This was mentioned on the previous blog, but it deserves a revisit.
Look Around You is a BBC series of short segments parodying 1980s science classroom films to which we’ve all been subjected at some point. The show’s attack is subtle and spot-on. So much so, in fact, that the pilot episode is actually too subtle. The first five minutes are conducted in such seriousness that it does not pass as satire. Beyond that it grows increasingly absurd to the point that, by the end, they’ve achieved maximum British humour per second. Succeeding episodes distinguish themselves much better.
Look Around You has earned a second mention here because Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim has picked up the series for United States broadcast. It airs midnight CST every Sunday night. (Monday morning?)
I could not be happier. It shows that US television is not as xenophobic as I have often claimed. In most cases, if a series concept proved successful in another country, it was adapted for American audiences rather than broadcasting the original. Many of 2008’s new shows were guilty of pretending to be original, made-in-America material. The Office set a precedent for this behaviour, and I insist the series was always worse off for it. Steve Carell is a brilliant man, but his character exudes only predictable ignorance. Ricky Gervais is an entirely different man, producing a slimy and naïve boss personality irreproducible in the United States.