British Telly

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by wolf

Bedlam ... upscale condos in a building that used to be a nuthouse, creepy things happen, and there's this guy who sees ghosts, sort of, who just got out of a nuthouse himself. Lots of secrets in the past and the present of the old nuthouse, it seems. I just finished watching episode 5.

Not as exciting as I'd hoped, but not terrible either. Kind of understated, which is what I expect of most British tv shows.

I was really looking forward to it... and was disappointed.
It wasn't dire, but it had nothing new to offfer. It had no real atmosphere and didn't deliver any finger-tingling moments.

It's what I've come to expect of new, untried horror novels and most films. The gems are few and far between, and it's usually like searching for diamonds in a manure heap. Occasionally exceptionally rewarding, but a lot of shit getting there.

Having it as a TV format was brave, but it just wasn't good enough (IMO) to cut it.
Things which could have been improved: the story; the dialogue; the acting.
I wasn't all that fond of Crooked House, but it beat that Bedlam into a meringue.

Originally Posted by wolf

Whitechapel ... seems as if there's a trend of pulling the past into the present going on. This is just a modernizing of the characters like Sherlock ... but a newly minted Detective Inspector gets dumped on an established murder investigation unit... I'm assuming that this is a close-ended series?

Yep it's a genre now. But Rupert Penry-Jones and Phil Davis gave it a little more weight. And of course Steve Pemberton was in it, with his peculiar animalistic appeal. There is another series. Not sure if it will be the last.

I liked the way it was shot. It's certainly not supposed to be realistic, so it does exist in its own slightly off-beat world.

Law & Order UK - no idea.
I wasn't aware we'd imported any series - as you say it is usually the other way round.
My only suggestion is that they had a similar series approved but it was too close to the American TV programme for it not to raise eyebrows. So they bought it in, and will develop it along British lines. From previous experience of television this is feasible, just highly uncommon in this country where the development of programmes comes from a smaller source and there is advance knowledge of American programmes in the pipeline..