Comments on: You’re not fooling anyone, you know.

By: Jill

Jill — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:32:38 +0000

I think there’s a huge difference between cocky and arrogant and can-do optimism. Many other countries have achieved astonishing feats of technology – and most of those before European settlers and explorers ever reached our shores. The US doesn’t have a monopoly on inventiveness, creativity, imagination, or ingenuity. The very medium we are communicating on was devised by Tim Berners-Lee, a Brit.

Having spent time in Europe and seen how our countrymen behave, there’s an unfortunate plethora of reasons for the negative stereotypes. As tourists, Americans have an irritating tendency to wonder (loudly) why everyone doesn’t do things like we do.

Stereotypes are also EASY. I also think back to Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s treatment of Giles – the stiff, repressed Brit. It did have the complicity of an actual British actor – maybe that makes a difference, I don’t know.

By: Omar X

Omar X — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:49:02 +0000

Yeah, that ultra twangy country music thing was sadly funny. It was so absurd I had to laugh. I have no idea if that was real music from an actual country music personality, or if it was just a bunch of comedic country music noises strung together for that scene. I’m not a country music fan, but even the people I know who actually wear cowboy boots and hats as part of the normal wardrobe wouldn’t listen to that, whatever it was. It was what I imagine the Grand Ole Opry would sound like if it barfed.

Aside from the continuing hope that I will see a ray of the real Glenister shine through, it’s interesting to see what American stereotypes look like through the eyes of foreign entertainment. Stereotypes exist because there is a grain of truth involved, but that grain is always wrapped in many layers of distortion. I know it’s not PC, but I kind of like that cocky, swaggering, overly self-confident, I can do anything if you’ll kindly step back, stereotype of the average American. I mean, would we have been able to put people on the moon if there weren’t some truth to it? Neil Armstrong’s foot prints are on the moon today largely because we wouldn’t listen to the people who said it couldn’t be done.

By: Jill

Jill — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:37:27 +0000

Welcome, Omar!

Yes, P. Glenister is a huge talent and it’s criminal watching him struggle not only with the accent but with just the general American-ness. We keep watching just out of curiosity, and even having him listening to country music seems tacked on. Glenister + Charley Pride = one big mess.

I don’t know if you saw the US version of “LoM,” but it did start Keitel in the Glenister role. Richard loved him in it, but I thought he was a disaster. To each their own…

By: Omar X

Omar X — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:53:41 +0000

Ever since “Life on Mars” and “Ashes to Ashes” I have become a huge Glenister fan. Tuning in to “Demons” only to find him struggling desperately with the worst American accent I’ve ever heard was a real disappointment. Barring some as yet unrevealed plot detail, it seems so unnecessary to have an American character in the show at all. It’s as if all of his energy is caught up in the struggle to get every syllable right, and in the process he is unable to be the extroverted, crusty mentor he should in that role.

By the way, I think Harvey Keitel is a great American analog for Philip Glenister.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:12:05 +0000

The original is being aired on a local PBS station two episodes at a time. Haven’t seen a whole lot of Gene Hunt yet, will let you know.

By: Jill

Jill — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:57:30 +0000

I hope by now you really do know how awful that substitution was, Richard.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:20:42 +0000

Well, could have been worse – they could have gotten Glenister’s American “substitute” Harvey Keitel to play the role. But I’d like to think even he would know what a crap show it is to begin with.

By: Kimberly

Kimberly — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:13:30 +0000

I saw the title and assumed you had just watched Avatar, too. No mis-colloquialisms, but slips of accent by the main character.

By: Shane Curcuru

Shane Curcuru — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:37:20 +0000

This is so funny I’ll put my comment here as well as on your Facebook stream:

Doubly amusing (well, triply, because it’s funny overall) because:

1) in Facebook, you’re accented characters aren’t displaying, they’re being displayed as their entities instead (another form of non–native dialog)

2) Love the quote: “Dipthongs are your FRIEND, Phil.”