Well.. that's a matter of opinion, and an odd one at that. Try watching Planet Earth 2 and tell me British TV isn't top tier. Or Line of Duty. Or The Bodyguard. Or Fleabag. Or Killing Eve. Or thousands and thousands of other great shows.
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Well.. that's a matter of opinion, and an odd one at that. Try watching Planet Earth 2 and tell me British TV isn't top tier. Or Line of Duty. Or The Bodyguard. Or Fleabag. Or Killing Eve. Or thousands and thousands of other great shows.
Or Black Mirror, easily the best sci-fi show on Netflix.
No, Apple isn't trying to get people to upgrade more frequently. Exactly the opposite. They are trying to extend their already industry leading lifespan to continue the value added proposition you get when you buy an Apple product. And they won't be putting out "wild major changes" every six months, just value upgrades when it makes sense and when they are available from their suppliers.
If buying a major studio and their library were a smart move, Amazon and Netflix would have bought them all already.
As others have pointed out, British TV is actually setting the benchmark for other countries.
Plus, it’s also so fast becoming a popular destination for international tv and movie studios. With a number of major movies being shot at WB London over recent years.
Channel 4 has the best reality shows in the world for housing and architecture, featuring the irreplaceable Kevin McCloud (Grand Designs, RIBA House of the Year, etc.), Secret Millionaire for the philanthropic human story. BBC has the best gardening programmes, with the incomparable Monty Don (Gardners World, various travel gardening shows, and the RHS Chelsea flower show). The best nature programmes by-far with David Attenborough. The quality of cinematography, music and narration has no equal for these shows (when taking into account the scale and variety of shows available). And the BBC has the best sports coverage for a number of sports.
I’m not British, so my opinion is not biased in this way. I would say on the average US TV is worse for any kind of show like the above. You can take any of the shows Gordon Ramsay has done, for example and his British series are better than his US series. Of particular note is the annoying American TV editing, where they viewer and their time is treated with much disrespect. Way too many ad breaks, repetitiveness, dumbing down the audience and generally just too commercial.
Where US TV shines, IMO, is in the genre of great fictional TV shows. Pick a decade! Pick a genre! TNG, Quantum Leap, etc. etc. And film, of course. No example necessary.
British TV has also created some fine mystery series such as Miss Marple. And some fine films here and there, over the years. And, of course, a vast body of comedy TV series.
Blanket statements ignore the bigger picture, and I disagree with yours. Some British TV is not just great, but better than great.
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I love me some British TV, but I judge the dialogue on Black Mirror to be sub-par. I was recommended the show by my niece and afterward I described it to her as a poor man’s Twilight Zone/Outer Limits/Amazing Stories. Same ideas, worse writing/directing-acting/lower budget. There are much better examples of great British TV, IMO.
Deep down, you know that you deserve to be punished. Don't you, Mr DrJohnnyN? — Dolores Umbridge
With all due respect, that’s a daft thing to type. How can you say an entire nation’s TV “isn’t great”?
Personally, with the notable exception of the truly awful “Mrs Brown’s Boys”, there are many hours of excellent TV produced here in the UK that I, and many others here, thoroughly enjoy.
Please crawl back into your box.
There’s a lot of British TV I like, but the copying seems to go both ways.
On a side note, the (blessedly never released) pilot for the US copy of “IT Crowd” was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen in my life.
If you liked MITHC, read the book! Phillip K Dick also wrote the book that eventually became blade runner