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I think this is why British crime dramas / police procedurals seem to feel more real (to me, raised in a post-colonial country) - very few people look like temp
by EdwardDiego 6y ago
I think this is why British crime dramas / police procedurals seem to feel more real (to me, raised in a post-colonial country) - very few people look like temporarily financially embarrassed models slumming it as detectives.
- jinushaun 6y agoYes! Although after binging watching 21 seasons of Midsomer Murders, we noticed everyone in the later season got a lot hotter. Consequently, the plot lines got a lot more “conventional” (read: American).
- herbstein 6y agoCompletely off-topic: I'm actually doing something similar -- watching all of Midsomer Murders. I absolutely love the way John Nettles' Barnaby (haven't seen any with the new actor) is righteous and upstanding without becoming preachy. In particular S01E03 where his partner's homophobia is shut down. The fact that most of the horrible people are high-brow also has a nice feel to it -- very Columbo-esque.
- KineticLensman 6y ago> we noticed everyone in the later season got a lot hotter Not always. (mild spoiler) The resident pathologist Dr Fleur Perkins who appears in series 20 is played by seventy year old Annette Badland, [0] who is much sterner than her predecessor (a much younger Manjinder Virk [1]). That said, Midsomer Murders does now have a different demographic than the earlier series, which typically involved older, white eccentrics living in quaint English villages, and caricatured a rural society that is now long gone. The cast is now more likely to include Black and Asian characters in various roles as good guys, villains, innocents, suspects and guilty parties. The current Mrs Barnaby is a 50-year old woman, also a stronger character than her predecessor, who was also in her 50s when she first appeared in the series. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annette_Badland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annette_Badland [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manjinder_Virk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manjinder_Virk
- wj 6y agoAgreed. British shows have characters that look like what people outside of LA look like.
- rayiner 6y agoIn fact those people are smoking by British standards.
- Blikkentrekker 6y agoOne of the last television series I watched was The Practice, which not only was notable for having both attractive, average, and ugly cast members, but it is actually a realistic plot point that sometimes comes up with envy between them. But yes, European media in general is less focused on physical æsthetic perfection than I find U.S.A, Japanese, Korean, and Indian media to be; I often find a similar result in German, Swedish and Dutch television series that characters seem to look considerably more average.
- miserablegit 6y agoEh, kinda. Luther? Sherlock? Global sex-symbol superstars right there. The same forces at play in Hollywood are at work in London, it's just that the best-looking ones move out to California as well.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- edmundsauto 6y agoThe main characters in Sherlock, sure. But the ancillary characters are much more normal.
- kenneth 6y agoNot sure if it's a taste thing, but I don't find any single character on Sherlock to be particularly attractive, having just binged on the entirely of the show in the past two weeks.
- EdwardDiego 6y agoI imagine it amuses Benedict Cumberbatch immensely that he's referred to often as the "Thinking Woman's Crumpet".
- EdwardDiego 6y agoLuther, okay, I'll grant you, it's Idris Elba. But everyone else around him (aside from his ex) looks rather, well, normal and British. Ruth Wilson is a great actress, and, in my opinion, somewhat attractive, but she's not of the "Moved to LA and looking for stardom" mould that a lot of American actors and actresses fall into.
- toyg 6y ago“Somewhat” attractive? Ruth Wilson is very hot, if you excuse my objectifying. She’s had interesting career moves, but would definitely not look out of place in any US movie or tv series...
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- omosubi 6y agoI also like how much shorter british seasons are
- WarOnPrivacy 6y agoUS studios agree with you. Since the late 90's US series have been migrating from ~24/ea toward 6 or so.
- vidanay 6y agoWe recently watched the entirety of New Tricks. Can't get more average looking than those characters.
- secfirstmd 6y agoThe original Office was an outstanding example of portraying normal people. The US version pushed a good bit more to some people being a bit cartoonish.
- porknubbins 6y agoI love this about British/ Nordic tv. It feels as though every show injects more gritty realism compared to US polish. There is a spectrum though and US is actually on the better end. Most Asian tv shows feature the a tiny pool of the same gorgeous people who may or may not have acting skills.
- secfirstmd 6y agoJust from my own observation recently it's also the case with French, German and Israeli TV. Much more nuanced, realistic etc.
- bigiain 6y agoAnd Russian cinema. Or at least all the Russian cinema that makes it to Australia and I get to see...
- lstodd 6y agoI guess the crap gets filtered out. But I'm curious - what exactly gets to Australia from Russia nowadays?
- bigiain 6y agoThe ones that have stuck in my head over the years have been Daywatch and Nightwatch, Leviathan, and How I Ended This Summer. I’m sure there’s a few more I can’t remember right now. (I highly recommend all of those...)
- lstodd 6y agoOh, sure, the former two are very nice. You might like https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376968/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376968/ The Return and it sequel, The Banishment https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0488905/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0488905/ They are sort of 'harder' than the 'How I Ended This Summer'. Unfortunately, 2010-s didn't deliver much.
- astrange 6y agoI don't know if this is just what they picked for BBC America, but every single British TV comedy I've ever watched has a cast of 90% white haired elderly people sitting around and being sarcastic at each other. Last of the Summer Wine, Dad's Army, Are You Being Served, etc etc. These were also the only thing my parents watched, so it was a relief when I got to watch normal people TV and saw someone in their 20s.
- tluyben2 6y ago> Last of the Summer Wine, Dad's Army, Are You Being Served, etc etc. Those are, depending on taste, some of the worst. And they are also old. There was a lot of good from that era, comedy and other, like fawlty towers, blake's 7 (not comedy), monty python etc. I think gp was referring to modern UK crime shows though? As in the days of dads army and are you being served, american shows also were not like in the article. Or are they showing re-runs of these shows on BBC America now?
- astrange 6y agoWell if you're wondering, I went to visit my family in the UK right before it stopped being possible to travel and they made me watch all these shows again. (I think I got to see Dr Who once.) So someone still likes them.
- sammorrowdrums 6y agoI was so confused by this when I saw which British TV shows were being broadcast in America, I lived there for a year as a 17 year old. Suddenly dated stereotypes and the general lack of awareness about contemporary British culture, accents, etc. made complete sense. Even back then (about 17 years ago) the titles mentioned above were equivalent to the lowest tier cable re-runs on one of those retro TV channels that thrives on being cheap.
- EdwardDiego 6y agoI'm quite enjoying BBC America's The Watch, rather loosely based on Terry Pratchett's Guards novels. It has the occasional conventionally attractive actor, but boy howdy, they really roughed up Richard Dormer, who plays Sam Vimes.