Americanizing Other Nation's Shows: BBC Being Human vs. SyFy Being Human?

[Linus]

Originally Posted by Waldo

The US is probably at the forefront of this practice, but we're hardly the only people to adapt things.

Generally speaking when it comes to film I will lean toward the original, but if the story is compelling enough for me I'll see the US version as well. With any creative endeavor you never know who will be able to bring out different nuances.

La Femme Nikita is one of my absolute favorite films. I love it to bits. And I've seen the US movie version starring Bridget Fonda. It's abysmal. And I've had no desire to see any of the TV versions. Zero.

For the Larsson books... I'll see the US versions. I saw all three of the Swedish films and I had mixed feelings about them because I really enjoyed the books. When you consider that entire chunks of the story were left out or altered slightly I can't see a reason why NOT to see the US version. Will it be better? Doubt it. But so what? It's not the Americanization that bothers me. It's the poorly executed remakes that bother me.

The Swedish films were done for TV, technically (IIRC). And any time you do a movie-from-book lots is often left out. What I've heard about the American version is that they are going to be "happier", which struck me as odd since it takes away from the book.

That said, I don't see why the original series, particularly TV series, cannot be done in their original format/language rather than redoing it. Unless there truly is something that is unique to the locale that would be misunderstood, I don't see the need or understanding as to why.

I would think that it would be cheaper than doing a remake of the series. Wouldn't it?