Australia makes terrible tv. Sit down and Shut Up was the best thing we've ever made. I watch house, southpark, drawn together, simpsons (force of habit). All yank. The only australian shows I watch are Media Watch (picking apart stories from the media with an incredibly dry, hilarious woman who never smiles) and The Chaser's War on Everything. Teehee. But so many american sitcoms just aren't.. funny. British stuff, like Mr Bean (is black adder british)? Is always good for a laugh, but I don't like their serious programming. Or their news, except for the BBC.

The Chaser's War On Everything is fantastic. Personally, I think Magda Szubanski, Gina Riley and Jane Turner are collectively the best comedy team I've ever seen. Kath and Kim may not be high-brow, but for the type of comedy that it is, it's the best out there.

I haven't seen much British TV to comment on. Anime, though, as another form of imported programming, has always appealed to me because (most of them) they tell their story and are done with it, instead of pumping out season after season until they've killed it. American media will keep putting out more and more until it stops being profitable.

I dunno, I liked Micallef.

We made Doctor Who, therefore we win.

Fin.

EDIT: Then again, you made House... I'm torn.

We also made Heroes. But I'm still torn. I have so much <3 for Doctor Who.

Well, Doctor Who was around for decades! So I think you win by default.

They're British. They win nothing.

Nothing left to win, right.

Nothing left to win cause America got it all already.

Actually, I've seen both (well, mostly American and some British). Now, I absolutely love subtle, dark humor. Humor where you have to think. Frequently, I'll be the only person laughing at something because it's subtly ironic/sarcastic/etc (and feel like a loser in the process, but whatever).

On that scale, Britain does win. But, like the majority of Americans, when I get home from work/school, I don't want to think. I want to see the mass-media comedy/drama/etc (except reality...eww).

So, basically, I like both. American TV wins with most because we're couch potatoes and just want the entertainment pumped into our minds.

On a side note, Verithrax is completely right in that American TV tries to be more controversial, so they'll pick extreme ideas and run with it. Heroes was a sleeper hit basically. I <3ed the Black Donnellys too, but that was pulled off the air (damn bastards).

Dangerous is kinda good, we also have some kids/young teen shows that are good. Thunderstone, Spellbinder and Cybergirl were cool. Farscape is credited as an Australian and American production most likely just because it was filmed here.

The main problem with australian tv is that there just isn't that much of it so we get the american shows, our actors generally need to go over to america to make a name for themselves or hope for a Kate Ritchie/Ray Meagher like run (According to wikipedia some time next year they will both have been working on "Home and Away" for 20 years, the entire length of the shows run).

I don't really remember too many aussie shows that run for more than two seasons.

I just skimmed through the channels on my digital tv guide, there are two australian shows on over a hundred channels(one is a +2 channel though).

So, does Britain have anything in the vein of Joss Whedon?

Without Doctor Who there would be no Joss Whedon. And Torchwood, a spinoff of Doctor Who, is sort of Buffy meets X-files-ish, but with nudity and uncensored profanity.

SkyOne supposedly marketed Hex as the "British Buffy". The creators of that show actually said that while Buffy was "camp", they were dead serious.

Whedon had a lot more influences that Doctor Who! However, Joss Whedon's a bit over-rated in my mind. I like him but too many people think he's "GOD" when it comes to creating a show. He created one very decent hit because it blended John Hughes like Teen Angst with Sci-Fi. I thought the earlier seasons of Buffy (1-3) were better, Angel was okay but made demons more cosmopolitan and I felt ruined the initial concepts, and Firefly was okay but not stellar.

As far as a "name creator", a writer and show-runner similar to Joss Whedon (Buffy) or J. Michael Strazynzcki (Babylon 5), I wouldn't know, you'd have to ask our British members.

I'm surprised our British friends like House so much. Is it the character or Hugh Laurie's acting. Since we don't seem to be subtle I'd think you'd make fun of it. House started out good but is sort of getting a bit more "over the top" and getting more outlandish. Where are you guys at in the series?

(Oh, and as for Heroes, I've never watched it. I've heard good things in the media but I'll wait for the DVD to judge it. I am a super-hero nut though and I think it will be disappointing--it will either make fun of the genre in some way "or, we're realistic, Marvel and DC aren't", or it will cover the same ground other good comics like X-Men, Watchmen, or other concepts so it won't be original to me).

Heroes is realllllly nothing like Watchmen. IMO it's like X-men, but better, really.

Heroes definitely isn't campy and meant just to make fun of the genre. Quite the opposite, it takes itself very seriously in many respects, however it doesn't ever make fun of the comic world, in fact, comic books play a key plot point. I'll try to give a brief synopsis without spoiling anything major...

Essentially, the first season is about the discovery of mutants. Essentially, human genetics began to evolve around the time of feudal japan, and started to occur more and more as the generations passed, with it being at its highest point in modern day, but its still not quite common enough that its known about by the average person.

There is an agency at work to essentially tag and record the mutants, or kill them if necessary. And there is a mutant who has the ability to steal other mutant's powers my killing them. He's the main villian, and is the one everyone is after, with the agency playing a very ambiguous-but-leaning-towards-evil role in the beginning.

There's a man who can paint the future, and a guy who can travel through time--both of them have the same discovery, that, in a matter of months, New York is going to be destroyed in an atomic blast. And so the season kicks off, with a group of individuals discovering their powers and being drawn in by a self-fullfilling sort of destiny to try and save the world.

Over all, its an incredibly well done story, with awesome character development, and a serious dose of twists. I can't imagine a comic book fan not enjoying it, as, in my opinion, it takes everything awesome in comic books while leaving out the cheesier crap.

Edit: Also, I didn't mean that Joss Whedon's only influence was Doctor Who, but more that Doctor Who really paved the way for a mainstream fantasy/science fiction television genre. Without Doctor Who, a lot of shows would have never seen the light of day, I think.

I can't bring myself to like you anymore.

I didn't say I hated Firefly, but I didn't think it was the best Sci-Fi show in the universe either. Babylon 5 and Farscape both were more entertaining.

Watching a couple episodes of "Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares" on BBC America, I have a question.

Vulgarity like the "f word" (not to be confused with the show The F-Word) is bleeped a lot on the BBC America version. When these shows plays on the BBC or whatever other channel this is on, do they run the language uncensored or do they have bleeps across the pond as well?

I can't remember the last time I heard an English T.V show bleep anything. Either we just say it properly or we don't say it at all.

That's just off the top of my head though.