I heard about this before.

And my reaction is..."Oh dear..."

I've heard about other American re-makes of British shows (e.g. Life on Mars) and they didn't do well. Yes the USA has some pretty good shows, but I am on the doubtful side of whether they would be able to re-make Spooks in a good way.

How will they re-make Spooks? If ABC has it about British spies then it will be too close to the original and look like a 'copycat'. If its about American spies then what agency? Also, Spooks tends to be very harsh about American foreign policy. I doubt an ABC remake would be the same (and I also doubt they would criticize British foreign policy). Moreover, Spooks, to me, is bolder than many shows in the U.S. The subjects Spooks tackles and the way it handles them is bolder and would be seen is 'overly controversial' by some in the U.S. Sure, some U.S. shows aren't that PC, but I think Spooks goes farther than some would be comfortable with here (I personally like how bold it is).

So, I have my doubts...

I'll still watch it though! My curiosity makes me interested in this re-make. Whether I will like the remake of Spooks is another question...

Not even going to read the replies.

One word - NO! Buy the BBC version and screen it. Seriously, no offence but why do the Americans always have to try to reinvent the wheel and then tell the world they invented it!

There are some amazing American shows, don't get me wrong. But things that are good can remain so made outside of the US and from a non US perspective.

Drives me insane.

Arrrgh!

(13-05-2011 03:27 AM)loladom Wrote:  Not even going to read the replies.

One word - NO! Buy the BBC version and screen it. Seriously, no offence but why do the Americans always have to try to reinvent the wheel and then tell the world they invented it!

There are some amazing American shows, don't get me wrong. But things that are good can remain so made outside of the US and from a non US perspective.

Drives me insane.

Arrrgh!

Well I guess they do this so that there can be more 'popular' shows to further boost ratings in the networks in U.S. That's just my guess. But yeah, remakes are usually a bad idea. I usually don't like them (regardless of who is doing them). I agree that this is a bad idea (Spooks getting remade in US).

Reminds me of how Life on Mars did horrible in the U.S...

I definitely wouldn't watch it. But the main thing that worries me is that they only sell on series ideas when they have finished making them. One more nail in the coffin for Spooks UK, I think.

(13-05-2011 03:27 AM)loladom Wrote:  Not even going to read the replies.

One word - NO! Buy the BBC version and screen it. Seriously, no offence but why do the Americans always have to try to reinvent the wheel and then tell the world they invented it!

There are some amazing American shows, don't get me wrong. But things that are good can remain so made outside of the US and from a non US perspective.

Drives me insane.

Arrrgh!

US stations have bought the BBC version and are running it - on PBS. Many affiliates have made it to S8. And it's working just fine. Just look at how many of us have "discovered" it within the last 2 years alone - 7 years too late?

I agree loladom. We have enough of our own good programs, why do we have to use others ideas? Besides, we have "our" version of Spooks - it's called 24. I do not wish to compare the two because they are really not the same thing. Love it or hate it, the fact remains that it was it's own very successful entity.

Here's why a straight remake of Spooks won't work in the US. A good portion of the reason that Spooks works as well as it does is it has evolved organically in every way over it's life span. Case in point, the character of Harry. Need I say more? It has rolled and changed with the times. You can't recreate that because it is unique.

All that said, I don't mind the KUDOS making a buck off of the Disney juggernaut. Go for it, I say, as long as it helps them fund the kind of programming they do into the future. DSS may be right about an end of life sell-out, but I hope what they are doing is finding alternate funding sources in order to keep Spooks going into an S11.

Sorry for catching this conversation at its tail-end. I don't know if this remake in the states is still in the works or not. As an American, I say this is a monumentally bad idea. What makes Spooks special is its uniquely British perspective. It's why I watch....come to think of it, it's why I watch a lot of British programming. An American "Spooks" would just be another 24 (a program I couldn't stand). This is just another example of the vacuous nature of American TV programmers. No imagination. They continue to steal the best ideas from Britain and then destroy it here. For that reason, and because I've been accused of being a bit of an anglophile, I'll continue to watch the real thing. The last great tv program created here was Battlestar Galactica...even that was filmed in Canada. America, a television wasteland.

(10-06-2011 09:13 PM)Yank Wrote:  The last great tv program created here was Battlestar Galactica...even that was filmed in Canada. America, a television wasteland.

Technically BSG was a remake and a reboot, so in a sense it's not really that original, only that it was able to expand and become more than just its 1980s old name brand, and make it something special.

And as for shows being filmed in Canada, it doesn't necessarily mean America is a television wasteland, it only means that budget and costs-wise, filming in Canada or another location is cheaper for production than filming in the US. It's not a wasteland thing as much as it is financial convenience, especially for networks who don't have that much money to began with.

Apparently ABC did not pick up the option to launch the US version of Spooks for the new TV season this fall. Not sure if this means their option has lapsed or whether ABC can revisit this project later on.

I saw on Twitter that the creator of Spooks tweeted saying that ABC never picked it up and seems that this is not a project that will be picked up.

(10-06-2011 09:28 PM)BravoNine Wrote:  

(10-06-2011 09:13 PM)Yank Wrote:  The last great tv program created here was Battlestar Galactica...even that was filmed in Canada. America, a television wasteland.

Technically BSG was a remake and a reboot, so in a sense it's not really that original, only that it was able to expand and become more than just its 1980s old name brand, and make it something special.

And as for shows being filmed in Canada, it doesn't necessarily mean America is a television wasteland, it only means that budget and costs-wise, filming in Canada or another location is cheaper for production than filming in the US. It's not a wasteland thing as much as it is financial convenience, especially for networks who don't have that much money to began with.

Oh, I understand the motives for filming in Canada...my comment was more sarcastic than anything else.