Gee, Yanks a lot
IT may only just be August – but in TV Land they’re already on the verge of autumn.
Telly’s PR departments and trail-making machines are in Warp Factor Seven Overdrive, letting us know about the new drama series and old faves that are on the verge of returning.
There’s been a positive plethora of puff pieces for domestic shows on the way or on the way back.
Channel 4’s misery marathon The Mill has already returned, the equally dour The Village will be back soon on BBC1 and New Tricks keeps telling us it is entering it’s 11th year. Dennis Waterman is the last man standing from the original series broadcast when Harold Wilson was still Prime Minister.
Plus we have at first enjoyed and now endure endless hype and hot air about the return of Sherlock and Doctor Who.
Traditionally the end of the school holidays marked the return of quality drama. We used to be excited and grateful that the summer of endless repeats was over. Not any more. Thanks to American TV the best, the wittiest, and the glossiest TV shows of all time are being made right now and are to be found somewhere in our multi-channel universe, 52 weeks of the year.
My favourite drama shows of the past decade have all come courtesy of the Stars and Stripes. Think of the variety they’ve given us. From Game of Thrones to The Sopranos, to Supernatural and Ray Donovan. The ultra- violent Banshee, which has just returned, and the ultra-complicated Rubicon, shown here in a graveyard slot on BBC4 and criminally cancelled in the States after one series.
Quality
Oh, and it’s a TV law that every show that ends in “ist” is superb. The Mentalist, The Blacklist and the saucy but fun comedy drama, The Client List.
Who didn’t love Penny Dreadful, and Bates Motel and Fargo? Grimm on Watch is great, park-your-brain-at-the-door fun. The original and best Vegas CSI is bang back on form with Ted Danson.
And even shows that didn’t make it in the States sadly outshine the vast majority of our tiny drama output.
Greg Kinnear is ace as sleazebag lawyer Rake. The Good Doctor ghost medical drama starring Patrick Wilson was also creepily entertaining. Quality dramas that were cancelled because the competition is just so great. Some list. And this week the best western show of all time began its third series on ITV 4. Hell on Wheels is the story of the building of the Pacific railroad. Civil War vendettas, tattooed prostitutes and a psychopathic Norwegian enforcer known as the Swede are all stirred into the mix. There is just too much Stateside stuff to watch and enjoy. The proof is Breaking Bad, pictured left, praised as one of the best shows of all time but unwatched in our house. Sure we’ll get round to it, like we’ll get round to Prison Break and Mad Men, possibly even Lost.
We Brits do produce quality. Happy Valley was a triumph, Scott and Bailey is brilliant and Life on Mars has been remade in the States. But our successes cannot begin to compare to America’s hit rate.
My final point is, why did none of these shows make it on to ITV or the BBC?
The latter delights in buying gloomy, subtitled Scandanavian s l urry masquerading as crime drama. And ITV simply always gets it wrong.
When Supernatural was up for grabs, they went for Pushing Daisies.
It sometimes seems as if mainstream British TV executives wouldn’t recognise a hit show if it bit them on the bum.