Cool News
Hercules Says BBC America’s SURVIVORS Is Best Left Alone!!
I am – Hercules!!
Like many another, I’m a sucker for a good end-of-the-world tale – “When Worlds Collide,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “On The Beach,” “Day of the Triffids,” “Day of the Dead,” “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” the “Mad Max” movies, “Twilight Zone” episodes like “Time Enough At Last” and “It’s A Good Life” and likely many more I’m not thinking of at the moment. They make it fun and easy to see the world transform as puny humans work to put it back together.
BBC America’s new series “Survivors,” which was a 1975-77 TV series and a 1976 novel by series creator Terry Nations before it became a BBC remake scripted by Adrian Hodges (“Primeval”), is likely to remind most Americans of Stephen King’s superb 1978 novel “The Stand” (itself once transformed into a solid-enough miniseries) because it deals with the decimation of the world’s population via some sort of superflu.
But this new “Survivors” is not an end-of-the-world tale that works, proving inferior – at least as judged by its first four hours – to “The Stand” in almost every regard. The characters are far less compelling, their motivations are too fuzzy, their bonds are unconvincing, their agendas don’t always make sense. Also, while “The Stand” realistically allowed that a nation’s cupboards and abandoned supermarkets have enough canned goods to sustain a 99% wiped-out population over quite a few hard winters, there’s a lot of to-do about resources in “Survivors” that does not remotely ring true.
Few American publications could be bothered to kick in a review:
Entertainment Weekly says:
… It's the end for the world as we know it, and I feel bored. …
The Los Angeles Times says:
… "Survivors" is torn between the desire to go big -- it's the literal end of civilization -- and small -- how would an ordinary person react to the death of everyone he knows? Regrettably "Survivors" succeeds at neither, getting stuck instead in a blurry bog of middle ground. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
… The first episode runs two hours and sets up all the characters, their relationships and backgrounds. It presents a serialized show with a lot of potential for growth and interesting plot possibilities, especially considering a scene at the end of the premiere that raises a whole host of questions.
Variety says:
… isn't great or groundbreaking, but it's a whole lot more than nothing. …
8 p.m. Saturday. BBC America.
“Fringe: Season One” on Blu-ray, $47.99 in December and $42.99 in January, is momentarily $24.99!!
“Farscape: The Complete Series,” $129.49 last year, is momentarily $59.99. That works out to less than $15 per season!!
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Picks up quite a bit series one toward the end and this second series is much better. (airing now in the uk) I was fairly unconvinced at the beginning of series one. I love it now.
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It's dreadful, and as a Brit, I completely disown it. And it has no business being on the BBC, it's got "ITV, 9pm" written through it like a stick of rock.
MILD SPOILER
This week was all about people being kidnapped and forced to mine coal... never mind that there are stadium-sized piles of coal dotted around England that would keep the plague survivors going for hundreds of years... -
pedo bear approves
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I think Invasion of the Boy Snatchers may be a purposeful "typo" just to get the talkbackers going.
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Bit shit to start off, but this latest series has been much better. Max Beesley is cool. prbt is right tho.. it gets retarded at some points especially if you are from manchester (which I am), which is where this is filmed. If you don't think to much tho, it's entertaining enough.
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The first series was generic, right-on shite with an oh-so diverse cast of characters who would have been mostly killed and eaten within the first fortnight in a genuine breakdown of society. The second season has become a darker animal, if still a bit too much of a soft, BBC-lite apocalypse.
The development of Beesley from the token "shady" character to the man that the rest are gradually starting to realise is prepared to do what they cannot to survive has been a welcome one. -
I forced myself to watch season 1 when it aired in the UK, but after episode 1 of season 2 I just couldn't be bothered. It's not bad, but just didn't hold my attention.
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Watched Day of the Triffids and thought that was... ok. Didn't watch this because, by the trailers, it looked like a Stand rip-off. As Herc rightly says, that particular story is hard to surpass.
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its not bad but just could of been so much better if they had concentrated on how they survive and got rid of the stupid drugs company storyline.
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For a start, the original Survivors series it is based on aired in 1975, and The Stand wasn't published until 1978, so it wasn't even on the radar. Also, it is more about how humanity will deal with a reboot in the long run, which will obviously mean that it will take a while to make its points. This is a very different beast to most US shows and personally that is why I like it.
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while the cinematography was excellent and outstanding. it dragged and didnt watched it again.
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The original was great for one season. The following two seasons, and especially the third, were pretty dire (an episode on how to turn cow shit into fuel? Yeah. Gripping). The remake has been consistently excellent, especially the very dark second season currently airing here in the UK. You can lazily compare it to other post-apocalyptic genre if you like, but I'll stick to enjoying it for what it is. A very British apocalypse.
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The original was great for one season. The following two seasons, and especially the third, were pretty dire (an episode on how to turn cow shit into fuel? Yeah. Gripping). The remake has been consistently excellent, especially the very dark second season currently airing here in the UK. You can lazily compare it to other post-apocalyptic genre if you like, but I'll stick to enjoying it for what it is. See subject line.
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It's Terry Nation, not Nations.
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Feb 13, 2010 5:47:57 AM CST
Mabye it's just too "thoughtful" for an American audience?
by damnmichaelbay
It's a good, slow-burning, tv show about the end of civilisation.
What's not to love?
The latest episode about the slavers forcing their serfs to mine coal ended up pretty fucking brutal towards the end of the hour! -
Recently watched an episode from series two that could EASILY have been slotted into the start of series one! NOTHING happens ... they keep meeting the same nasty people and deal with the same problems week after week. AWFUL!
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We're into the second season in the UK and it's spiraling downwards, getting lost in it's own soap operaThe Beeb fails to see that people don't tune into apocalyptic narrative for soap - to find out who really wants to shag who...And it's attempts to maintain a foreboding conspiracy sub-plot is just that - far too 'sub', taking second place to the Beebs middle-class fascination with how the suburban professional will survive without the police to protect them from the heathen working classes, who've been set-loose on their vain ethics and pretentious moralities.All in all, as in all TV genres nowadays, the BBC have allowed themselves, through a decade of dumbing-down, to be totally out-classed by America.The BBC now have an in-house 'look' that makes every production look and feel the same -- BBCSlick/BBCBland. I imagine they have the same crew and Execs working on everything from Spooks, to Dr Who, to the abysmal Hustle and Hotel Babylon, to Survivors, Silent Witness and Waking The Dead.... All of these shows have the same superficial slickness and shallow depth of a 30 second advert; they obviously have the same execs working with the same Editors and Flame Artists, putting the effects, filters and transitions onto every single BBC Drama. It's gravy-train of relationships between the BBC, the crewing companies and the Post facilities - a conspiracy far more insidious that that limply suggested in Survivors, which dominates the BBC market place, giving license payers this utter trivial hand-job of a series.For example, the Kudos company, who make Spooks, as well as the utter shite Hustle - both with the BBC in-house 'slick-effect' - also make the excellent gritty, non-slick, surprising 'THE FIXER'. Why's The Fixer any different ? Because it's on ITV, not the BBC; it hasn't been Exec-produced to death by the vacuous heads and middle-management of the Beebs self appointed style-police.There needs to be big creative and management changes at the top of BBC Drama, and BBC Entertainment, or else have their license fee (which everyone in the UK HAS to pay by law) stopped.The only decent show the Beeb has made in donkeys years is the recent 'Wallander', starring Kenneth Brannagh - if you watch the end credits, you'll notice the vast majority of crew and talent are Scandinavian (where it's shot- away from thee ruinous digits of the BBC Drama. I'm not saying the Swedish are GREAT filmmakers, but it's using a new pool of talent that has invigorated this show. There's plenty of alternative talent in the UK, but the Beebs tunnel vision, nepotistic system, in which production managers keep hiring the same crews and Post talent through fear, laziness, over-familiarity and family connections guarantees a constant stream of dull BBC Corporate Drama.
BTW, yes i am in the business and am bloody bitter at seeing the same knob-jockeys screwing up one decent program after another. Often i've been in edits in which the filmmakers are forced to dull-down and homogenize a program at the behest and vanity of a lofty Exec who thinks the only people that watch TV are their own middle-class professional clique. BBC RIP -
Seen Panorama or Horizon lately?
If the BBC had any balls at all, they'd have just run the Swedish Wallander at primetime, with subtitles. Nothing against Ken, but in terms of character and story, that version is superior in every way possible. -
I agree, but in terms of BBC-made content, Wallander is the only prime-time drama in years that uses alternative talent pool to it's usual roster.My point is that it's the limited pool of 'trusted' talent, whom Producers and Production Managers repeatedly turn to that has homogenized BBC Drama to death. They need to take chances on new faces behind the cameras and in the edit suites. But the pressure from the lofty Execs on Producers and Production Managers to produce more-of-the-same TV has been preventing any new talent from working on BBC Drama productions for over a decade now - hence every damn Drama they produce is a stylistic facsimile in the Beebs entrenched in-house style. So regardless of a scripts quality, it turns out bland, predictable and totally un-challenging. It's a gravy train that the public are forced to pay for. As industry worker i don't want to see the BBC lose the license fee, but it's far worse to see it squandered by a narrow-visioned, uncreative, ratings-chasing management.
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Good old Terry Nation.
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The BBC version isn't that different in tone or look. Plus Branagh is bloody marvellous in it.
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The first series picked up towards the end though. Maybe they'll try yet another reboot of DOOMWATCH next!
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America has Mad Men, Dexter, LOST and Breaking Bad while us Brits have to settle for this dogshit, Skins and Merlin. We are a fucking joke when it comes to drama.
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DMB - It sounds like many of your fellow countrymen don't think it's "thoughtful", just crap. PRBT - As an American, I agree about Wallender. I would much rather see the Swedish original with subtitles. There is something just wrong about watching a bunch of Brit actors speak in their normal accents but say all these Swedish names and locations and KB's whole "Swedish" acting approach being putting on a dour, depressed face and messing up his hair. It's kind of ridiculous in this day and age. Couldn't they at least be bothered to put on the appropriate accent? Or better yet, instead of KB use Stellan Starsgard!!
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With the correct little circle-thingy about the "A"...which I don't have on my keyboard. :)
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Okay, I just woke up, what do you want from me?
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Survivors is a fucking great show..don't know what Hercules is on about frankly. Yes the first couple of eps sets things in motion and the pilot is mostly set up but the series really gets going about half way through. The 2nd season on BBC in the u.k now is even better. I'm not saying all this just coz im english..i'll admit when we do shitty shows..Demons anyone?! but survivors is a good one. Max beasleys Tom Price portryal is amazing. To my american friends..ignore Hercules and check this out..it's not an fx fest nor is it meant to be but you'll be rewarded if you take time with it.
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Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes, Spooks, Doctor Who, which are faves for me. It co-funds series with HBO, such as Rome, or House of Saddam.
I don't think you can get away with saying they're shit at drama. If anything, they're good at drama, they just don't do enough of it, or have enough variety. -
All he "procedurals” made by CBS-The Mentalist, Cold Case, (the late) Without a Trace, Criminal Minds, Numbers, NCIS,-all look the same. The same directors, same lighting, same location work shot in the same California park, when half of these shows are set on the East Coast of the USA. Think the difference of Oxford compared to Newcastle.A similar thing happened in the 1970’s with Universal shows on NBC. They were notorious for their overuse of ADR. The actor would not move his mouth and the exec would make them add in 2 seconds of dialog because he did not want just a 3 second shot of the actors walking out the door. Sadly NBC via it cable channel USA has made Burn Notice and White Collar do this overuse of ADR as well over the past year. It takes you right out of the show.-----later----m
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That show has balls and is VERY well written... I am talking BIG, BRASS BALLS.
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All the "procedurals” made by CBS-The Mentalist, Cold Case, (the late) Without a Trace, Criminal Minds, Numbers, NCIS,-all look the same. The same directors, same lighting, same location work shot in the same California park, when half of these shows are set on the East Coast of the USA. Think the difference of Southampton compared to Glasgow.A similar thing happened in the 1970’s with Universal shows on NBC. They were notorious for their overuse of ADR. The actor would not move his mouth and the exec would make them add in 3 seconds of dialog because he did not want just a 3 second shot of the actors walking out the door. Sadly NBC via its cable channel USA has made Burn Notice and White Collar do this overuse of ADR as well over the past year. It takes you right out of the show.
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Feb 13, 2010 10:48:59 AM CST
For decent upcoming (and recent) BBC dramas, see this:
by supertoyslast
http://tinyurl.com/y8ajp43Awesome trailer. Just awesome.
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Being Human is the best drama on British TV at the moment, not to mention one of the best British fantasy shows in recent memory. And yet no reports on the new series on a geek site like AICN.
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Amazon.co.uk has it on DVD if you have a region free player. GREAT STUFF. Series 2 not so great....haven't had time to watch Season three...
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new Doctor Who and return of Being Human. A shame Torchwood is iimbo.
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In the UK, it's broadcast under the name "Spooks". And yes, it kicks all kind of fucking ass.
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An ok trailer, but the problem is the shows themselves are shot & cut just like this trailer. Everything on the Beeb now feels like a Glaxo Smith Kline corporate film - slick and safe with a Coldplay-esque underscore that hopes to convince you that this is the 'in thing' and it's really really cool.... patronizing twats.
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Ashes To Ashes shat all over the memory of Life On Mars - not a patch - in the spirit of my complaint, they took the look and gimmick of the original and produced a facsimile. Looks like Life On Mars, but it ain't....
Spooks (called 'MI-5' in America) and Doctor Who have indeed displayed some great writing, particularly the former. But again, the BBC suits have demanded style over contents and what we get is diminishing returns; weaker, blander story-lines hiding under a glossy veneer (the latter being a strong culprit - the xmas Dr Who was the worst so far of the rebooted series)This veneer is in itself a formula and the Beeb churn out concept after concept dressed in this same outfit. It's lazy, incestuous, doomed program making.@MGTHEDJ, yep, i can see you guys are suffering this poor management too, but at least you have HBO, Showtime etc. to give you the good stuff to compensate. That's supposed to be the BBC's mandate here, but alas they're now the biggest offenders of all at making copycat TV. -
BTW, the fact that co-prods such as Rome and House of Saddam are so damn good proves my point: When the Beeb outside of their nepotistic inbred talent pool they can produce the quality when expect from them.
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I disagree about Ashes to Ashes. It's a very different animal to Life on Mars, and it started very badly by overhyping the public response to Gene Hunt. But it's its own animal now, and I like it for what it is.
Doctor Who has had some great hours, but some awful shit ones as well. Yet I don't think the xmas episode was the worst ever. That prize goes to the Davros episode which featured the Tardis towing the fucking planet Earth at superluminal speeds.
Not even Brannon Braga during the highest drug fuelled orgy of his life, has ever been that retarded.
But don't let me give the impression I disagree with you completely. The BBC are inbred and nepotistic, true. Just look at how often David Tennant was on tv over the xmas period. I think it was 75 guest starring appearances? -
On MI-5 (Spooks), no matter who the villain of the week is it always turns out to be the Americans' fault. LOL.
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It's hardly ever the Americans fault. But nice to see that any minor criticism should be pounced upon, so that you can claim the show has a clear anti-American bias or something.
How often was the bad guy remotely connected to America in any way?
First season : 1 episode (american anti-abortionist)
Second season : 1 episode (rogue CIA agent)
Third season : 0
Fourth season : 3 episodes (US based anarchist group, one corporatist)
I could go on, but what's the point? You've no doubt got your opinion and evidence will not dissuade you.
The fact is, the show is pretty accurate both in terms of its portrayal of the US/UK relationship, the infighting between agencies, and the way the security of the UK is frequently interfered with for political ends. -
Sometimes it's just tangential to the plot, but the overall and constant implication is that if the US would just get out of the way, or stop actively fucking things up, these heroes of the UK could easily save the world in 55 minutes every week. The makers want it both ways, they want the terrorist threat but they want to take the moral high ground and tsk-tsk about those stupid Americans. And I'm a Liberal! And hey, with the idiot Bush in office who can blame the British for feeling and wanting to vent a not-so-veiled hostility in their entertainment. I'm just saying, I found it to be as blatantly jingoistic as any show made for the NCIS crowd here in the States. The first episode of the series is the fucking worst - that ridiculous plot about an anti-abortionist coming to England to blow shit up. Gimme' a break. And the actress that they got to play the part did perhaps the worst Southern accent in the history of the medium. She was this cartoon monster, it was absurd. And, again, I'm a Pro-Choice Liberal myself. The CIA double agent episode was equally bad, with top guy delivering a somber lecture at the end about how disgusted he is with America. Doesn't really take a lot of reading into things... I don't know if it's "accurate", but it certainly put me off after a while. That and bad soap opera about people in the office getting laid.
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You list two of the examples I gave you myself. That still doesn't support your accusation that the Americans are the villains every week.
What do you need? A fucking Powerpoint presentation with a histogram of the shows villains broken down by country?
If you were so offended by those *two* episodes in the first *two* years, then that says more about your inability to take a little criticism of your country, than any protestations about your political views. -
Like you wouldn't be offended if there was an American spy show that made MI-5 look bad. Don't be a hypocrite. I say I'm a Liberal and lifelong Democrat because I'm equally as proud of that as I am of my country, they're not mutually exclusive no matter what these Right Wing idiots say these days. But I said very clearly it wasn't always about who the main villain was, but just the general tone and regular references to US agencies. It was certainly a running theme. I guess you missed my first few sentences there - who needs a Powerpoint lesson? And you don't dispute me on those episodes and their virulent anti-American themes. (You gotta' know that first episode is a complete joke) I'm just saying those soapbox episodes just binged out on what was otherwise the constant subtext. Do I have to put it in simpler terms for you? I have no idea with criticism of the US, as long as it's in context and in perspective. The Bush Years were tough on us all, believe me. But Spooks was a sop to a pissed-off British audience, a power and revenge fantasy, and as such, it may not appeal to us Yanks. But hey, love your stupid-ass show. Like 90% of contemporary British drama on TV it is/was exceedingly lame.
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with criticism of the US" - is what I meant to write.
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For one, I wouldn't give a crap about a US show mocking MI5, as I'm not British. I'd only care if it was done well.
So I'm not a hypocrite. You continue to maintain that criticism of the US was a running theme. But the facts don't support you. They just don't. The most common villains in the show are from the middle east, or from within England itself. You can claim it was "constant subtext" all you want, it still won't be true.
So the only question is, why would claim this falsehood? The most likely answer is that the show offended you, by its *occasional* criticism of the US. And like a deeply insecure kid who's constantly screaming "I'M THE BEST!!" you just couldn't handle the criticism. -
You only counted 4 seasons (or series) of a show that has been on close to 10 years. Why's that? Again, I guess you missed part of what I wrote... If the criticism was justified and in perspective, then I'm fine with it. And if it's not just downright silly. Are Southern Pro-Lifers a big security threat for the UK? (Oh, I guess you don't know, because you're SOMEHWERE ELSE...you're not even a Brit; in which case, how do you know the show is "accurate" as you called it? Hmmm. Could it be you were just talking out of your ass?) Or, here, I'll put it in your EXACT words: If it's done well. The shows I saw were clunky, obvious, melodramatic, pedantic, self-righteous and sometimes just plain stupid. So, yeah, maybe if it was all part of a great show I wouldn't focus on it so much. Amazon's blurb for the sixth season includes this line: "The show's strident anti-American tone also seems to have been toned down in favor of straight-ahead espionage, which is a welcome departure from previous seasons." So obviously it's just me being "insecure" and there's no basis in reality.
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What's your "mystery location"? What wonderful and emotionally secure country do you live in and how does that make you an expert on spy agencies?
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With Nick Fucking Frost as John Self? Holy shit that is goddamn awesome.
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I've been watching it. I have a huge problem with them not having lots of weapons and they keep crying how guns are bad, bad things. Violence is bad. PLEASE, it makes you want to punch all of them. On the flip side, I like some of the characters, but it's not enough to keep this thing going. And it's not realistic with the supplies. Hardly anyone left in the world and they keep screaming how they are no supplies, WTF??? Come on, the stores would still be stocked, the warehouses would be full. For a very small population, you'd still have stuff for years.
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If ever there were a proverb put to practice in the Intelligence community. It'd be "Me against my brother; me and my brother against our cousin; and me, my brother and my cousin against the stranger."
And that starts at home long before it goes abroad. Thames House sneers at Vauxhall Cross who bigtimes Thames House and who both look down there nose at Langley who is bigtiming the Hoover Building who think Thames...a bit 'fey'.. Meanwhile, Ft Meade thinks they are all a little antiquated and the lads from Casey House are all smokin thai stick in Bali with there 'second' wife.. while the Special Operations folk are thinkin as Sam did say "Spys. bunch a bitchy little girls." But, when they all get together for a family BBQ.. the other fellas mostly, usually wind up in the Sauce.
Point is, on the show.. Rebeck2, you are as likely to here the Security Service blaming the Secret Intelligence Service as the CIA or Yanks in general.
And V'shael. Yanks are the best. You're welcome.
Now please enjoy this wonderful pick of Tom and Zoe in the most excellent garb ever:
http://tinyurl.com/y9hdkfe
To recover to topic.. Did you know that one of the writers on the original 'Survivors', Don Shaw wrote the Great Cadbury Cream Egg Mystery? How bout that. -
As long as you're talking about the first three series' only, then I wholeheartedly agree. After that, Hustle went off the rails BIG TIME. It's a shadow of it's former self now, even if Kelly Adams is supremely fuckable. Probably moreso than Jaimie Murray.
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I rented it repeatedly as a kid, and recently read the book. The book is must-read, although the long version is a tad saggy in the middle, but damn if that isn't the greatest ever apocalyptic novel.
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But degenerated Into a 24 clone very quickly.
and as regards to spooks making Americans look stupid, they tend to do that themselves most of the time, 24 has caSt various countries as it's villains over the years. The reason spooks has used Americans so often, is because this an accurate portayl of modern espionage between two countries that claim to be friends but undoubtedly spy on each other.
As US intelligence (practically an oxymoron anyway), how many friendly fire incidents have they been responsible for over the years? -
catlettuce4 - The original show was so so boring ! all the cast did were drink tea,walk in fields and wear wellington boots everywere.if something remotley interesting happened it was a miracle..i got bored of it frankly. I'm not in general a fan of febbots but the new survivors is a gazillion times better than the original. This luckily is a rebbots done right
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catlettuce4 - The original show was so so boring ! all the cast did were drink tea,walk in fields and wear wellington boots everywere.if something remotley interesting happened it was a miracle..i got bored of it frankly. I'm not in general a fan of febbots but the new survivors is a gazillion times better than the original. This luckily is a reboots done right
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catlettuce4 - The original show was so so boring ! all the cast did were drink tea,walk in fields and wear wellington boots everywere.if something remotley interesting happened it was a miracle..i got bored of it frankly. I'm not in general a fan of reboots but the new survivors is a gazillion times better than the original. This luckily is a reboot done right
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I hope you're joking, but if not then sorry, but yeah, Hustle is bad telly. The idea is ok and some of the scripts have their patchy merits, but the high gloss slick as diarrhea format it's been submerged in overpowers and redirects any chance of quality. Instead it's so preoccupied with how cool and clever it is, that it's, well, not clever at all and only as cool as the emperors new clothes; it will date very poorly and in a short time it'll be featuring heavily on compilation shows about the crap TV we watched in the past. It's a self-indulgent orgy of a show - a narcissistic sick-puppy of a format that prevents anything fresh, challenging, or of any depth from escaping it's little greasy bubble. When i say format, i don't even mean the 'set-up the goal, the jeopardy and sex-interest', i mean the over-produced in-house BBC gloss, gimmiky Script Edit / Shoot / Edit & Online that they now squeeze every primetime show into so that it has 'The 21st century BBC look'. Most TV drama has always used slight of hand to suggest and allude to depth of character and theme. This 'format' has dispensed with even that brief handshake before it fucks you and says goodbye.Take Sobengough's first 'Oceans' film: slick and cool, but we didn't mind - it was what it said on the box and it did it well. Then came Ocean's 12, & 13.... duller and duller, style over content, films that are made to pay the producer's mortgages...
Well in the UK the BBC is on Oceans 998.... Imagine that in fact every new film made anywhere is done by the same Oceans producers, crew, post facilities - they're not movies, they're products churned out from a factory with zero innovation or individuality. That's where the trusted, historic, respected BBC has positioned itself. The UK license fee is charged so that the BBC can produce quality innovation that doesn't rely on market pressure. Instead they use it to pay themselves huge salaries, while pandering to the market place making stuff they can sell worldwide - glossy homogenous fare that sells well abroad, but does nothing to honor the the UK license fee they take. They ned to spread the work around to new talent in order to create the oxygen of innovation, just as they used to when they gave us Mike Lee, Ken Loach, Dennis Potter, Danny Boyle and many more. They used to nurture talent, now they nurture ratings. -
And the whole salary issue... it's frankly disgusting: 400 staff on over £100k a year? For the love of God, why? What happened to the BBC being a privilege to work for?
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I really hate being told what is 'bad telly' when we've long since reached a point in human development where we are mostly all quite capable of making our own choices in matters of tasteI like Hustle, I like it quite a lot - even after the cast change and a long time of running I like it! Why do I like it? I like the characters, I like the style, I like the general atmosphere. I don't like Waking the Dead, I don't really like Survivors that much but I'm not going to tell people that do like them that they are idiots (which is what this ideology of taking your recieved opinion as gospel really amounts to). I think Ashes to Ashes is great, maybe even surpassing Life on Mars in some respects.I think Being Human is one of the best shows I have ever seen, up there with Jeckyll.I like the Kudos way of working because in some ways it reminds me of the ITC days of the 70's, slick, entertaining television.To get on some high horse and proclaim them to be shit purely because they don't meet your personal criteria (even if you're in the business) is rank arrogance.The BBC are going through a bit of a golden age when it comes to drama production - I'd much rather have this than the old days of Bugs and Crime Travellers and if you watch almost any drama show from the 70's then they are as stylistically similar in there own way as we have today.
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Thought it was alright, nothing round breaking, but it has got the "Johnson" in and as we all know he should have been the Doc Who ! Johnson rules.
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...it is not groundbreaking or great, but it is watchable, and the characters have enough personality to keep it going for a while. It reminds me a little of "Jeremiah", except with less people. Cuse and Lindelof should co-opt this series for their next big thing after "Lost".
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How come we keep getting updates on the utter bolux that is Lost and 24.? Survivors - the only mystery is why they are showing it to US audiences who don't even have the first clue about how to correctly speak the English language, never mind understand the various dialects. Remember how you needed 'Kes' dubbed.? HARRY - PLEASE EMPLOY SOMEONE OTHER THAN THIS FUCKWIT HERCULES.
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Have to agree completely... The originals are superior in every way. The remakes are half-decent but, given half a chance with a BBC1 screening, I'm sure the GB public would love them. Unfortunately, the whole world seems content to play dumb.
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