easyreeder
408 posts
Oct 07, 2013
11:48 AM
|
If you're using American television drama as your travel-guide you'll never set foot on the continent. It's like a telescope with a cracked lens, all you get is an exaggerated and distorted image of a microcosm of society.
Perhaps TV drama is a more accurate reflection of life in England. But here, even the reality shows are unreal. If they reflected the way most of us live, why would anybody watch them? It's the freak-show and the conflict that makes them popular. That in itself says something about our society, but it doesn't follow that our lives are like our television shows.
|
KingoBad
1400 posts
Oct 07, 2013
11:59 AM
|
I thought the same thing about Trainspotting.
----------
Danny
|
paulbunyn
90 posts
Oct 07, 2013
12:25 PM
|
Yes, I agree. It is farther off than us thinking Brits live like the guys on "Last Of The Summer Wine".
|
HawkeyeKane
2102 posts
Oct 07, 2013
12:34 PM
|
@paul
Ha! I love Last of the Summer Wine! Smiler's gotta be one of the funniest TV characters ever conceived!
----------
Hawkeye Kane
|
harmonicanick
2050 posts
Oct 07, 2013
2:44 PM
|
I am surprised 'last of the summer wine' and there are other series like this..
So you guys are looking for some escapism right?
|
Goldbrick
269 posts
Oct 07, 2013
5:26 PM
|
Heck . Come here to sunny south Florida- They call it the Gun Shine state.Justified is like a reality show without the coalmines.
Seriously - a great show based on stories by the badass Elmore Leonard - ( RIP )
Last Edited by Goldbrick on Oct 07, 2013 5:27 PM
|
SuperBee
1469 posts
Oct 08, 2013
1:00 AM
|
hang on...you telling me last of the summer wine isnt realistic?...
here in australia we would not dream of messing with reality like that. mad max and crocodile dundee were virtually documentaries
----------
JellyShakersFacebookPage
JellyShakersTipJar
|
Miles Dewar
1515 posts
Oct 11, 2013
12:11 AM
|
"Wow, what a country you have there:)"
Was that a jab at the United States?
------
I could do the same and assume every person in the UK is as silly as to base their opinion of an entire country on what they see in a television show.
...or is this a joke I am just not getting?
|
harmonicanick
2053 posts
Oct 11, 2013
12:57 AM
|
@Miles
No not a jab, but just a feeling of shock at the level of gun ownership and use, portrayed in this very realistic cop drama.
|
The Iceman
1212 posts
Oct 11, 2013
2:59 AM
|
Brits have their own shockingly disturbing police dramas, too.
"Waking the Dead"
"Touch of Evil"
"Only Fools and Horses" (koff)
----------
The Iceman
|
Frank
2982 posts
Oct 11, 2013
4:13 PM
|
Well, if you ever go back into Wooley Swamp,
Well, you better not go at night.
There's things out there in the middle of them woods
That make a strong man die from fright.
Things that crawl and things that fly
And things that creep around on the ground.
And they say the ghost of Lucius Clay gets up and he walks around.
[Chorus]
But I couldn't believe it.
I just had to find out for myself.
And I couldn't conceive it
'Cause I never would have listened to nobody else.
And I couldn't believe it.
I just had to find out for myself
There's somethings in this world you just
can't explain.
Spoken:
The old man lived in the Wooley Swamp way back in Booger Woods.
He never did do a lot of harm in the world,
But he never did do no good
People didn't think too much of him
They all thought he acted funny
The old man didn't care about people anyway
All he cared about was his money.
He'd stuff it all down in mason jars
And he'd bury it all around
And on certain nights
If the moon was right
H e'd dig it up out of the ground.
He'd pour it all out on the floor of his shack
And run his fingers through it.
Yeah, Lucius Clay was a greedy old man
And that's all that there was to it.
Cable boys was white trash
They lived over on Carver's Creek.
They were mean as a snake
And sneaky as a cat
And belligerent when they'd speak.
One night the oldest brother said,
"Y'all meet me at the Wooley Swamp later
We'll take old Lucius's money
and we'll feed him to the alligators."
They found the old man out in the back
With a shovel in his hand,
Thirteen rusty mason jars
was just dug up out of the sand.
And they all went crazy
And they beat the old man,
And they picked him up off of the ground.
Threw him in the swamp
And stood there and laughed
As the black water sucked him down.
Then they turned around
And went back to the shack
And picked up the money and ran.
They hadn't gone nowhere
When they realized
They were running in quicksand.
And they struggled and they screamed
But they couldn't get away
And just before they went under
They could hear that old man laughing
In a voice as loud as thunder.
And that's been fifty years ago
And you can go by there yet.
There's a spot in the yard
In the back of that shack
Where the ground is always wet.
And on summer nights
If the moon is right
Down by the that dark footpath,
You can hear three young men screaming.
You can hear one old man laugh.
[Chorus]
Charlie Daniels :)
Last Edited by Frank on Oct 11, 2013 4:16 PM
|
JInx
574 posts
Oct 11, 2013
6:38 PM
|
After watching the BBC America's presentation of "BODIES" I pity you poor Brits. Your hospitals are the most insanely, sadistic, corrupt institutions the world had ever known. Good luck to you all!
----------
Sun, sun, sun
Burn, burn, burn
Soon, soon, soon
Moon, moon, moon
|
Martin
486 posts
Oct 11, 2013
7:08 PM
|
Read Elmore Leonard, skip that TV shit.
|
Thievin' Heathen
260 posts
Oct 11, 2013
8:44 PM
|
Maybe things will begin to settle down now that the government is shut down.
|
Miles Dewar
1516 posts
Oct 11, 2013
11:34 PM
|
@harmonicanick,
I've seen one of those too! It was called "Machete," but I realize that is not indicative of reality.
|
Kingley
3188 posts
Oct 12, 2013
2:11 AM
|
"its all about our second amendment rights.......I am not doc holliday and don't pretend to be......its all about self defense.....our country is full of bad guys"
I'm not condemning any Americans for owning guns as is their right in law. I do though question the laws that allow them to do so. Every country in the world is full of "bad guys". It's an inescapable fact that the USA has inordinate amounts of murders committed by guns every year. Obviously the laws that allow guns to be very easily obtained play a huge part in that. In 2010 the number of murders by the use of guns in the USA numbered over 8,000. In the UK that number was around 600. Even if you allowed for the difference in population numbers, or the obtaining of firearms via the black market, the USA death quota from firearms is significantly larger than most (if not all) of the western world.
As for TV dramas. It's their job to entertain. They aren't real and most of the time don't reflect a real view of the world at all. Hopefully most people can see them for what they are and don't seriously believe that any country is in reality the way it's portrayed in a fictitious TV show.
Last Edited by Kingley on Oct 12, 2013 2:12 AM
|
kudzurunner
4304 posts
Oct 12, 2013
5:46 AM
|
This forum isn't the place for political discussions between Brits and Americans that devolve into pointed, irritable "Yours is worse then mine" comparisons between the two countries. I thought you all knew that.
|
