Do we think of ourselves as participating in civic society in the same way over here?
I'm not sure about this, based largely on the entirely anecdotal feeling that I've seen a lot more Americans complaining about having to do jury duty than I have Brits, and also asserting that only stupid people are on juries because all the smart ones can manage to get out of it.
There's something generic about the setting, and I'm not quite sure it's got to the heart of what happens when we (the British) go about the business of dispensing justice.
Thinking about it some more, I wonder if most of the weakness of the show is simply that it's trying to apply the constraints of the L&O franchise formula in the wrong cultural background. The fact that they have the CPS running around talking to witnesses suggests that they haven't put too much effort into trying to actually *adapt*, more search-and-replaced the job description. Was it you we were talking with at Redemption about how American adaptations of UK comedy shows are usually crap? Maybe this is just another case of a show wilting after being transplanted into a non-native setting.
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2009-02-25 01:08 pm (UTC)I'm not sure about this, based largely on the entirely anecdotal feeling that I've seen a lot more Americans complaining about having to do jury duty than I have Brits, and also asserting that only stupid people are on juries because all the smart ones can manage to get out of it.
There's something generic about the setting, and I'm not quite sure it's got to the heart of what happens when we (the British) go about the business of dispensing justice.
Thinking about it some more, I wonder if most of the weakness of the show is simply that it's trying to apply the constraints of the L&O franchise formula in the wrong cultural background. The fact that they have the CPS running around talking to witnesses suggests that they haven't put too much effort into trying to actually *adapt*, more search-and-replaced the job description. Was it you we were talking with at Redemption about how American adaptations of UK comedy shows are usually crap? Maybe this is just another case of a show wilting after being transplanted into a non-native setting.