Today we debut a new column that looks at fantasy and genre projects from the other side of the pond!
Nearly the whole of the UK has spent the last month covered in a blanket of snow and ice, but at least everyone has had great television to keep then entertained.
The cast of Being Human cozies up
January saw the return of the BBC breakout hit, Being Human, a supernatural Three’s Company. Being Human, which is in turns funny and terrifying, follows the lives of three twenty-somethings, John Mitchell (Aidan Turner), George Sands (Russell Tovey), and Annie Sawyer (Lenora Crichlow). It just so happens that these housemates are a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost, respectively.
Being Human premiered with nearly a million and a half viewers, well up from the second season’s finale. Perhaps this could be attributed to our apparent never-ending fascination with vampires, but I think it’s more the intriguing storylines (a vampire who doesn’t want to drink blood?), the fantastic score, and a cast that is not only talented, but so gorgeous they’re gracing the current cover of Gay Times.
In fact, Being Human has been so wildly successful, American TV has decided to do what it does best: make a remake! SyFy has chosen husband and wife team Jeremy Carver (Supernatural) and Anna Fricke (Privileged) to repackage the show for American viewers. This, combined with the announcement that Fox is developing a U.S. version of Torchwood, makes us wonder: can an Americanized Doctor Who be far off?
We hope so. We hope it’s very, very far off indeed.
Colin Morgan as Merlin
We’ve also got some news on the BBC hit show Merlin. BBC has announced that the series has been renewed for a third season. We got our first (often ham-fisted) glimpses of the Arthur (Bradley James) and Guinevere (Angel Coulby) romance in season two, as well as a new, darker Morgana (Katie McGrath) whose magic is no longer quite so secret, so it’s presumable that season three will start to look a little more like something that won’t make Arthurian scholars turn in their graves. No word yet as to when season three will begin production.
American Merlin fans have something to look forward to as well. The show was actually a co-production with the NBC network, which ran the show last summer — to disastrous ratings, alas. There’s virtually no chance that NBC will bring the show back to prime-time, but it seems likely that season two will appear on one of its sister channels — most likely, SyFy, though at this point, both NBC and SyFy have declined to comment on their plans to TheTorchOnline.com.
In more solid news, the first season will finally be available in DVD in the US starting April 20th.
David Tennant also ended his four-year run as the Doctor in Doctor Who in January, closing out with a two episode arc, “The End of Time”.
The episodes saw not only the return of the Doctor’s nemesis, the Master (John Simm), but of a whole slew of Time Lords, every companion the tenth Doctor has traveled with, even Gallifrey itself. After publicity photos of Donna (Catherine Tate), the Doctor’s previous companion (who lost her memories after a Human-Time Lord meta-crisis) surfaced, there was hope that the Doctor could restore her fuzzled brain and that together again they would save the world.
No such luck, but at least she made off with a new husband and a sackful of money which is, I suppose, someone’s idea of a happy ending.
Well, that’s it for this week. Until next week, mischief managed!
Looking to buy the first season of Merlin on DVD (or any other media)? Support TheTorchOnline.com by purchasing it through this link.
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But most of these shows are on a bit of a spectrum in terms of \”country of origin\”. Some shows like X-files or Jake 2.0 were mostly American in that they were produced for a US network using US funds, directors, actors, writers, etc… but a lot also didn\’t come about that way. Some of them were conceived of and produced by Canada, and then after a pilot was made, started getting financial backing from a US network like Showtime or Syfy, thus shifting them to be \”joint ventures\”. Most are partnerships with other countries because of our small population. Very few shows are like Odyssey 5 with 100% Canadian funds and talent.
I don\’t think it\’s fair to discount a show as \”not Canadian\” simply because a financial backer is American when everything else about the show is made in Canada. Canada (the CBC) has partnership with Dr. Who in the UK in that we are contributing production funds to that show and have been credited as co-producers (CBC and BBC)… does that mean that Dr. Who is not British in your eyes?
PS - Stormworld is a joint Canadian-Australian venture, Grand Star is a joint Canadian-France-Belgium venture and Relic Hunter is a joint Canadian-UK venture. None of those shows are solely Canadian produced. We just don\’t have a bit enough domestic market here for that.
“Some of them were conceived of and produced by Canada, and then after a pilot was made, started getting financial backing from a US network like Showtime or Syfy, thus shifting them to be \”joint ventures\”.”
Good point. The best Canada has to offer gets hijacked. In a way, that was exactly my original point. There are very few shows produced for Canadian tv worth watching. Doctor Who is a British show because it is produced for Britain. Virtually all good (and many bad) Canadian shows are produced for America and so they are American shows, or at least faux American shows.
I will retract my statement that Canada’s SF/F tv industry is in its infancy.
On a side note, I wonder how many noticed the cameos in the V pilot by the 2 main actors from Grand Star.
There is another country that has produced at least one SF/F show, South Africa. I had forgotten about Charlie Jade. (Yes, I do know Canada had a hand in that show too.) I think that is about the only thing they have produced so far though.
“Canadian and Austrailian SF/F is still in its infancy, most their shows are still aimed at kids (though there is a vampire cop show I heard some good things about and have been meaning to watch).”
Canadian production companies are too busy producing American sci-fi: X-files, Millennium, the Outer Limits, the 4400, Psych, Poltergeist, Reaper, Smallville, Sliders, Lexx, Beast Wars, Mutant X, the Twilight Zone, the Dead Zone, Total Recal 2070, Ray Bradbury Theatre, Harsh Realm, The Lost World, ReGenesis, RoboCop, Earth Final Conflict, Forever Knight, Kyle XY, Highlander, Andromeda, Blade: The Series, Dark Angel, TekWar, Friday the 13th, Dead Like Me, all the Stargates, Supernatural, BSG, Caprica, Sanctuary, V and the Taken miniseries are(were) all filmed in Canada with Canadian crews and a good percentage of Canadian actors and sometimes even writers. Many of these shows are credited as being joint US and Canadian productions. Anyway, my point is, sci-fi TV is alive and KICKING in Canada.
Exactly, those are joint ventures that were produced for American tv. I’m just talking about the stuff that is produced for Canadian tv. I don’t deny that there are plenty of fine Canadian actors, writers, etc. What I am thinking of are shows like Grand Star, Stormworld, & Relic Hunter. Blood Ties is the show I heard some good things about and intend to watch when I get some extra time.
I’ve seen most of the shows you mentioned, and the only one I remember being set in Canada was Highlander. I always thought of Lexx as a Canadian show, but I thought it was filmed in Germany.
I will say that I am incredibly jealous of your Space channel. It is vastly superior to our Syfy channel which is packed ghost hunters and wrestling.
PLEASE SOMEONE CANCEL MERLIN!!! i can not take it anymore i seriously think this show is diastrous and the broamnce b/w merlin and arthur are you kidding me its like a repeat of harry potter
Vincent, I\’ve heard the same thing! Nothing confirmed yet, but it looks like April will be a good month for American Merlin fans.
Looking forward to your next article. Always excited to hear news of British shows that might be coming over here. The UK has some of the best sci-fi/fantasy on tv right now.
British SF/F is very gritty (a bit too gritty some times).
American SF/F has become very watered down, dumbed down, and too mainstream.
Canadian and Austrailian SF/F is still in its infancy, most their shows are still aimed at kids (though there is a vampire cop show I heard some good things about and have been meaning to watch).
Japan puts out tons of anime of varying quality, but most of it is aimed at kids, doesn’t appeal to me, or has very bad dubs/subtitles.
Russia is starting to produce some SF/F movies, don’t know if they have any tv shows.
Bollywood probably has some good musical SF/F, but I am too afraid to look.
Not sure the rest of the world has done anything worth mentioning
I just heard a rumor that Merlin season 2 will start airing on Syfy on April 2nd, right before SGU.
Syfy is having a Merlin season 1 marathon on March 28th. Hopefully that will be a lead-in to their airing season 2.
fingers crossed!
Theres quite a few UK shows making it onto US TV in one form or another at the moment, Uk drama has improved recently but its still a little to wishy washy at times with important points of politics and law. They go so far and bottle it.
The DW movies were with a British cast, shot and in Britain with British money so werent that Americanised, although they were more for the international market.
This is what I was talking about, regarding Doctor Who and it having had a British cast. I don’t know, I just have a hard time imagining the Doctor with a southern accent!
LOVED the first season of Being Human. Not impressed with the second season so far. The characters seemed to have had radical personality transformations since the events of the season 1 finale. And they’re all completely unlikeable. I’m hoping things improve, but two episodes in I’m already losing interest and my partner has stopped watching.
Good news about Merlin. The first season had some pretty terrible episodes, but it was dumb fun. I’m looking forward to seeing the second season when it screens down under.
I loathed “The End of Time”, but on the plus side, the season 5 trailer looked great. Looking forward to seeing Doctor No. 11 (or is it 12 if you could Journey’s End as a “regeneration) in action. Shame about David Tennant’s US pilot (Rex is Not My Lawyer), but I’m sure he’ll find work somewhere.
I’m holding out hope for Being Human. I’m not sure why the personality transfers, maybe they’re trying to hook new viewers? The start of the second season seems to be a tricky time for lots of writers. Here’s hoping, anyway.
And I hope Merlin makes it down under soon. You’re right, it isn’t ground breaking television, but it is fun and so pretty to look at.
I’ve really enjoyed Being Human series 2 so far. The fact that only four weeks had passed in their time from the end of series 1 and the start of series 2 and what happened to them all makes it realistic that they’re all going to be confused and acting a bit different from what we’re used to.
I’ve got a lot of faith in Toby Whitehouse, it has been his baby from pilot onwards and I’ve enjoyed his episodes of Doctor Who and Torchwood, plus No Angels was brill. I think with the expansion of ghost lore and after what happened at the end of episode 3 it’s going to get a whole lot more exciting.
An Americanized version of Dr. Who is the worst idea I have ever heard. Please don’t let that happen, BBC!
Actually there was already an Americanized version of Doctor Who back in 65/66 via 2 movies starring Peter Cushing. Fortunately they learned the lesson well enough for them to not try it again, so far. The only good thing to come of the movies was some well built daleks that later got used in a few Doctor Who episodes.
The movies weren’t actually all that bad as they were based on a couple early episodes, but some things they changed go against current canon.
Wow, interesting!
consistent canon is something that would definitely concern with with an American Doctor Who. It seems like a lot of the charm would get lost in the transition.
ack, the Doctor with a southern accent? Please no!