My Favorite TV Shows (right now) Part 5
We’ve made it to the penultimate edition of the “”My Favorite TV Shows”" series.
The last installment covered premium cable/satelite content which leaves us with only two more categories: Foreign shows and Internet only shows.
Similiar to the last article, by “”foreign”" I just mean BBC because I only speak english, and I’m not aware of any other foreign english speaking channels on DirecTV.
My Favorite TV Shows (right now) Part 5– Foreign (well, ok I might as well just say BBC) –
I’ve loved british humor (humour?) ever since getting addicted to Monty Python and Douglas Adams as a teenager. BBC America is one of my favorite channels and carries several hilarious shows that the US networks try to co-opt. Did you know, for instance, that American Idol, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, The Office, Who’s Line Is It Anyway, and Big Brother were all BBC shows in the UK looooong before coming to the US!?Some of my favorites that BBCA regulary re-runs are: Black Adder, The Young Ones, Father Ted, and Absolutely Fabulous. Per the goals set at the beginning of these articles, I’m not going to write about them here since they are not currently airing new episoides – but if you like brit humour, then you owe it to yourself to check them out!
| Show Name: | Doctor Who |
| Channel/Where: | BBC |
| When aired: | Coming back for Christmas episodes |
| Genre: | Sci-fi |
| Content Rating: | PG |
| Types of content: | Violence |
| Age: | 30+ years |
| Cast: | Chris Eccleston, Billie Piper |
| Why I like it: | Fresh, clever plots and just the right amount of cheese |
| Improvements needed: | Chris Eccleston won’t be returning next series.. too bad, he’s been my favorite Doctor |
| Summary: | I actually did an extensive write-up of octor Who previously. In fact, it was one of the reasons I thought to kick off this whole set of articles on TV series in the first place. You can read that article here. Go ahead, I’ll wait for you to get back… If you don’t feel like reading all of the gory details, here is a brief synopsis: Doctor Who is a Sci-fi show from the UK that first aired in 1963 on BBC (in black and white, no less). The show follows an alien simply known as “”The Doctor”". The Doctor looks human, but is from Galifrey and is a “”Time Lord”". He travels in something called a TARDIS which, in this case, looks like a big blue police call box (phone booth) on the outside, but resembles a multi-room space ship on the inside. I believe that he pretty much always travels with a female companion and other people come and go as the stories unfold. There hasn’t been a Doctor Who series on air for many, many years. Aside from the new Battlestar Gallactica, and maybe Lost, I think that the new Doctor Who is the best Sci-Fi currently on television. The episode plots are quite varied in their style of story telling. Since they are in a dimension hopping time machine they go from present day to billions of years in the future to Dickensian England of centuries past. The show is somewhat “”monster of the week”", but not so blatant about it as Smallville, Charmed, or Medium. Well worth watching if it shows up on BBC America or Sci-Fi channel.. Otherwise you’ll have to wait for the DVDs or find the episdes on Bit Torrent. |
| Show Name: | The Office |
| Channel/Where: | BBC America |
| When aired: | Unknown |
| Genre: | Comedy / Mock documentary |
| Content Rating: | PG-13 |
| Types of content: | Adult humor |
| Age: | Two seasons |
| Cast: | Ricky Gervais, Martin Freeman |
| Why I like it: | Solid dialogue, and hilariously absurd characters |
| Improvements needed: | Need MORE episodes!! |
| Summary: | Firstly, this is NOT the show current running on NBC – the US version is based on this one. You can see a write-up of the US version in the second installment of this series of articles. The BBC show came first and is, in my opinion, better. Though not by much. Ricky Gervais who created the show and is responsible for much of the writing is an Executive Producer of the US version. And he expertly portrays the largely ineffective boss in the UK version. The Office is a mock docmentary that follows the employees of a paper company as they plod through menial sales jobs. The key to the show is the quirky and varied personalities of the staff, and the conversations and antics throughout the day. Don’t let the simplicity of the setup fool you – each episode is packed with intricate, humorous plots that show office goof-off at its finest. The characters interactions and dialog make the show sing. You may recognize Martin Freeman who plays the lead character Tim, as Arthur Dent from The Hitchikers Guide To The Galaxy movie, as well as Da Ali G movie. |
| Show Name: | Coupling |
| Channel/Where: | BBC America |
| When aired: | Unknown |
| Genre: | Comedy |
| Content Rating: | PG-13 |
| Types of content: | Adult humor |
| Age: | Four seasons |
| Cast: | Jack Davenport, Sarah Alexander |
| Why I like it: | Not your average “”friends”". Hilarious dialog and funny situations set this show apart from most sitcoms |
| Improvements needed: | Come back! and forget the NBC version ever happened. |
| Summary: | This is another show that NBC tried to recreate, but it failed miserably. Thankfully the american version of “”The Office”" learned from the mistakes made, primarily that of faithfully following british dialog that doesn’t fly in the US, and dumbing the wrong bits down for the US audience. I don’t think that they got the casting right either, some of the characters in “”Coupling”" are just too difficult to recast and need to be changed to work right.
Sadly, I don’t think the BBC version is coming back on air, though there are DVDs of at least the first two seasons available to purchase. They are well worth buying – especially if you’ve liked other BBC shows (“”Absolutely Fabulous”", “”The Office”", “”Are You Being Served”"). The show is a bit of a mix between “”Friends”" and “”Sex in the City”" but very british. Just as you’d expect, it follows six friends through their conversations at the pub and at work, and the ins and outs of their relationships with each other, and other people. The show is marked by tremendously witty writing and extremely quirky characters that are a delight to watch. |
Whew – we’ve finally made it through all of the conventional viewing methods. Last in this series will be online-only shows.
You’ll probably be hearing a lot about “”vodcasts”", “”vidcasts”", or “”IPTV”" in the near future – particularly now that Apple has released the video iPod. Video on the Internet isn’t really new, but it seems that the world (and the technology) are about ready to merge previously online-only video with the rest of your life.”
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