Gibt es Leben auf dem Mars?

I was discussing American remakes of British shows with a friend of mine the other day when I mentioned how much I enjoyed the American version of Life on Mars. I was a fan of the British version, and was dreading the American remake, but I was rather pleasantly surprised.

Generally speaking, American remakes annoy me. The actual shows annoy me, and the very fact that they exist annoys me. Americans are smart enough to deal with other accents and cultures (or, at least, they should be), and I do not like the fact that their self-appointed nannies (viz., the studio executives, network bosses and publishers) feel it is their responsibility to make sure Americans never have to deal with other cultures.

They say Americans can't deal with foreign accents, British humour, products they can't find on their own shelves or subtitles. I think most Americans probably could, if they were given half a chance. So often the American versions are practically identical to the original - they even use the same scripts, barely changing more than one or two words. This has the effect of making the American version feel like a cheap copy. It's the same show, only badly acted for the sake of a population who, apparently, can't cope with irony or subtlety.

Original American shows can be as challenging, interesting and full of irony and subtlety as the overseas programmes they theoretically can't cope with. So, if they can rise to the challenge of their own shows, and they can cope with a copy that's practically identical to the British original, why on earth would anyone assume they can't cope with the British original? Nine times out of ten, the American remake is an insult to the intelligence of the American people. And then it only lasts one season anyway, no one likes it, and they cancel it. After that, of course they aren't going to show the British version, are they? After all, Americans didn't even like the American version.

Oh, but if only our sad little story could end there. No, American networks sell their television programmes to other countries in packages, and they make sure they sell these remakes in those packages (must make money somehow). So, here in Australia, we often get to see the crappy American remake no-one liked long before anyone thinks to import the British original. By then, we've already seen all of the major plot-lines and jokes done badly. It doesn't matter how good the British original might be, it's already a little bit spoiled.

Ah, American cultural imperialism - making sure everything is crappy for everyone on a global level.

I had heard about Life on Mars a year or so before it actually came to Australia. When I first read about it, the second season of the British version had already screened in Britain, and the American remake was in the works. I suspected we'd probably get the American version before someone bought the British version, and was pleasantly surprised when we got both seasons of the British version on ABC (which once stood for "Another British Comedy", but changed in recent decades to "Another British Crimeshow") before the American version was screened by one of the commercial stations.

The more I saw of the British version, the more I liked it - and the more I worried about how badly the American version was going to kill it.

I have this hope, you see. It never leaves me, in spite of previous experiences. This hope is that, if the Americans are going to go to the bother of remaking something, they'll at least make something significantly different and interesting in it's own right - something that justifies the fact that they didn't just watch the original. I am usually let down, and the first episode of the US LoM implied I was going to be let down again. Then I watched the second episode, and they started to shake things up a little bit. By the time I watched the third episode, I realised that someone had finally done what I always hoped an American remake would do - they had taken a few of the plot points and concepts from the original, but had used them in a new and interesting way rather than simply re-hashing the original with American accents.

Now, LoM is one of the few shows that actually warranted an American remake. Part of the hook of the British show was the fact that it drew on the nostalgia Gen Xers have for London as they saw it on TV shows from the 70s. It was, as the creators often said, a show set in a 1970s cop show world. I didn't grew up in London in the 70s, but I did watch a lot of British repeats in the 80s, so I was very familiar with this world. That was part of the reason why the show hooked me so deeply.

Americans, of course, would be much less familiar with London cop shows from the 70s. Their own cop shows showed a completely different world. The culture was different, the clothes were different, the music was different and the racial mix was different. It made perfect sense to remake that programme for an American audience using 1970s New York as the setting. Apart from the first episode, which was largely copied from the original, the rest of the show seemed to grow organically from this new place. It was a different show, which seemed to be dancing with with the original rather than imitating it. I loved it.

I also loved the fact that the ending really annoyed me. I know that sounds weird, but the ending of the original really annoyed me, and the American version annoyed me just as much but for completely different reasons. Different ending, equally annoying. Loved it. Besides, I don't think it's possible to end that show (no matter where you set it) in a good way. All endings would be ultimately annoying.

Anyway, I've been thinking lately that I'd love to see a German remake of the show. London in the 70s may be strikingly different to London today. New York in the 70s may be strikingly different to New York today. But Berlin? That practically was a different planet. Imagine a cop getting hit by a car in modern Berlin and waking up on the Eastern side of the wall in 1973? Not only is he solving crimes in the "dark ages" (technologically speaking), but he's gone from being in Western Europe during the time of the Eurozone to being in a Soviet country at the tail end of the Cold War.

Now that would be a very interesting show to watch.