Cinemax's explosion-heavy co-production of Sky1's Strike Back shows that Americans do it better … sometimes

Strike Back. Photograph: Rex

 

Greg Daniels, the one-time Simpsons producer who adapted The Office for America was recently hired to perform the same function for Channel 4's Friday Night Dinner. My initial reaction: there's no way that won't be a million times better than the original. That's the exact opposite of my usual reaction. Any time I hear about an American adaptation of a UK original, I automatically assume it's going to suck and that the Brits who handed over their creation in exchange for the network dollar will be left feeling violated and degraded. Just like the creators of Life On Mars, Cracker, Being Human, Teachers, Skins and Misfits (the remake hasn't even been written yet and I'm already condemning it). But I don't feel any patriotic outrage on behalf of Friday Night Dinner. If anything, I'm looking forward to a remake. Greg Daniels is a mammoth talent. Look at his CV: The Simpsons, King Of The Hill, The Office, Parks & Recreation. More importantly, unlike Life On Mars and Cracker and all those other shows, there's nothing to screw up. Which leads me to think the unthinkable: are there other British shows that might benefit from being remade by crass, tone-deaf, unsubtle American networks?

Don't get me wrong. I know people who work in American network TV. To a man and woman, their spirits are crushed under tons of illogical notes from executives who neither understand nor enjoy their programmes. Spending 15-hour days sequestered with groups of writers, each desperate to disparage the other's jokes and storylines, has left most of them haggard, twitching insecure wrecks. Not one of them wouldn't rather work in the UK system with its shorter seasons, relative freedom from upstairs interference and licence to curse. Then I tell them the kind of salaries they could expect if they followed their dreams and they shuffle back to the heaping fruit plates of the writers' room.
I don't think low budgets are to blame though for the malaise affecting British TV. If anything, the problem is lack of ambition and imagination. Where's the outlet for a budding UK Seth MacFarlane or Ryan Murphy or Joss Whedon? If you're not writing police procedurals, doctor dramas or period pieces, few opportunities await you. Outside of Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat, I don't get the sense that British schedules are filled with shows made by people who spent their formative years thinking way too much about TV. Whereas, with America's plethora of superstar showrunners, I know for a fact that none of them saw the sun until well into their teenage years.

Imagine if Sex And The City's Darren Star or Desperate Housewives' Marc Cherry had gotten their claws into the late, semi-lamented Mistresses. Imagine the histrionics, the operatic storylines, the cosmetically altered cast: that's right, it would have been awesome! Or what if the makers of Nurse Jackie got their hands on ITV1's Scott & Bailey? There's a show that gets by on the goodwill generated by its two stars. But it could stand to get a whole lot darker and the characters could be a whole lot quirkier.

Just because Sky's version of Trollied didn't realise the full potential of Cheers in a-supermarket, doesn't mean someone else won't

Trollied

Channel 4's recent paramedic dram-com Sirens could also benefit from a remodel. Good, solid workmanlike show, but missing the grit and gallows humour of a US cable series. Granted, I write this in the knowledge that Rescue Me's Denis Leary snapped up the US rights but my point remains. Then there's Trollied, the first in Sky1's new homegrown comedy roster. I think about NBC's Thursday night lineup of workplace ensemble comedies – Community, The Office, 30 Rock – and I can imagine Trollied fitting right in. If it was about a million times funnier, if it had some memorable characters, and if it didn't serve its leading actor as poorly as the homegrown version does Jane Horrocks. Just because the Sky version didn't realise the full potential of a Cheers-in-a-supermarket, doesn't mean someone else won't.

The above examples share one common characteristic – no one cares too much about them. Which is an insensitive way of saying that these shows aren't part of the national consciousness, in the same way as a Life On Mars or a Skins or an Inbetweeners (the original writers are working on the MTV version and I still fear the worst). There's no magic that's going to get lost in translation.
Beyond the speculative world of what shows might benefit from being remade in America, is there an actual living, breathing example of a British series that has actually improved with American input? I'm glad I asked. Last year, Sky brought to life one of Chris Ryan's in-flight bestsellers, the Special Forces saga Strike Back. It wasn't bad. Lots of gunfights. Lots of brooding from Richard Armitage. Lots of guilt from Andrew Lincoln. This year Cinemax, the HBO subsidiary catering exclusively to consumers of explosions and boobs, took its first steps in the original programming business by becoming a co-producer of Strike Back.

Here's how things changed: season one of Strike Back began with a chaotic military operation in Iraq. Season two (Strike Back: Project Dawn) starts with Richard Armitage being executed, cuts to a Malyasian brothel, then a naked kickboxing stand-off before culminating in a brutal street fight where the series' new co-leads insult each other while blasting off the limbs of their opponents. It's awesome! Everything that's capable of exploding explodes. What was a decent but unexceptional military action show is now Naked 24.

Not every show can or should be lobotomised quite as entertainingly as Strike Back, but if this is an example of how an American network can elevate a British product, I say give them Hollyoaks.


 The Guardian