The OP has obviously watched the American shows, so he's speaking from his perspective in that light.
Law & Order: UK...ripoff?
- Thread starter Warped9
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He's not paying for it, how has it ripped him off in anyway? Besides, if he's not British, it's not really aimed at him either.
I've loved L&O so far. (Barring the last episode, which was just shoddy.) I'm in my twenties, and American L&O was just not something which I or any of my friends ever watched. The police procedurals we watched were British shows like The Bill or Prime Suspect in the evenings. Then later, the slicker US ensemble cast shows like CSI.
So, I'm loving L&O:UK as a UK top show playing with the glossy US spin on the genre. The recycling of episodes means nothing to me in terms of ennui or feeling cheated because I've not seen them. They just aren't something watched or talked about that much here. On the other hand, having seen a couple of the originals after seeing the UK ones was just interesting, because you can see how changed they are by the cultural nuances.
I wonder if me 'n' my sort are the kind of demographic they're going for - British police procedural fans who find the L&O spin novel rather than L&O fans confronted with a British spin.
So, I'm loving L&O:UK as a UK top show playing with the glossy US spin on the genre. The recycling of episodes means nothing to me in terms of ennui or feeling cheated because I've not seen them. They just aren't something watched or talked about that much here. On the other hand, having seen a couple of the originals after seeing the UK ones was just interesting, because you can see how changed they are by the cultural nuances.
I wonder if me 'n' my sort are the kind of demographic they're going for - British police procedural fans who find the L&O spin novel rather than L&O fans confronted with a British spin.
Undoubtedly. The whole point of a remake like this is to appeal to a different audience, to broaden the franchise into new markets. If they want to appeal to the same audience, that's what the original show is for.
I presume he is British, but I could be wrong. Whether he's right that it's a ripoff or not is debatable. My point is that he wasn't using the word incorrectly. He feels it's a bad deal for the consumer, or viewer if you prefer (since money isn't directly changing hands in this case - since I believe ITV isn't license-supported), to get recycled scripts, ergo he applied the term 'ripoff'.
If the OP has been tuning in to the show in the past couple weeks, I'd hazard a guess that he's Canadian or at least watching it on Canadian network Citytv, where it premiered eight days ago. I don't think the show is currently airing on British TV.
Seems fairly obvious he meant it ripped off the original, not ripped him (the consumer) off.
I'm assuming Warped9 is Canadian, because I believe it recently started airing there.
Nope, they split the first 12 in to 2 6 part series, the second doesn't start until the autumn.
I'm Canadian and I hadn't even heard of the UK series (or a French version) until last week.
I used the word "rip-off" because I didn't feel a raspberry would suffice in text form.
I was looking at his second post where he said:
You're right that in his original post he called it a ripoff of the original, but he seemed to clarify that with the above statement.
The episodes were well acted and did diverge in small ways from the original episodes. But I saw those originals in their first run (I've been watching L&O since it debuted in '89) and those versions contributed to me really getting into the series.
I was curious about what a L&O: UK could be like with their different judicial system from the U.S. But retelling stories I already know well save for a British flavour to them isn't enough incentive for me to watch.
I was curious about what a L&O: UK could be like with their different judicial system from the U.S. But retelling stories I already know well save for a British flavour to them isn't enough incentive for me to watch.
Well for that you can blame Dick Wolf, his company made it a contractual requirement that they be based on episode from the original series.
They even said they didn't know if they'd be allowed to make any original stories for a second series if it happened, but I guess that's looking unlikely now with ITV deciding they want to focus more on live entertainment shows.
From what I understand, the 1st season of the American Office is pretty much a total rehash of the British version. After that, the American version really struck out in its own direction.
There are a few other British series that were remade in the U.S. Cosby (the later CBS series, not NBC's The Cosby Show) was an American remake of One Foot in the Grave. NBC attempted unsuccessful American remakes of Coupling & Red Dwarf. Coupling mostly just reused the old British scripts and only lasted 11 episodes, only 4 of which were aired. Red Dwarf went through a few different iterations but never made it past the pilot stage and was never aired on TV, although you can find it on Youtube. (While it's generally acknowledged that the American Red Dwarf was crap, nearly all of its actors would later go on to better things. In fact, the American versions of Cat & Holly were played by Terry Farrell & Jane Leeves, who immediately went on to play Jadzia Dax on Star Trek: Deep Space 9 & Daphne Moon on Frasier, respectively.)
Well, it's not like the old Ben Stone episodes get as much rerun time anyway.
The one thing that bums me out about the recycling of old Law & Order scripts for the new British version is that it makes it that much more awkward to do a proper crossover story later.
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Life on Mars was a poor remake of the UK original.
A sort-of second season is definitely happening, as there's 13 episodes in the first run, seven of which were split off to run earlier than originally planned earlier this year. The other six are presumably waiting for autumn (that's the fall, Americans!). As for a proper second run, ITV said when canceling Primeval that they wanted to focus their drama output on 'post-watershed' shows... which fits with L&O.
As for recycling, John Steed solved the same case twice at least three times in The Avengers, sometimes within two seasons...
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