May 15, 2003
American "Coupling"
Posted by Larry Karnowski at May 15, 2003 11:13 AMJust as a tiny tip of the iceberg example of the foolishness that makes me hate TV, let me tell you about the BBC TV show Coupling, which I've really enjoyed in the past year. It's a great show, funny, irreverent, and very racy. And also very British. It just wouldn't be the same without the quirky British sense of humor and London accents.
Step in NBC, who sees how successful Coupling is doing in Britain, and they decide to make an American-ized version. Now, why? The British version is funny. It's already been filmed, produced, and aired. Why not just re-air it? Why recast, refilm, and reproduce it?
And why would you take a show that is inherently British, with a British sense of humor, and make it American? Will the American public find the British production obscure, impenetrable? If the show is funny, and it's British, but you don't think Americans will like the British humor, well then, my guess is that Americans won't like the show. So just leave well enough alone.
But I digress.... with the good shows being put on DVD, if I really want to, I can rent them at my leisure. I don't have to waste time sitting through TV crap to find shows that are worth watching. I'd say 99% of them are not worth watching, and my time is too valuable to me.
Someone is a wee bit grouchy... :)
Posted by: Saundra at May 15, 2003 11:48 PMHeh, yeah, a little...
Posted by: larry at May 16, 2003 8:17 AMyou are turning into a crotchedy old man!
Posted by: Saundra at May 18, 2003 2:43 AMi totally agree. I love Coupling, and the Americanized version just looks awful. The actors have awful delivery, and they really bastardize what would otherwise be great material.
Posted by: jerm at September 14, 2003 10:42 PMI'm a bit late on the uptake here.. seeing posts from back in May. o_o
Coupling should never have been Americanized.. I'm really curious as to what it's like, but I can imagine it's pretty awful. It will probably be welded into some bad copy of Friends or something.
Being a Brit myself, I've watched every series of the original Coupling as it's been released and truely what makes Coupling what it is is the actors and British sense of humour.
There is no way I could watch anything claiming to be Coupling without the six amazingly funny actors by the names of Jack Davenport, Sarah Alexander, Gina Bellman, Kate Isitt, Ben Miles and Richard Coyle. Them, and what they've transformed their characters into is something that makes the show so original.
I think one of the worst thoughts is that every American I have discussed Coupling with only knows about the American version and have never heard of the original British one.. I fear the American version will give the original a bad name.
I'll shut up now before I type up an essay of 'Why the NBC should leave British sitcoms alone.' xD
The Americanized version of coupling is bad. I've been a big fan of the British show for some time now and I was afraid of how bad the Americanized version would be. Bad treatment of the jokes. Most of them could stay the same and not be changed, but no...NBC has to change them to be "better". The new version of the show sucks. Plus making an American version of a British show that is somewhat based off of the American show Friends. It's just not a good idea and the new version sucks.
Posted by: Vrolok at October 10, 2003 1:22 AM
