Télévision
Page 20
DÉCOUVERTES
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CULTURE
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ENJEUX
SOCIÉTÉ
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Brit hits make a killing in the US
CHOC DES CULTURES. Les Américains montrent un véritable engouement pour les séries télévisées britanniques… mais il
y a un hic : à l’instar des producteurs de cinéma, les chaînes préfèrent en tourner des remakes, en engageant parfois les
mêmes acteurs, plutôt que de proposer les versions originales à leurs téléspectateurs. Comment expliquer ce choix assez
curieux ?
THE INDEPENDENT
Brit hits make a killing in the US
Les séries à succès britanniques
font un tabac aux Etats-Unis
flavour parfum, saveur, ici atmosphère, caractère / to alienate s’aliéner, éloigner / on board
ici dans la série, dans le casting.
2. thus ainsi, de ce fait / screen écran / to
reprise reprendre / downbeat abattu, pessimiste / cop flic, enquêteur / complete with
avec / to suit s’adapter à, correspondre à /
surroundings environnement, cadre.
3. currently actuellement / to near approcher / conflicted ambivalent, déchiré / copper
(fam.) flic / unable incapable / in-demand
très demandé / to cast, cast, cast choisir / to
rave about s’extasier sur / increasingly de
plus en plus.
4. sudden soudain / fallout retombées, conséquences / in the works en préparation /
obvious évident, qui s’impose.
5. appeal attrait / novelistic romanesque /
to zero in on cibler, ici se concentrer sur / to
pull off réussir / compelling passionnant,
convaincant / to increase augmenter.
6. crop moisson, ici ensemble, série / setting
cadre, environnement, décor / late disparu,
décédé / plot intrigue, histoire / to retool
modifier, retravailler / to cover rendre compte
de, traduire / to spin, spun, spun off dériver
(de), se développer (à partir de).
7. upbeat enthousiaste, optimiste / landscape
20 • VOCABLE Du 14 au 27 novembre 2013
BY SARAH HUGHES
hat do you do if you’re a US television executive remaking a hit
British crime series for an American audience and determined to keep the
flavour of the original show without alienating a new audience? The answer, according to the executives behind the US version
of Broadchurch, is to make sure that you
have not just the series’ creator but at least
one of the original stars on board.
2. Thus when the Broadchurch remake arrives on US TV screens in early 2015, it will
star David Tennant reprising his role as a
downbeat cop complete with an American
accent to suit his new small-town USA surroundings.
3. Nor is Tennant the only actor to be revisiting an old role. The US remake of Low Winter Sun, currently nearing the end of its first
season on Fox in the UK, stars Mark Strong
as an American version of the conflicted copper he first played in Channel 4’s 2006 miniseries and while the HBO remake of Criminal Justice was unable to get the in-demand
Ben Whishaw to reprise his role as a young
man accused of murder, they have still
turned to the UK for help, casting Riz Ahmed
in the Whishaw role. Here in Britain we
might still be raving about the latest US hit
but increasingly America is looking back
across the Atlantic for inspiration.
W
So just why is that?
4. In part the sudden interest in our dramas can be seen as part of the fallout from
the Scandinavian effect. American cable channels have already remade The Killing and The
Bridge and a reworking of political drama
Borgen is still in the works – surely it was only
a matter of time before they turned elsewhere? And the UK seems an obvious choice.
As Jane Tranter, head of BBC Worldwide Productions, remarked when HBO’s remake of
Criminal Justice was first announced: “There’s
this British obsession that American dramas
are better than British ones – but American
cable companies love our dramas.”
5. Chris Mundy, the executive producer of
Low Winter Sun agrees. “British series start
and end with character, which is always the
best way into any drama,” he says, adding
that a large part of British television’s appeal
was the way it allows for “more novelistic
television”: “Whether it’s Luther or Criminal Justice or Broadchurch, they all zero in
on their central characters and if you start
with that, your chances of pulling off a compelling show increase exponentially.”
Moving to the US
6. Yet while there’s no doubting that US
television executives are falling in love with
the most recent crop of UK dramas, it’s also
clear that that love is not yet strong enough
for them to simply buy-in the original. Criminal Justice is a co-production with BBC
Worldwide but with the setting moved to
New York, a cast that was to include the late
James Gandolfini and the plot retooled by
Richard Price to cover that city’s complex legal system. Similarly, while Broadchurch’s
creator Chris Chibnall will write the first
episode of the US show, the action will be
moved to a small American town and the
show will spin off from there.
7. Chibnall was upbeat about the new version
telling Entertainment Weekly: “I’m very, very
fascinated to see this story in a different land-
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The original Broadchurch cast. (DR)
paysage, environnement / terrible épouvantable.
8. to thrill tressaillir, frissonner, également
se passionner (réf. au terme thriller) / intricacy
complexité / Swedish suédois / intricately de
manière compliquée / beast bête, créature, ici
série / to take, took, taken a chance courir
le risque, essayer / alien étranger.
scape with an acting ensemble that’s just
as strong but taken from really great American actors… We’re not gonna do the terrible
version. We’re gonna do a great version.”
8. Yet while it’s easy to see why something
like Criminal Justice was a remake – for all
there are those of us who thrill to the intricacies of the Swedish political system as intricately explained by Borgen, it’s much simpler in legal dramas to start with a system
that the audience understands – Broadchurch and Low Winter Sun are more complicated beasts. Are US TV bosses really saying their audiences won’t take a chance? Are
they suggesting that small-town England
is too alien for small-town Americans to understand? Or that there’s nothing to be said
in Edinburgh that wouldn’t be better repeated in Detroit?
Culture
9. The point about the difference in culture cuts to the heart of why US networks
will always prefer remakes. To a US audience, the Edinburgh of Low Winter Sun is
bleakly alien. Yes there might be a portion
of the audience who are prepared to take
the leap with the show and watch anyway
but many of them will simply switch off.
By contrast, British audiences willingly embrace US dramas, even when they are set,
like The Wire or Low Winter Sun, in the
crumbling and unfamiliar settings of cities
such as Baltimore and Detroit.
10. However, we still tend to export the
past to America. We sell them heritage
houses and upright countesses; we deal in
thwarted love and the stiffest of lips and
they both love that and are less interested
when we try to say something new. It’s no
surprise that our biggest hit remains
Downton Abbey or that US audiences have
enjoyed both Doctor Who and Sherlock,
two shows with a foot in heritage Britain
for all their claims of breaking new
ground. ●
9. point argument, raisonnement / to cut,
cut, cut to the heart of être au coeur de, expliquer / bleakly terriblement / to take the leap
franchir le pas / to switch off couper, éteindre
/ willingly volontiers / to embrace embrasser,
ici adopter, accepter, apprécier / to set, set, set
(se) situer / to crumble tomber en ruine,
s’écrouler, se délabrer.
10. heritage house demeure historique /
upright coincé, rigide / countess comtesse /
to deal, dealt, dealt in traiter de / to thwart
contrarier, contrecarrer, empêcher / the stiffest of lips le plus grand flegme (to keep,
kept, kept a stiff upper lip garder son flegme,
faire bonne contenance, rester stoïque) / for
ici malgré, en dépit de / to break, broke, broken new ground innover.
i
The Low Winter Sun full cast. (DR)