I've been thinking about this recently.
Some things I don't think need translating. They should stand alone like works of art, even if as television they are fundamentally ephemeral, and sometimes even reasonably trivial. I'd put The League of Gentlemen in there for example, because it has such a strong sense of place and character. Ditto Open All Hours.
But I could see Inside Number Nine being remade in order to fulfil the sense of visual shorthand.
Part of me wonders why anyone would want to remake Utopia. I think it should stand on its own merits. And if it's very British then that is part of the programme. But then I think, well... Why not let the Merkins have their own Utopia. So many elements in it would look and feel different in an American setting. A pub as a meeting place. Getting drunk in the afternoon, a paranoid survival expert with his own bunker, holing up in a decaying mansion. They all send different signals. Maybe not to the people in the Cellar, who have a more global mindset, but to your average American.
Because what I have found, working in retail again, is that your average Brit knows very very little about America and Americans even despite holidays in Florida and entertainment dominated by American films. So it stands to reason it must work in reverse, if not more so.
And after all, good stories can stand retelling.
I'd watch an American version of Les Revenants, despite it being quintessentially French in my mind. I adored its Gallic charm, but I honestly wouldn't mind seeing the same story set elsewhere. As long as it wasn't dumbed down and over-explained.
I think I think
that I am more accepting of remaking and reimagining for TV because I care about it less. I'm a little more irritated by films, because if I have seen a good example I can't remember it. And because I think Hollywood is stuck it's own arse.
And don't ask me to be reasonable about films made from books. I know I am far too precious and definitely unreasonable
