamed in a remake that is unconvincing, amateurishly produced and very poorly acted. (The exception being a lesbian cheerleader — a gender-reversed version of a male gay character from the original series — who is the focus of next Monday's episode. She's good, even when the show isn't.).
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no subject
Date: 2011-01-17 05:11 pm (UTC)I just hope no one in the the US decided to try and remake Misfits. It would be a total disaster.
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Date: 2011-01-17 06:42 pm (UTC)Re: Skins, I don't know enough about it to say.
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Date: 2011-01-17 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-17 06:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-17 05:59 pm (UTC)I think US television has become too overstretched. Nearly every channel has their own "original" series these days and the talent is far too diluted to produce much of anything. Like the NBA, I guess.
Personally, I think the article writer should be too ashamed to have watched anything on MTV anyway. It's like going into an outhouse and complaining of the smell.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-17 06:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-17 09:43 pm (UTC)Part of the problem is that the original airs on BBA. It's not available in my area unless you get the most expensive cable package, and so i suspect a lot of people don't get the channel at all! I'm planning on down-grading my cable package so I'll be joining the masses here.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-18 12:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-18 05:51 am (UTC)Though I'll probably watch the U.S. Being Human at least once, because it has the guy who played Lucifer on SPN in it. But I'll also probably wait until the series is done; it's not high on my list.