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Top 3 Reasons British TV Is the Best | Mismatched Pear OCT NOV DEC ⍰ ❎ 1 Capture 05 F 5 Nov 2016 2015 2016 2017 ▾ About This Capture Top 3 Reasons British TV is the Best | MisMatched Pear OCT NOV DEC 1 capture 05 f 5 Nov 2016 2015 2016 2017 About this capture A picture is worth what? Stuff You Didn't Know! Watch Out or You May End... Origins: The Oldest Use of the... Nearly 2 days ago Nearly 4 days ago STUFF YOU DIDN’T KNOW! ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT A PICTURE IS WORTH WHAT? What Straight People Can Do to Actually Support the LGBT Community Stuff You Didn't Know! Hazel Romano Top 3 Reasons British TV is the Best Vids 1 month ago • Jason Eisenberg https://web.archive.org/web/20161105051857/http://mismatchedpear.com/top-3-reasons-british-tv-is-the-best/[3/3/2018 3:39:58 PM] Top 3 Reasons British TV is the Best | MisMatched Pear 10 YouTube Channels That’s Ousted TV Sketch Shows 5 Cooking Products that Retard Your Ability to Cook http://www.westernsun.us Although statistics tell us that fewer and fewer people are watching TV, much of it is due to the amount of programming now available to us directly. With the rise of online video 5 Feminist YouTube Channels You Should Be Watching services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, we can watch virtually any program we want at any time. You don’t have to be glued to your television at a specific time to watch an episode of your favorite show, and in many cases you don’t even have to set your DVR. If you purchase a season pass for your favorite show on Amazon or through iTunes, you can watch episodes at your leisure or as soon as they air. This has given us the opportunity to watch shows we would never have seen otherwise. Based on the popularity of certain fandoms on Tumblr, and what people are talking about on Facebook and Twitter, it seems that all of the most popular shows are British. And let me tell you, based on my Netflix habits, once you watch one British show, you just can’t stop. It has allowed me to discover so many great series that I would never have found before. So, let’s talk about why British TV is the best. 1) Better Concepts 5 Ways Clickbait is Ruining the internet https://web.archive.org/web/20161105051857/http://mismatchedpear.com/top-3-reasons-british-tv-is-the-best/[3/3/2018 3:39:58 PM] Top 3 Reasons British TV is the Best | MisMatched Pear http://static.guim.co.uk 6 Trends the Internet Mercilessly Trolled for the Sake of Comedy http://static.guim.co.uk Whether it’s drama or comedy, British shows have better concepts than American TV. Two of the largest fandoms represented on Tumblr are ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Sherlock’, both British shows that American fans have fallen in love with. The concepts are often so brilliant that we feel the need to put the shows in our own context by reproducing them for the American audience. In fact, we routinely produce our own versions of British television shows. While this may seem like something that’s only been happening over the last few years, it’s a practice that goes all the way back to the 1970s. Both ‘All in the Family’ and ‘Three’s Company’ were based on British shows. While these shows can be incredibly popular, in many cases they are not as well received as their British counterparts. For instance, the U.S. version of ‘The Office’ did extremely well; however, many still prefer the original. Of course, many of the remakes never reach the same level of fame. There have been five seasons of the U.S. version of ‘Top Gear’; however, the original is still shown on BBC America. It’s so popular that when faced with the possibility of losing a star of the show, Jeremy Clarkson, fans tried their best to keep him. One fan even drove a tank to the BBC headquarters to deliver a petition asking that Clarkson be allowed to continue to work. Of course, Britain does produce their own versions of American shows, but America puts their own spin on British shows approximately 2.5 times as often. We even take show concepts from the British for game shows and reality television. Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and Celebrity Fit Club both came from Britain and have become very popular in the United States. Sometimes, we even go so far as to take the stars of the Pitchfork Music Features show along with the concept. Dancing with the Stars is based off of Britain’s Strictly Come https://web.archive.org/web/20161105051857/http://mismatchedpear.com/top-3-reasons-british-tv-is-the-best/[3/3/2018 3:39:58 PM] Top 3 Reasons British TV is the Best | MisMatched Pear Dancing, and both shows feature judges Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli. Similarly, Hell’s Kitchen also started as a British show featuring chef and restaurateur Gordon Ramsay, so 5-10-15-20: Danny Brown on the Music That often it’s not just the concepts that we find compelling, but the people as well. Made Him Interview: Synths! Ballads! Acoustic Guitars! Welcome to Japandroids 2.0 2) Better Characters Cover Story: Natural Selection: How a New Age Hustler Sold the Sound of the World Photo Gallery: Portraits and Live Shots From Pitchfork Music Festival Paris 2016 Profile: Signal to Noise: One Wild Week With Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon in Berlin Gaming Humor http://www.scifinow.co.uk Unable to show Instagram photos Let’s face it, we just love British people. For example, no one can deny that ‘American Idol’ would suffer without Simon Cowell. Though fans haven’t always agreed with him, we all think of him as the lovable villain of the series. Not only does he have an undeniable eye for talent, you can’t help but respect the fact that he always says exactly what he’s thinking. And Cowell isn’t the only British bad-boy that we’ve grown to love. After Clarkson was fired from ‘Top Gear’ for an incident with a producer, U.S.-based Amazon Instant Video swooped in. They quickly made a deal with Clarkson and his co-hosts James May and Richard Hammond for a new ‘Top Gear’-type show. It’s not just the real-life characters we find more entertaining when it comes to British television. The writing of the fictional characters is better as well. Characters in British shows always seem more authentic. Often, we are introduced to a perfectly lovely character, who has very common flaws. Much of the time, these are not used as a way to create a villain, but instead make the character more relatable. For instance, in one of my favorite British shows, Midsomer Murders, we have Detective Sergeant Gavin Troy. One of Troy’s https://web.archive.org/web/20161105051857/http://mismatchedpear.com/top-3-reasons-british-tv-is-the-best/[3/3/2018 3:39:58 PM] Top 3 Reasons British TV is the Best | MisMatched Pear distinctive characteristics is his insensitivity. It’s not that he ever intends to be a jerk, so you never find yourself upset with him, but he certainly embodies that part of ourselves that speaks without thinking. This is most often shown in the way he relates to gay characters. You find yourself imagining that it’s not so much that he is particularly bigoted but that he is young and likely grew up around such attitudes. This also helps makes Troy a great foil to sensitive and open-minded Chief Inspector John Barnaby. We often see more diversity in British characters in terms of race or sexual orientation as well – just look at Doctor Who and Torchwood for instance. We have Mickey Smith and Martha Jones (both black), Toshiko Sato (Japanese, bisexual), and Captain Jack Harkness (pansexual) who all had main roles. With characters we can all identify with, it’s not hard to see why British TV is so great. 3) Better Actors http://ia.media-imdb.com British actors are considered the best in the world. With a smaller pool to choose from, you would think that the chances of finding superior actors would be more difficult. Not so. Around 17% of all Oscar winners in acting categories are British. That may not seem like many, but when you consider that Hollywood is an American industry, and the British population is about 20% of America’s, it’s wildly impressive. For years now British actors have been taking over American television . Part of that is because British actors are regarded as more humble and easy to work with. British actors go where the work is https://web.archive.org/web/20161105051857/http://mismatchedpear.com/top-3-reasons-british-tv-is-the-best/[3/3/2018 3:39:58 PM] Top 3 Reasons British TV is the Best | MisMatched Pear . Because of that it is not uncommon to see British film actors, such as Idris Elba or Maggie Smith, starring in TV shows. For instance, Elba plays Heimdall in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (‘Thor’, ‘Thor: The Dark World’, ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’). However, he is also the titular character in the gritty police drama, ‘Luther’ on BBC. He has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film three times, and took home a win for his role as John Luther in 2011. Meanwhile, Maggie Smith is an Academy Award-winning actress, having taken home the Oscar for Best Actress in 1963 and Best Supporting Actress in 1978.
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