“It would be completely misguided for Britain to view China as a competitor… what do China and Britain compete with?”
The British government should not “overestimate its impact on the global scene,” spokesperson for the [Communist Party of China], Victor Gao, tells [British propagandist].
Translation: You’re too irrelevant for us to even view you as a competitor. You produce nothing.
They’re pretty good at making television shows that get remade into better television shows by Americans. That’s something, I guess.
The Office. I never watched either version but supposedly the English version was a flop.
Wow really? I prefer the original version. The original was very dry, and then Steve Carell… I like his comedy, but he just turned the show’s comedy into more Steve Carell comedy. It didn’t capture the original’s dry wit at all.
I was half joking, the British shows are usually pretty good in their own right, but there are a lot of successful American shows based on British ones (as well as a few flops). Whether they’re “better” is subjective, but it’s a longstanding phenomenon.
The Office is the best example, but there are others. Three’s Company and its spin-offs were based on a British series. Sanford and Son, as well. Veep was made my the same creative team as The Thick of It and is a clear spiritual successor. American Idol was based on Pop Idol, the latter only ran two seasons while the former is still going.
Some British shows stand on their own, even if remakes are attempted. The IT Crowd, Red Dwarf, they tried like three different shows to try unsuccessfully to recapture the magic of Fawlty Towers.
Regardless, without British television, American television wouldn’t be the same, and without American television, most people would never have heard of most British television.
Either way, death to America and Britain as per usual.
