So far:
Skins is coming across as a slightly less edgy remake. In particular, let’s make the gay a less objectionable female instead of male…OTOH a lot of the characters (Tony’s Dad) still come across as British.
Being Human: starts off edgier. Gets a bit cheesy. Vampire looks visually a lot vampire-ier. OK a bit too inebriated to judge properly past the first fifteen minutes… What say you all?
I’ve never seen an episode of Skins and I really never found Being Human to be all that special. That said, the fact that America has to remake other country’s shows that are literally still being filmed in that country seems preposterous. What the heck is wrong with actually buying the rights to a British show and actually showing the British show on American television?
Not enough episodes for a US schedule. It’s only 6-8 episodes per series, and there have ony been two series so far.
The third series starts on Sunday, though, and I’m looking forward to it.
I might give the US version a try; but I am a fan of the UK original.
It’s funny that right now various American networks are running remakes of Skins, Being Human and Shameless, while HBO is running Episodes, which is a comedy about an American remake of a British series. So far, the first two episodes of Shameless are shot for shot remakes, while Skins and Being Human were modified for the US.
I didn’t see the US Skins episode yet, but I saw the new Being Human last night and it looks like they are going to be adding lots of plots that weren’t in the original. I guess they have to, since I’m sure they’re planning for it to be longer than 6 episodes. None of that stuff involving the sister was in the original, right?
I don’t know why they had to change the characters names. It kept pulling me out of the story every time they called the vampire character Aidan, since in the original series the actor who played that role was Aidan Turner.
The fifteen or so minutes of (USA) Skins I saw last night while flipping between commercials was enough for me to never want to see it again. My apologies to the Brits for perhaps tarnishing the rep of a great show.
Thoughts on Being Human:
The actress who plays Sally needs to learn how to act.
The show felt rushed. The relationship between the lads was okay, but there was no time for them to show much development in the relationship between them and the ghost. There was the one scene where they met Sally, one scene with Josh and her where he told her to piss off and she whined at him and one scene with Aiden and her where she cried. Then at the end, Josh called Sally for help.
That crying scene was the worst attempt at screen tears I’ve ever witnessed. Not even a dewy eye, just a slightly scrunched up face and some sobs.
Bishop’s hair scares me.
Not to mention, another network already DOES have the rights to the British version and does show it on American television. BBC America airs the original Being Human, anyway.
And it’s not like these things don’t work both ways. Law & Order UK, anyone?
In the UK version, George met up with his ex-fiancee who was the one to get locked into the basement with him. In the US version they just replaced the ex with a sister.
It seemed rushed to me too. I hope they deviate more from the original plots. I don’t want to watch the same stories over again just with different people.
I liked the UK version better, but the US version is all right so far.
I was thinking Sally wasn’t actually crying (no tears) because she couldn’t cry, being a ghost. And though usually I’m the world’s most oblivious and uncritical TV viewer, I did get a bit distracted by Josh’s perpetually furrowed brow. Is that all he knows how to do?
And, Aiden is hot. Bishop is too furry for a vampire, IMHO. The first shot of him when Aiden was being interviewed in the hospital cafeteria, my main thought was, “Ew, hairy arm.”
Wow, I don’t remember any of that at all! I thought that was something new they added.
I guess they are sticking close to the original then.