GOD BLESS AMERICA…. SERIOUSLY!!!

HAIKU REVIEW: This week, a brief ceremonial Japanese review of by far the best movie of the year so far. Juno.

Young Girl Gets Pregnant

Hilarity Then Ensues

Killer Soundtrack Man

MAIN EVENT

There are a number of things that Americans don’t understand, Irony, tact, sports they didn’t invent, the difference between Scottish and Irish accents to name but a few. However, one thing they certainly do understand is how to write and film stuff so that it becomes awesome then put it on the telly. Yes that’s right, American TV is better than any other TV anywhere else in the world. Especially Italian TV, their shows are surreal and a little sinister.

Yankee telly is absolutely better than ours. Don’t even try to deny it. British TV is only good at creating groundbreaking nature docs which everyone intends to watch but never manages to and achingly self-important costume dramas like Bleak House (yes, well done BBC, with one of the greatest books the world has ever seen as your source material you produced four hours of semi-engaging TV, have a big shiny Bafta).

American telly isn’t all gold. The reality TV is pretty shoddy - though certainly no worse than ours - and the news is highly suspect: ‘Killer bees on the rampage in Iowa; what that means for your weekend after the break.’ However, Where the Americans really excel is the drama they produce. It’s not exactly a fair fight to be honest, ‘The Sopranos’ probably spent ‘Life on Mars’s’ entire operating budget just feeding James Gandolfini, likewise, the special effects department on ‘Battlestar Galactica’ wouldn’t deem ‘Doctor Who’s’ CGI as fit even for the screensaver on their office computers. Also, when the Americans decide to make a series, they make-a-fucking-series (unless they cancel it mid run), they go for at least 18 hour long episodes, none of this two feature length specials crap.

We simply don’t take the whole thing as seriously as they do. For example, I have probably as good a Film and TV writing degree as it’s possible to get in Europe. A fact I felt pretty good about until I met someone who went to UCLA film school, I left that conversation firmly put in my place, it was like we were talking about different things. The best thing to do is just accept that ‘The Bill’ is never going to compete with ‘NYPD Blue,’ ‘Spooks’ is never going to outgun ‘24’ and, in general, aside from the odd exception like ‘Prime Suspect’, ‘Cracker’ or ‘The Lakes’ British Drama is never going to measure up. Just sit back and enjoy.

To be continued…