What's the point of the North American version of Being Human?

They probably think they can make a more successful version of it, like NBC did with The Office.

The NBC version of The Office is different. Like the UK version it is a Ricky Gervais product. And although the main characters in the UK version have a US counterpart, the episodes don’t mirror the other. I can watch both versions and be entertained. Watching the North American copy of Being Human isn’t like that. For example I already know that Annie’s Sally’s death wasn’t from an accidental fall but that she was murdered by her fiancé.

@AstroChuck That’s not entirely true. The first season of the US Office was a complete mirror of the UK version. After that they went a different way with it. Maybe Being Human will do the same?

@J0E- If that’s the case I stand corrected. I haven’t seen any episodes from the first couple seasons of the US version of The Office. Although Being Human is a different animal than The Office, which doesn’t really have a regular storyline. Being Human is a serial drama. So if I see one version I know what’s going to happen in the other. I still don’t get why one would watch the US/Canada version when both BBC America and BBC Canada air the original.

I myself have never seen the show, but it seems that America (I guess this includes Canada too) seem to want to copy all of the BBC’s popular stuff. It’s kind of annoying. When I found out there was an American version of Top Gear I was enraged and refused to watch it, but my buddy (who had never seen the BBC one) said it was good and I told him about the BBC one. So on and so forth the US one is a little different, but after he saw the BBC one we were both in agreement that the BBC one was original and more entertaining.

I assume it’s because a) Most American’s can’t understand British accents (except occasionally the posh ones) and b) The UK only does, like, 6–13 episodes a series/season. The US does 24. If the US wants to adopt a UK show, it can air a show that’s been on for 4 series in the UK in one season. By making their own version, they can cash in on a longer, fuller run.

I felt the same way about the American version of Whose Line is it Anyway?, the improve show. I thought the British version was hilarious and then they made an American version, with Drew Carry as the host that was basically exactly the same as the British version but not nearly as funny. Why bother? Maybe the television producers don’t think we watch, like or understand British television and need our own versions.

I dunno, some people just feel more comfortable watching something without an accent. I expect it to diverge after the second season, a la The Office. I have seen some really good US remakes, like Life on Mars, but I do think some things should be left to the UK to do cough cough Top Gear cough cough

Accent is a driver of the expectations we form about someone – we are less likely to trust someone with a foreign accent, for example (although whether the truth-values placed on speakers with “native accents” applies to all native speaker accents is not clear from the study). The study shows that we build different expectations around the accents of different speakers, though, so I feel it supports my point – part of the appeal of The Office is that we recognise it and the situations it portrays, British accenta in an American show would, arguably, limit its appeal.

I would suggest that the inverse – that American comedy doesn’t work so well in the UK – is also true, although this is less true wit non-comedy shows. Perhaps this is a result of the dominance of American media.

I am in the UK and while I don’t like many US sitcoms in those I do like the accent is never a problem. I hardly notice the accents, maybe because I lived in the States for a while and maybe because we hear so many American accents over here on the news and in films etc. (The sitcom I really like is Frasier)

I’m wondering if it’s licensing issues?

PS I know the BBC is looking at ways of making their online iPlayer service available to people in the US and elsewhere.

Kinda off topic, anyone watch “Episodes” on showtime. It deals with a british comedy being adapted to US and just how much everything gets fucked up. Great show.

I think it might be something to do with selling the product, as a package, but not the rights to the concept. Like X factor and such, going on all over the world, in the same format but with different presenters. I love Being Human, the third series is airing now. Glad you can see the original, personally, can’t imagine the transition stateside unless the stories themselves are changed. We are very provincial hereabouts! George dragging his chicken about American woodland just doesn’t have the same appeal… ;0)