Why I think British TV better than American TV (IMHO)

[ForestGumpett]

Just an opinion. First, not bashing my country. I LOVE AMERICA! I hate American TV lol.

We cut the cable, it really is that bad in our opinion. We can find plenty on youtube for entertainment - and honestly the old fashioned TV antenna!

If I were to take American TV literal then would stay insulted, these advertisers and tv producers really do think this country is a third world in education? Seriously embarrassing, or rather should be!

The British, gosh those people make me lmao! The humor is great, the shows seem to involve lots of humor even if done on a serious note. Even your leaders are cool, I thought Margaret Thatcher was Da’Bomb (Means she was awesome). Doc Martin show is hysterical, as of course the Monty Python movies. I’d love to travel this world one day and see all the lovely places in these other countries. Scotland too, they are all very lovely in the pictures!
Germany is on the bucket list, but times need to change for a visit there. The toy stores over there look amazing.

So glad the times are where TV from other places can be shared, we’d miss out on so much if not!

 

[Fino]

If you were stating a fact, we could come up with reasons why this fact is true. But if you're just stating an opinion, then the only person who can tell you why is yourself.

 

[ForestGumpett]

If you were stating a fact, we could come up with reasons why this fact is true. But if you're just stating an opinion, then the only person who can tell you why is yourself.

well...you got me!

So true! I cannot debunk your statement. It certainly is my opinion and my husbands. I wasn’t trying to speak for others, and apologize if it came across that way.

Another one is “Keeping Up Appearances” , that one was also a British show, extremely funny.

Hope your having a wonderful night/day Fino (never know the time with others)
God Bless

 

[Misery]

I kinda agree, sorta. Frankly I cant stand either side of it for the most part.

Besides... even if some interest was there, I could never go back to cable. Not after finding both Youtube, and Adblocker.

No commercials. No stupid ads of any sort. No nasty exploitative corporations trying to get me to do something bloody stupid. NO WASTING MY FREAKING TIME. And as for Youtube itself... it doesnt matter what sort of content you're after, it's on there somewhere. And all sorts of other things you never knew you wanted. There are sooooooo many incredibly talented creators out there.

But various family members DO watch TV, and any time I'm in the room with them (usually because the dogs are in there) it absolutely baffles me as to just HOW MANY commercials there are in the run of an average show.

I genuinely do not understand how anyone can tolerate it.

 

[ForestGumpett]

@Misery ;
Thank you for telling me about putting ad blocker on youtube, the ads drive me crazy! Never thought of putting it on our tv not sure why we have them on our iPads.

 

[PastelPetals]

I love british panel shows but they don't really do those in america at least not since far before I was born in the 60s. I don't know what/how to define british humor but I seem to like it better than most american shows a show like Taskmaster even makes me laugh out loud but that might have more to do with how the show works and less about the humor format. I also quite like the drama call the midwife. I like medical dramas but only for the medical stuff not the drama and romance this show keeps the medical side even as the seasons go on and of course it becomes more romance hevy. I don't know why you like british tv of course but this is why I like it.

 

[Misery]

@Misery ;
Thank you for telling me about putting ad blocker on youtube, the ads drive me crazy! Never thought of putting it on our tv not sure why we have them on our iPads.

On that note, I'd also suggest looking up another one called SponsorBlock. It deals with the irritating sponsor ads that are actually PART of the videos, and thus cant be singled out by an automated system. It relies on people essentially reporting timestamps on videos to a database. It blocks not just sponsor ads, but things like the "okay please like and subscribe and blah blah blah" bits, as well as self-promotion of merchandise and stuff that some creators do.

It's the other half of making Youtube into a far better experience.

Note also that for Adblock, there are more than one version. I actually have both Adblock and Adblock Plus on this machine, and UBlock Origin.

It aint just about Youtube: It's about stopping ALL of them. All the ads. Everywhere. I dont see any on this machine... at all. And if one does squeak by? It's easy to make the system aware of it so it never comes back.

HIGHLY recommend not only getting these things, but reading up on just how to maximize their use.

 

[Bolletje]

One of the things that annoy me most about American sitcoms is laugh tracks. If a show needs to tell me when it’s being funny, the jokes probably aren’t that good.

Anyway, I haven’t watched TV in ages but I stream a lot. There’s some gems from the US and Great Britain alike.

 

[Misery]

One of the things that annoy me most about American sitcoms is laugh tracks. If a show needs to tell me when it’s being funny, the jokes probably aren’t that good.

It does depend on the show though, to be fair.

I go back and watch something like I Love Lucy and nearly pass out from laughing too hard. A show like that earns its background laughter effects.

If I try to watch any modern sitcom and maybe there'll be a giggle or two here and there. A lot of modern shows seem... well, I use the word "corporate" for stuff like this. They're overly safe, trimmed down, making sure to offend nobody ever while also being simple enough for even the most drunken idiot to process (after all, cant have someone bowing out before being exposed to ads!). And they all just follow trends. Thus, "corporate".

Older series tended to just be all over the place, you never knew what you'd get out of them, but those are in a whole other era. While new ones are like grains of sand. There's 5 bazillion of them, they all look the same, they're kinda dirty in a way, they dont DO much of anything interesting, and they get stuck in your shoes somehow and there's a bunch of crabs buried in there somewhere. The crabs may also get into your shoes.

 

[ForestGumpett]

On that note, I'd also suggest looking up another one called SponsorBlock. It deals with the irritating sponsor ads that are actually PART of the videos, and thus cant be singled out by an automated system. It relies on people essentially reporting timestamps on videos to a database. It blocks not just sponsor ads, but things like the "okay please like and subscribe and blah blah blah" bits, as well as self-promotion of merchandise and stuff that some creators do.

It's the other half of making Youtube into a far better experience.

Note also that for Adblock, there are more than one version. I actually have both Adblock and Adblock Plus on this machine, and UBlock Origin.

It aint just about Youtube: It's about stopping ALL of them. All the ads. Everywhere. I dont see any on this machine... at all. And if one does squeak by? It's easy to make the system aware of it so it never comes back.

HIGHLY recommend not only getting these things, but reading up on just how to maximize their use.

Very valuable! Wow, thank you (((big hug))) I really appreciate it. Honestly, will have to get my husband to read what you wrote and “fix it” on the machine/TV for me lol. I’m not a computer person, never had kids so never had a computer educated person around - was/am a button pusher until something happens and sometimes this can make things worse (btdt).

 

[Tom]

I have very narrow interests as far as what I watch, but have found UK productions often of better quality. And on a similar note found even in American productions an inordinate ammount of the actors/actresses are from the UK (or Canada or Australia). For example even in a classic American War film 'Black Hawk Down' half the American roles are played by actors from UK/Canada/Australia. Ironic that they apparently portray us better then we do. I am not sure of the reason, but one guess is that the acting profession is more advanced, the training better, in those countries. It does seem that certain countries/cultures excel at certain things. For example the Germans are noted for their engineering, the french for cuisine.

 

[Judge]

I've always thought the Brits cornered the market on pop culture in general. I particularly enjoy their humor, which is usually more subtle and clever than on our side of the pond.

And the pool of actors from Britain...always showing up in American film and television productions speaks for itself. Shakespeare would be proud of them all. I'd love to be able to have a chat with one particular actor, Martin Clunes. AKA "Doc Martin".

As for music, the four lads from Liverpool remain on the top of that pyramid, IMO.

 

[Au Naturel]

IMHO British television is better because it expects a higher level of intelligence. I feel like US television has dumbed down plots and flat characters when compared to the British shows I watch. (That may be just because stupid British shows don't get shown in the US.)

I also like the British sense of humor more than contemporary American humor because it is usually dry. I love that deadpan delivery which depends on your understanding that what you are hearing is absurd. American humor is more prone to emotional exaggeration, as opposed to understatement. This is a general rule and there are plenty of exceptions to be found.

But Eddie Izzard is to die for.

 

[Wolfsage]

I will say 90s cartoons from America would blow most of the modern stuff away. Aside from that everyone is correct about the TV situation.

 

[clg114]

I kinda agree, sorta. Frankly I cant stand either side of it for the most part.

Besides... even if some interest was there, I could never go back to cable. Not after finding both Youtube, and Adblocker.

No commercials. No stupid ads of any sort. No nasty exploitative corporations trying to get me to do something bloody stupid. NO WASTING MY FREAKING TIME. And as for Youtube itself... it doesnt matter what sort of content you're after, it's on there somewhere. And all sorts of other things you never knew you wanted. There are sooooooo many incredibly talented creators out there.

But various family members DO watch TV, and any time I'm in the room with them (usually because the dogs are in there) it absolutely baffles me as to just HOW MANY commercials there are in the run of an average show.

I genuinely do not understand how anyone can tolerate it.

I can't and it is really irritating that I pay $200+ a month for cable, just to get all those commercials. About 35% of the time is commercials. We record everything that we watch and fast forward through all of the commercials. The advertising on TV has no impact on how I spend money, so why watch it?

 

[Misery]

Very valuable! Wow, thank you (((big hug))) I really appreciate it. Honestly, will have to get my husband to read what you wrote and “fix it” on the machine/TV for me lol. I’m not a computer person, never had kids so never had a computer educated person around - was/am a button pusher until something happens and sometimes this can make things worse (btdt).

Oh, on that note, something else I should add: If you're using Internet Explorer or Edge as your browser... dont. Get something like Chrome or Firefox instead. Like Windows itself, Microsoft's various products are... janky at best, downright broken at worst. You wont get REAL ad protection on their browsers.

Also, to go further: make sure you have strong anti-virus protection.

And in all honesty there's nothing wrong with being a "button pusher" as you eloquently put it, heh. Brief story time: I actually am someone who has been into computers since I was a kid... I grew up in the 80s and 90s, and taught myself to use DOS and other complex things in an era where computers werent very user friendly. I became the one that people come to in order to fix things. But what I dont tell them is HOW I fix things. They wouldnt like the explanation.

An example is when a friend of mine was having some really major issues with his PC... acting up in all sorts of ways. He knew how to use one (though he wasnt an expert) but he couldnt even begin to get at the problem. So, I was brought in to deal with it. I immediately went in and started doing all sorts of things that looked horribly complicated... outright bypassing Windows itself and diving into the BIOS and very deep stuff. All sorts of really odd looking screens with options and numbers flying all over the place, the sorts of things that people look at and go "wow I shouldnt even touch that". After about an hour, the problem was solved.

Again though, didnt tell him HOW I did that. See, I'd never once seen ANY of those screens before. PCs are often very different from one another, and that one had elements I'd never seen. And even if I had, I've never had to dive that deep before. So I was going in there and poking/changing things that just seemed like a good idea at the time, which is how I always deal with computers. I made it look like a series of expert moves. What it actually was is the equivalent of someone who is tasked with diffusing a bomb, but there's like 50 wires and they dont know what to cut, so they just chop at random and hope nothing explodes.

And, secret that many experts wont tell you: I aint the only one that approaches things like that. Sometimes, ya gotta experiment, take risks, and just TRY THINGS to be able to learn and improve. That's how it often works for computers. Even most experts often have very large holes in their knowledge, though they'll never admit it as it would make clients extra nervous.


So yeah, that' just some thoughts about that. Dont let these machines intimidate you, and you can get the hang of them if you want.

I can't and it is really irritating that I pay $200+ a month for cable, just to get all those commercials. About 35% of the time is commercials. We record everything that we watch and fast forward through all of the commercials. The advertising on TV has no impact on how I spend money, so why watch it?

I can give you a bit of possible perspective on that.

You (and others here) might get a kick outta this, so have a read: Accept it, people hate ads - yes, all of them – Marketing Week

This is my absolute favorite article on the subject. And it's a satisfying one.

 

[Fino]

I don't watch television. Maybe I would if I were British.

 

[OkRad]

I don't think it is any better. I hate TV but when I watch it, it's usually something like Jeopardy.

 

[Streetwise]

well...you got me!

So true! I cannot debunk your statement. It certainly is my opinion and my husbands. I wasn’t trying to speak for others, and apologize if it came across that way.

Another one is “Keeping Up Appearances” , that one was also a British show, extremely funny.

Hope your having a wonderful night/day Fino (never know the time with others)
God Bless

I think what you are perceiving is sarcasm ,but married with children(FOX network 1987-1997)which is American is just as sarcastic ,so was friends ,soap (1977-81 ABC),

What maybe ?different is anything that's adapted .
When I watch American TV it can be a break from sarcasm.

Maybe it's because advertising has different laws affecting it, that it's different ,remember as you're autistic so British humour maybe? more natural to you ,this nation does have a high percentage of autism\ neurodiversity in entertainment especially

 

[Streetwise]

@Misery ;
Thank you for telling me about putting ad blocker on youtube, the ads drive me crazy! Never thought of putting it on our tv not sure why we have them on our iPads.

Don't rely on adblockers for YouTube they can't control the company you still see static ads I've tried different ones