is anyone watching Shameless USA?

[sungirltan]

any thoughts?

[vigglewiggle]

I'm not watching, but it really irritates me that the American Networks find a British series that they like and seem to think that the American people are unable to watch a series about a different culture and so make a contrived Amercian watered down version.

[LordOfTheFlies]

Nonono, the lovely Sex-On-A-Stick Frank will be played by some American actor.
Not the same.

Disclaimer: I don't watch Shameless as I fear I would have to run away with Frank G

[LilBB]

I'm gonna try and watch this on 4OD. There are so many American programmes that are shown here so I don't understand why they remake the British ones. I can't think of any examples where a successful american show has been remade for the UK? Are there any? However there are loads of UK shows that get remade, Shameless, Skins, The Office, Life On Mars being recent examples. Are any successful British shows shown in america? I mean on a high profile channel not a channel for ex pats.

[Stilla]

I saw it - its practically a carbon copy of ours , same names , same dialogue .(I've started watching series 1 on catch up on virgin) They don't seem to have watered it down .

[expatinscotland]

There's no welfare system the way there is here.

So I'm not sure how they're working this.

[sungirltan]

frank is on a disability payment thing.

at first i thought emmy rossum was too pretty in a hollywood way to play fiona (not saying anne marie duff isnt but she's got a much more down to earth look) but actually she grew on me.

i didnt rate the bar that is supposed to be the jockey though. but i dont know what the american equivalent of big suburban free standing pub is on an estate

[Stilla]

sungirltan what did you think of the others ? (characters)

[sungirltan]

macy want out of it enough for frank. otherwise they were all really similar to the uk one. the whole karen/blowjob under the table thing was as funny as the uk one

[Stilla]

I'm a bit undecided on Ian and Debbie .
Just noticed the Maguire's will become
Milkovich .

[sungirltan]

thats interesting - thought the yanks were obesessed with the irish!

[expatinscotland]

'frank is on a disability payment thing. '

It's nowhere near how it is here unless you are extremely disabled.

It's social security, and in order to get it fully over there you need to be very, very disabled.

That's why I won't even bother watching the US version of this show because there's no way they can really recreate it.

Estates also don't really exist there the way they do here, with some exceptions.

[sungirltan]

alright! i was only repeating what it said on the show.

suspension of disbelief?

[grendel]

I thought it was remarkable how many of the actors looked pretty similar to those in the UK series (Steve, Fiona, Ian and Lip in particular). I was surprised at how good it was actually, and also how close it was to the original. I had feared that they would have prettied it up a bit.
How did it go down in the States? Anyone know?

[sharbie]

i liked it

[tabulahrasa]

The disability thing - I think he's making out he was injured at work...and I assume because of that, they then pay him some sort of disability money

[mathanxiety]

He could be getting workers' comp.

'I dont know what the american equivalent of big suburban free standing pub is on an estate' There are none of either. Maybe the odd exception that proves the rule. But really, no estates as known in the UK and pubs tend to be seedy in the suburbs and themey in cities (i.e. Oirish, sports, hookup-ey), nothing like your average British pub (or Irish for that matter).

In general, the poor are supposed to be freed from the vices that have made them poor (according to American myth that equates prosperity and god fearingness) before they can ascend to the middle class. So bars and drinking in general are very discouraged.

I don't see the series finding a chord in the US at all. This is the country where some states (most notably Wisconsin) are trying to balance a budget on the backs of public service employees, with many people blaming unions for the sorry state of public finances in many states using the same sort of language reserved for welfare spongers in the UK. There really is no welfare state or consciousness of entitlement to the sort of benefits that the British take for granted.

[sharbie]

the juxtaposition is what made it interesting for me