This Country Remake by those crazy Yanks

[Tony Tony Tony]

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/this-country-remake-welcome-to-flatch-b1849504.html%3famp

Mixed reviews of the trailer at least. Does seem it is going to be tad more frenetic than the original. The US has a long history of remaking hit UK comedy and buggering it up completely. Judging by the trailer at least this one is going the same way. Not sure how much involvement Daisy May and Charlie Cooper had in this but I'm sure they will enjoy the money.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Not sure the casting of US Kurtan was a wise one on that evidence.

Presumably the typical 'look, a gag' editing in the trailer (which doesn't do some of it any favours) is not how the actual show will be presented, so should give it some leeway there.

Isn't the problem that there already is quite a lot of US comedy that's based on small town life and hicksville? Seems like This Country UK was mining a fresh seam whereas this is going over, for America, old ground.

Anyway, I don't think it looked awful.

[BritishHobo]

I've alway been more patient and forgiving of US remakes than most, but there is still an unavoidable flicker with something like this - the original is so clearly rooted in the very real experiences of the Coopers in their hometown, that you wonder how much of that frustration and affection will be lost. Ideally it's being made by people who themselves have experiences to draw on from backwoods US towns, but on the surface of it, it feels like just copy-pasting somebody else's life experiences across. Are they ever going to be able to fill the two leads with as much authenticity as Daisy and Charlie pulled from themselves and people they knew? Kurtan and his absolute passion for things, and his emotional side that means he leaps to furious feelings of betrayal at the drop of a hat, you can't just copy things like that over, simplified down to a checklist of character traits. It all feels so accurate to real people - all the little touches, the little spills over into childish violence in the Uncle Nugget episode, or Kurtan saying that Kerry sticking around in their hometown is just like Tony from Hollyoaks.

I will give it a chance, and I hope it gets the opportunity that so few US remakes get, which is to have enough time to actually become its own thing. Single-season failures like The Inbetweeners, or even ones that failed at pilot stage, like The IT Crowd, become running jokes. But I always wonder what they might have become if they had developed in the way The Office did - if their writing staff got the opportunity to begin to develop their characters in different directions, in their own voices, free of the constraints of the original UK scripts.

[Jockice]

Isn't the problem that there already is quite a lot of US comedy that's based on small town life and hicksville? Seems like This Country UK was mining a fresh seam whereas this is going over, for America, old ground.

Anyway, I don't think it looked awful.

I watched Nebraska again when it was on telly last week. I don't think anything will ever match the small town ennui that showed. Best film this century and one of the best half dozen ever made if you ask me. Which you didn't. But it's true.

[pigamus]

Is it not a thing in America that they remake our sitcoms and bugger them up? If it is, why do they still do it after all these years?

[Pink Gregory]

Maybe when something hits it hits so big (the Office?  Can't think of any others) that it's worth continuing to throw shit at the wall and seeing what sticks.

[Huxleys Babkins]

It probably helped that the first season of The Office was so short (six episodes). It let them get the rehashed UK scripts out of the way quite quickly and figure out what worked and what didn't before starting proper with season 2.

[stonkers]

Is it not a thing in America that they remake our sitcoms and bugger them up? If it is, why do they still do it after all these years?

TBF they have had a few successes over the years, has there ever been a good / successful UK remake of a US sitcom?

[Bernice]

Fawlty Towers was a pretty good re-imagining of Whack-Ass Motel.

[MojoJojo]

Is it not a thing in America that they remake our sitcoms and bugger them up? If it is, why do they still do it after all these years?

Apart from the notable successes, it makes a lot of sense on paper. The hard and risky part of creating a humorous situation has been done, but it hasn't been exploited and worked to death over 90 hours by chucking hundreds of writers at it.

[petril]

TBF they have had a few successes over the years, has there ever been a good / successful UK remake of a US sitcom?

only one I can maybe think of is The Fosters(Good Times.) and that was 40-odd year ago

[letsgobrian]

TBF they have had a few successes over the years, has there ever been a good / successful UK remake of a US sitcom?

ITV got 7 years out of the Who's The Boss remake The Upper Hand (1990-1996).

[stonkers]

ITV got 7 years out of the Who's The Boss remake The Upper Hand (1990-1996).

Beat me to it, I think that's the only one. [nb]Except for Days Like these, they moved it around the schedule to give the other programmes a chance, Stew.[/nb]

[dissolute ocelot]

Beat me to it, I think that's the only one. [nb]Except for Days Like these, they moved it around the schedule to give the other programmes a chance, Stew.[/nb]

Who can forget the Russ Abbot remake of Married With Children? Or the Golden Girls remake Brighton Belles? More to the point, who can remember anything about them even after watching the whole series.

I guess British people and Americans really are unlike in many ways.