Television has a long history of adapting shows around the world for new audiences. They change and edit them to fit the cultural lens of the target demographic. Sometimes adaptations can even be better than the original show that inspired them, taking the premise and being creative with it. Sometimes those same efforts can fall flat for fans of the original and new audiences alike.
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It’s not always a case of misguided creativity; adaptations can fail due to not stretching the premise far enough (or at all) to appeal to new audiences, cases of mistaken casting that can plague even original shows, and the inevitable comparisons that will be drawn between the adaptation and the original.
‘Amanda’s’
The British cultural phenomenonFawlty Towerswas a hit show in the late 70s, following the trials of a seaside hotel owner and his family and staff. Even in 2019, the show was revered as one of the best British sitcoms ever made, and it’s not difficult to tell why after watching an episode or two.
Only a few years after it went off the air, America decided to try its hand at it, with disastrous results. It only ran for 13 episodes. There were still 3 episodes left to air when the show was canceled, leaving them completely abandoned.Amanda’swas an adaptation toFawlty Towersin the same way a jelly bean could be considered an adaptation of a pea: very little besides the initial premise was similar, with characters being taken out and changed drastically.
‘Coupling’
A travesty of an adaptation,Couplingwas originally a British show quite similar toFriends —in fact, the remake was meant to replaceFriendswhen that show ended in the US. The script, so similar to the British original that it was practically identical, didn’t fit the actors’ strengths and didn’t resonate with the American audience as it had with the original. Even the BBC didn’t seem to have much hope, running the original show on their channel right after NBC ran theirs.
The UKCouplinghad a distinctive narrative style — it was nonlinear, depicting the same event from multiple points of view, and relied more on contextual, relatable humor than written jokes.
‘Eyewitness’
Eyewitnessis a much less drastic example of a bad remake, having been released in 2016 to middling and mixed reviews. The show proceeded quite similarly to the Norwegian original of the same name, following the premise of two closeted gay boys whose relationship is strained after they find themselves present at a triple murder. It was canceled due to lower ratings than expected, but some reviews claimed it had already gone on too long.
The adaptation received mixed reviews, but the reception was generally positive. However, it was nothing close to the international acclaimØyevitnereceived, with actressAnneke von der Lippewinning an International Emmy Award for Best Performance By An Actress.
‘Viva Laughlin’
A lot of factors go into canceling a show, but it doesn’t look good to the average viewer to be canceled after one episode. By contrast, the UK’sBlackpool, a hit musical crime drama, continued for seven, an appropriate running time for a miniseries. With reviews callingViva Laughlina train-wreck, andwith only an average of 3.2/10 on IMDb, something obviously went wrong.
Viewers claim it came mostly down to the casting, the lack of the surrealism that inundated the original in the form ofquintessentially British humor, and the unashamed cheese.
‘The Ex List’
A show lasting less than a month on the air is never a director’s dream, and on the surface,The Ex Listseemed to have potential: good humor and an interesting sci-f i-inspired idea drew viewers in. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to keep the interest going — ratings dropped as the adapted characters proved to be too saccharine for most American tastes. The show was an adaptation of the Israeli seriesThe Mythological X.
Many of the problems, however, seemed to be behind the scenes, with the director and the studio conflicting over how much the show should stray from its original.The director’s walk-out might have influencedCBS’s decision to cancel the show after four episodes. It’s a shame that the entire show was never aired because it seemed this one could have been a refreshing show in the likes ofNew Girlway beforeNew Girlwas conceived.
‘Life on Mars’
Life on Marsis probably the most egregious example of an American adaptation gone wrong simply due to the creative liberties it took.Another show based on a UK original,Life on Marswas acrime dramathat seemed to have a lot of potential. With the sci-fi twist of a character thrown into a murder mystery in the 1970s after being hit by a car in the present day, this police procedural was something unique.
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While the British drama continued straight with this plotline, questioning the main character’s sanity and reliability, the American version ends the second season with a reveal that was probably meant to be shocking, but just ended up getting rid of all ambiguity and mystery the show had built up. In the American adaptation, it turns out that the entire show was a computer simulation glitch, as the main character is actually an astronaut on a mission to Mars. While they double back on this in the very end to create doubt about the reliability ofthissituation, it just comes across as a cheap ploy to add mystery.
‘The Killing’
The American adaptation ofThe Killingsaw a tumultuous history over its three years, as it was canceled and revived multiple times by AMC. The fourth (and last) season concluded the show in only 6 episodes, so there was an obvious rush to get it over. The show began full of promise, garnering glowing reviews hopeful for a refreshing and emotional crime drama, only to see its former advocates turn against it as the first season struggled to show it had anything to add to the crime genre besides constant and frustratingly held-back secrets and red herrings. This killed most of the enthusiasm for the rest of the show, and it struggled to regain the optimism it had started with.
By contrast, the Danish original series,Forbrydelsen, manages to strike a much better balance between mystery and keeping secrets from the audience.
‘Ugly Betty’
This show based on the premise of a conventionally unattractive woman getting a job in fashion as the president’s secretary was a smash in Latin America. It became known as one of the country’s best telenovelas and got multiple adaptations, one of which wasUgly Bettyin America. A fairly faithful adaptation,Ugly Bettyis more of a sitcom than the soap opera the original was, and some differences mostly come down to taste.
Some prefer the dramatic and somewhat darker elements of the original, along with the commentary about the fashion world and the imperfect characters. The American version has some of this, but there are definitely elements thatYo soy Betty, la featouches on that the remake didn’t do justice to.
‘Gracepoint’
A decent attempt at adapting a British crime drama,Gracepointeven hasDavid Tennantreprise his original role — just with an American accent. While reviews were mixed on the actual quality of the show, it’s certainly not a horrible mystery show, exploring the same crime as its predecessorBroadchurchwhile being open that the killer was going to be a different person.
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However, it adheres so closely to the original that, while the murderer might end up being different, most of the plot points are beat-for-beat the same until it nears the end. While it begins to diverge most obviously about seven episodes in, it’s up to the audience if those changes are worth a remake that doesn’t do very much differently.
‘The Good Doctor’
Originally a South Korean hit,The Good Doctoris a great show no matter what version you watch. The American version of themedical dramapresents the protagonist’s autism more deeply and sensitively, but there are things it leaves out from the Korean version.
For one, the main character, Park Si-On (Joo Won), enters the hospital as a pediatric surgeon resident, which tests his savant abilities in different ways, especially taking into consideration the reputation the hospital has of him as childish and unprepared for the life of a doctor. He’s shown to have a natural talent for interacting with children, and it’s something of a shame thatFreddie Highmore’ssimilar character doesn’t get to do so. Pediatric surgery is less commonly represented in American hospital dramas, so seeing it be the focus of a South Korean drama was refreshing.
