Bitchy?

[evildrem]

Am I allowed to be somewhat irritated by people claiming a tv show is 'too British' as a reason for not liking it?

..or is this just me being prickly and oversensitive?

All opinions welcome, please help yourself to cucumber sandwiches, I'll be in the living room toasting crumpets and torturing small colonial children.

More 'E' please Vicar!

Comments

[crowie.livejournal.com]

Errr.. what show when and where?

pffft, or well I guess people can have their opinions but it's perfectly ok to be irritated.

I think its more the way it was expressed

[evildrem.livejournal.com]

..I can understand people not getting some of the references in Brit tv so feeling alienated or not interested, hey I feel like that about some US stuff but I wouldn't say I didn't like something because it was 'too American'

Ahh well. Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one :)

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

But I have several!...

...opinions.

[slb44.livejournal.com]

I'll help as long as they're not commonwealth colonial children. *bg*

Nah..

[evildrem.livejournal.com]

...all colonial children. Torture em all I say. Damn foreigners, not appreciating our tv... *insert other gross cultural stereotyping here*

Re: Nah..

[mallyns.livejournal.com]

Hey! I resemble that remark. :oP

If an American doesn't get or like Brit TV then they are stupid and need to be tortured, but there are a few of us that likes it.

I even know how to make real tea.

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Cucumber sandwiches! Did you trim the crusts?

I'd be somewhat irritated too, so either the answer is 'no', or I'm oversensitive too -- in a don't diss my ancestral homeland sorta way :)

Tea?

Would be delighted..

[evildrem.livejournal.com]

I do hope its Earl Grey.

No crusts, last time the cook left crusts on the sandwiches I had her taken outside and beaten. You just can't get the staff these days.

Re: Would be delighted..

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

I do hope its Earl Grey

But of course, old thing! Whatever else? I'll have the butler use the Spode we keep for our special guests.

[sigh] The quality of servants these days is absolutely appalling.

[asatomuraki.livejournal.com]

Yes, you're allowed and no, not being oversensitive.

Actually, I watch a lot of British shows via download, and very little American television. I have never watched a single episode of American Idol, Survivor or what have you.

Though I do have this weird, almost Pavlovian response to crime procedurals like Law & Order or forensic shows when I'm feeling ill. Can't explain it.

Excellent

[evildrem.livejournal.com]

Mayhap I shall start a fandom war on the subject. Or perhaps not.

I watch loads of American tv which I love. Some series I don't like but that's a matter of personal taste really.

Law & Order SVU rocks my socks.

Re: Excellent

[asatomuraki.livejournal.com]

It is absolutely a taste thing, but it's also an access thing. I spent years without any access to regular cable or TV, so I watched, by download, the things my friends strongly reccommended.

About L&O, I dig the symmetry of it. You know where it's going but you know it'll be fun getting there. My favorite of the L&Os is between SVU and Criminal Intent, but I like them all.

[tazlet.livejournal.com]

Of course you're prickly and oversensitive, but that doesn't mean you aren't allowed to be irritated by the thoughtless blithering of jackasses.

Did they explain what they mean by 'too British' -- can't understand a regional accent, the topical references (...thing-a-ma-bob or like-wise whats-his-name?) or why people seem to be constantly angry with each other in the police dramas (that one's a mystery to me but UST is where you find it) or is it those boogie-men -- Jane Austin, Charles Dickens or Big Bill Rattleshaft?

No explanation

[evildrem.livejournal.com]

..its just seems to be a comment which has cropped up on a number of occasions when various Brit tv series have been discussed. As I said above, I think it's more the way it's expressed that annoys me.

I understand people not liking something because they don't get the references and feel alienated or if it doesn't speak to them or even, that it's just not their cup of tea but I'd rather they just said that.

I am now tempted to go round declaiming how much I don't like certain tv shows because they are 'too Eskimo' and see what happens.

As for the police dramas, shouting is the Brit version of shooting people/things with guns. UST vs phallic imagery.

Re: No explanation

[tazlet.livejournal.com]

...shouting is the Brit version of shooting people/things with guns. UST vs phallic imagery.

Do mean I should read it as 'jockying for position?'

[dargie.livejournal.com]

Well it's certainly not a valid criticism. Possibly it works as a personal reason for not being able to get into the show, like "I don't really get the cultural references" or "I can't understand the actors."

I suspect that is what they mean..

[evildrem.livejournal.com]

..but I'd kinda prefer it if they said that if you know what I mean :)

Re: I suspect that is what they mean..

[dargie.livejournal.com]

Oh sure, but frankly, the level of verbal aptitude on the internet is stunningly low.

[amonitrate.livejournal.com]

omg, nothing to add to the topic, but your icon!!!!!!!!

Dune geek is pleased.

[lastrega.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Crumpets and torture? I'm so there.

[beeej.livejournal.com]

Huh. I assume we're talking about a British show? Because I'm kind of at a loss as to how a British production can be too British. I mean, how could it be anything else? ;) I don't think American TV is British enough. Can I come live there?

[dorothy1901]

Am I allowed to be somewhat irritated by people claiming a tv show is 'too British' as a reason for not liking it?

Are the "people" French? Because that Saxon/Norman friction goes waaay back, and ZOMG that cultural conditioning is so hard to overcome. </random blather>

[kimmychu.livejournal.com]

Bah! Clearly, it was a person with no taste in excellent TV who stated such a dumb reason for not liking a TV show. (I'm not just saying that because my home country was colonized by the British. ;P)

There's this ... realism to British TV shows that I don't see in many American ones. The well-written storylines (especially for the crime dramas), the people and how they appear like people the audience can actually relate to, the fantastic acting, etc.

And how's this for irony? One of the most popular TV shows in America today, House, stars a British actor. *lol*

[tarchannon.livejournal.com]

Being I know that I've heard people dismiss things as 'too American' I'd guess that it is as acceptable as any opinion (and about worth as much :P ). Personally, the only two times I would consider saying something along those lines would be: a) comedey - where British comedy can be an acquired taste for most Americans; or b) the heavy dialects. Honestly, most of the time by difficulty with British imports are the dialects; I'm known for busting the crops of (usually poor, lower class) African Americans for being nearly unintelligible, and I think the least understandable English dialect (around the globe) is from rural Tennessee, I really, really cannot follow British folks that have stopped using consonants (after the initial one in each word), or have forgotten their plosives (like the 'th' sound, as most eqregiously evidenced by Jamie Oliver). I can't enjoy it if I can't understand it (and I'm a scientist working in a global environment, so I'm better than most in following along).

[zangetsugirl.livejournal.com]

Now hold on a minute. If you're going to torture small children, at least have the decency to do it properly. Use the parlor. The living room is for eviscerating pretentious assholes.

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

I can't really understand them.

On the other hand, playing devil's advocate, could you consider saying about a show that it is "too American"?*

*Just read a comment below saying you wouldn't. But, could you understand someone who did say so?



Disclaimer: am actually not that nor that. But most of my television is British. And online.

[inoue130.livejournal.com]

I think you're completely allowed to be irritated. I'm irritated and I'm Canadian. There's no such thing as "too British". Give 'em a smack.

[logophilos.livejournal.com]

Am I allowed to be somewhat irritated by people claiming a tv show is 'too British' as a reason for not liking it?

Of course you're not. How dare you oppress their American-centrism like that. And while you're at it, quit with all those unnecessary 'u' letters. You're just doing that to make them feel inadquate. [/sarcasm]