Deficit seen in American acting compared to British

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And the BBC doesn't break up programs for commercials. I can't stand that, it is just so incredibly rude.

I swear, I do wonder whether Americans would enjoy the likes of Doctors or not. I'm surprised they don't put that on BBC America or whatever.



But RTÉ (the Irish broadcaster does). The poor sods in Ireland not only have to pay the licence fee, but they also have to put up with advertising!

I don't get Irish tv here, but that sounds pretty sucky. I like that the BBC makes history documentaries, and of course Top Gear. People in the Netherlands are too cheap to make a show like that (and I don't even care about cars, but you can see the production value of a show like that).

Most of the Irish have access to British television, whereas the same is not true in reverse (except in Northern Ireland).

I agree; I think they're horrible, as well----as well as fake hair, and fake nails (those French manicures, with the white tips, are RIDICULOUS)! !

Black Adder is one of my favorite comedies of all time. Thank you, BBC!

Yeah, that and PBS----I'm a real PBS junkie (I don't have Cable, so PBS is "my home", usually)! Like someone else said of the BBC, I really appreciate the documentaries, on PBS.

I'm fairly sure you could get a lot of the documentaries without ads through the Internet if you were so minded.

Or even watch British TV - like BBC iPlayer - live through a proxy server.

I wonder if Americans would like our TV so much if they saw the good as well as the bad.

The Americans and Australians made their own version of Top Gear, with Americans/Australians in it. I found it strange that many Americans have never even heard of Top Gear when it is very popular in non-English speaking countries (except Argentina of course )

I think it really varies. Some British film and TV can come across rather dry or overacted. Though, American film also has issues. Ultimately, my biggest complaint about American TV is the amount of "reality" shows. At least 90% of these are actually scripted and many have flat out actors rather than people actually involved in whatever subject being focused on.

I'm a Yank who used to live in Ireland. I had BBC and RTE (multiple channels of both, I think) and a bunch of cable channels I can no longer recall. My opinion is that Irish and English television is much better than American television. The stories are better-written, the characters and settings are far more believable, and the humor is more intelligent. American series often start with an interesting premise, but then fall flat. American directors/producers seem to have no confidence in their viewing audience, and mostly just churn out dumbed-down drivel.

Even in Canada people on local TV look more "normal" than in the States. Well, if you can call the actors who appeared in Kids and the Hall normal. I think we're better at humor than Americans in general, and yet we can't seem to make a decent sitcom. I've seen quite a few sitcoms I didn't even know were Canadian until I was much older but they were flops. The weird thing is up here they wouldn't cancel them until they showed all the episodes of the first season.

I think Americans aren't as into "absurdist" humor as Canada or the UK, they don't seem to like humor if it's too "weird". Even the Muppets and Looney Tunes act more normal than they used to, and that's actually pretty sad IMO. And ironic since I already said how a lot of people on Canadian TV only look normal.

The Coen brothers have made some pretty absurdist films.

Yeah, I would LOVE to be able to do that----especially, when PBS pre-empts my coveted "Doc Martin", with a funds drive----but, I still have Dial-up Internet, so anything like that, is out. Thanks, for the info, though.....

I think it really boils down to one issue: Quantity VS Quality

British TV has fewer channels than American TV, so they have less they can put on and get paid for advertising. They also have a smaller budget so they cannot afford so much excess as American TV channels. The script and the acting has to carry the series/show more. American TV makers have big enough budgets to ignore script and acting frequently enough that there are more terrible shows on TV than good ones.

Most or nearly all British actors/actresses have done stints in British Theater since its more common there. In the US, theater, like with the London Shakespear company and etc, tends to be only one path to an acting career. Not all go to acting school or something like Theater, so the quality of acting is not always so good.

I like a lot of British TV shows, and I am a fan of Top Gear with the UK boys. I also like some American TV shows, but most American TV tends to be copies of shows that worked well previously, where I don't think British does that as much.

More duds show up on American TV anyway, the channels can usually afford the crap even if the shows get canceled, but American TV has shown to be fickle with Science Fiction or Fantasy with almost no shows really or most get canceled. Reality TV is seen as being more worthy for American TV, a shame because all Reality TV is crap.

^^ Yeah, I agree----except, I think there's been quite a few good sci-fi shows ("Stargate - SG1", is one of my all-time favs); and, every show gets cancelled, after awhile----though, it DOES seem that sci-fi shows have a shorter life-span ("Once Upon a Time", and "Vampire Diaries" continue to enjoy a good, long life, though). I wish "Merlin" would've lasted; I really liked that show.

As for reality shows: I agree that most are unbeLIEVably stupid, disgusting, vulgar, (insert any negative adjective, here)----especially, anything with "Real Housewives", or "Kardashian", in the title; but, I like a couple of the talent shows; namely, "The Voice", and "MasterChef, Junior".

Again, thank GOD for the BBC (BBC-owned shows, on PBS), and PBS----if it weren't for them, I'd have almost nothing to watch.