Ricky Gervais claims American comedy has been the biggest influence on his own work, from Seinfeld to The Larry Sanders Show. I'm sure he enjoys British sitcoms, particularly classics like Fawlty Towers, but his heart sings to the Star-Spangled Banner's style.
I'm the drama equivalent of Gervais. I can appreciate the British classics we've had through the years, particularly the great Dennis Potter's groundbreaking work, but my taste is vehemently American...
You only have to take my blog as evidence of this, with most reviewed shows coming from across the pond (Heroes, 24, Lost, Dirt, Battlestar Galactica, Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip. Prison Break, Dexter, etc.) British product is flagging way behind with Doctor Who, Jekyll, Torchwood, Primeval and Cape Wrath.
Of course, my tastes lean towards high-concept and fantastical television, which has traditionaly been the domain of American TV because of their bigger budgets. I've always seen television as a form of escapism and fun; letting you break out of maximum security jails, explore mysterious islands, flee humanoid robots across space and stop terrorists armed with nukes... all from the comfort of your sofa.
But good drama is good drama, so I'm not suggesting simple ideas focusing exclusively on characterisation are unnecessary and boring. There have been great performances and fantastic storytelling in character-based British drama, but they're just not my personal preference.
After a hard day at work, do you want to watch a Channel 4 drama about mental illness in a working class northern family, or Courteney Cox manipulating celebrities with paparazzi sex photos in L.A? I'm not ashamed to say that, nine times out of ten, the former-Friend will be getting my leisure time.
American drama is just extremely good at balancing character with concept. The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under, Nip/Tuck, The Shield, Monk, House, Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, Deadwod, etc. I can't claim to have watched them all (there are only so many hours in the day!), but each show has rabid followers. Why? Simple: they're juicy concepts, brilliantly plotted, well-acted, and balance character with story.
They might not all be to your taste (I've just never liked westerns, for example), but you can't deny they're slick, stylish and attention-grabbing...
Can you truthfully say the same for Casualty, Holby City, The Bill, Doc Martin, Heartbeat, and suchlike? Even typing those titles leaves me cold and unexcited. British TV just seems to pick an overdone genre (the police procedural, the court-room drama, the detective drama, etc) and add to it.
Where are the big ideas? The twist to a concept? We want something fresh and exciting, not another remix. I mean, the recent Holby Blue is just The Bill spliced with Holby City, isn't it? Where's our own anti-hero cop akin to The Shield's or the unflinching grittiness of The Wire? The closest we've come is with Spooks, essentially 24 with the emphasis on real politics.
However, it seems the British TV landscape is finally changing. Albeit slowly than I'd like. Ever since Doctor Who exploded back into livingrooms a few years ago, it's given British producers a precedent to get other other high-concept ideas on our screens.
The critical success of fantasy drama Lost also brought the niche science fiction genre (usually reserved for tea-time BBC2) to the weekend mainstream. Just five years ago, how many British producers would have believed adults would watch a "silly show" about people discovering they have super powers (Heroes)? Post-watershed, too? Not many!
The Eleventh Hour and Primeval were the first UK shows to follow in Who's wake, although the former didn't capture an audience, and the latter was panned by critics as a souless visual spectacle. Ah well.
Life On Mars was probably the first post-Who series to really succeed with audiences. It had an exciting time-travel premise, but used it as a reason to remake 70s cop shows from a contemporary viewpoint. It spoke to fans of police dramas, nostalgia hounds and sci-fi lovers... with each group appreciating seeing something different from the TV spectrum.
Doctor Who's much-trumpeted spin-off Torchwood proved disappointing, but it had a certain goofy appeal and got BBC3 big ratings. The BBC also updated Robin Hood for Saturday nights, hoping to revive another old idea for new audiences, but faced critical scorn for its anachronistic attitude. Robin Hoodie, basically.
A far better example of the old becoming new came from Jekyll, a fun thriller for Saturday summer evenings, which delighted audiences with a compelling mix of humour and drama. Stephen Gallagher's Lifeline was also a decent serial that went ignored through lack of marketing.
Only last week, Cape Wrath came to an end on Channel 4. Sure, it misfired and never lived up to its first episode's potential, but the intention to give audiences something different was there. It was just frustrating its The Prisoner-meets-Twin Peaks premise devolved into Balamory-via-cheese-induced-nightmare.
Perhaps what most irritates me now is that producers are making old mistakes with these new concepts! Just when they've taken some faltering steps away from milking "docs and cops" forever, they've begun to pointlessly remix the new stuff. Doctor Who now has two pointless spin-offs (Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures) and Ashes To Ashes is tenuously transplating Life On Mars' concept to the 1980s...
