Crime Dramas: USA vs UK

US investigators might put on gloves while examining a crime scene.

UK police at crime scene wear gloves and cover their shoes, the CSI and medical examiners wear white jumpsuits and cover their faces as well. Also plastic steps are placed on the ground for officers to walk on to avoid foot prints contaminating the crime scene. I've never seen this is an American TV show, see it all the time in shows set in England, Ireland and Wales. Don't think I've seen a Scottish crime drama yet. Probably wouldn't be able to understand them, I have trouble understanding Scottish accents, Welsh can be tricky too, but I like Irish accents.

American officers sleeping with subordinates is a crime called Sexual Harassment but in the UK nobody cares if higher ranking officer is having an affair with a subordinate or if two patrol officers are lovers.

American officers required to carry fire arms as are police in Belfast, Ireland but not in England or Wales. Don't know about Scotland. There are special forces that are armed that can be called out when going after terrorists or serial killers.

English police can quote Hamlet, including act and scene numbers.
American police might quote some movie or song but not literature or plays.

Politics seems to interfere in more invesigatios in UK than US series and everyone who sits behind a desk in the UK is corrupt.

Wow !! You are making some sweeping statements, there, GuybrushThreepwood. And I disagree with many of them !!

Mad I think Guybrush is only referring to the programs that he has watched maybe?  

That's the sense I get, Gerry.

Who knows how much "reality" is reflected in those shows. My guess has always been, not much! For instance, on TV they get DNA results in 20 minutes, but I know in AL some cases have waited more than 7 Years for them.

I've watched so many UK, Australia, Swedish, French, Irish, etc. crime dramas, that I'm started to pick up the slang they use. I find myself incorporating it into MY speech. I gotta stop this.

Yes I was talking about the shows I've watched. I could add that the UK detectives seem more broken, though two in the American series The Killing were very flawed, but that was based off a Danish series. Makes the characters more interesting, more human. so not a criticism.

We speak the same language (more or less) but we are two different cultures. Crime Drama’s are made for entertainment for their native audience and should be viewed as such.
I suppose the main difference is American dramas are more action driven while ours devote more time in developing the characters. Morse is a good example.
Personally I enjoy both because it’s good to have a choice as it is with most things.

Scottish police are not armed and I can assure you that very few of our police can quote Shakespeare.


Cari.

Yes. I probably watch as much USA crime drama as I do UK - and whilst I enjoy it I don't take any of it seriously.

It's all pure entertainment as far as I'm concerned.

Very few of the characters portrayed (USA or UK) truly resemble their real life counterparts !!

Here's a timely piece from I09 about how British TV is different from the US programs.
http://io9.com/the-real-reason-why-us-ad...dium=socialflow

I enjoy most of the British crime dramas like Detective Morse and Endeavor. Always beautiful scenery in England's countryside. Right now watching Season One of Father Brown.

Thanks, Colpet,that was excellent!

Interesting that when people talk about American adaptations of British series they never mention the older comedies which were successfully adapted, like "Sanford and Son" which which was based on "Steptoe and Son" or "All in the Family" which was a remake of "Till Death Us Do Part". American TV used to copy British all the time. Not new.

Oh no. Somebody commented that there's an American remake of "Luther" coming. I love the original, don't think I want an Americanized one.

The only way a US version of Luther will succeed is if the main actor is totally awesome. He would have to be just like the original. I'd watch the first episode and see.

I think that quiz shows and a sizable chunk of reality television can quite easily be exchanged and adapted but humour and crime dramas are much more difficult to be successful, especially if you have seen the original version first. I can’t remember the uk ever having adapted an American drama for a British audience.

Another point is that the rating war between the various commercial stations in the US is as I understand quite fierce, so there is a need for their programmes to have an instant impact on their viewers whereas the ratings are much less relevant in the uk so a new programme is given time to develop a following.

If there was only one movie I could recommend to the ladies here it would be a black and white English film made in Salford (nr Manchester) way before I was born; Hobsons Choice.. I have never seen a woman portrayed this brilliantly since. In the 1880s women never had the vote and absolutely no women’s movement, not that Maggie would have needed either.

A little background.

Maggie (Brenda De Banzie) is 30. She is, says her father, "a bit ripe" for marriage at her age, and he plans to keep it that way. Maggie runs the store, keeps the books, sees to dinner and keeps the home above the store neat. Henry Hobson, or course, doesn't pay her wages because she is, after all, his daughter. We watch Maggie come into her own. She is a plain woman with an iron will, a determination that recognizes no barriers, and a very shrewd mind.
Now we meet Willie Mossop (John Mills), the shoe worker who makes the shoes in the dingy basement under the store. Willie is just about illiterate, shy to a fault, naive, slow, honest and with very dirty hands. He is quite satisfied to stay in the basement making shoes. In Willie Mossop, however, Maggie sees a man who makes marvellous shoes, and a man she could make into a success.

Two Clips, one follows the other.

Maggie enlightens Willie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_UJRTRjyfQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWZ4iLSmygI

Sounds like something I'd like.