Since getting DirecTV installed at the house, I have been watching BBC America quite a bit. My parents have Dish Network and I remember watching Changing Rooms before TLC aired their first episode of Trading Spaces. I remember watching Ground Force with my parents and lauging at all the Brit kids staring at the Irish woman’s unbridled sweater pillows.

Lately, I have found BBC shows popping up all over. Aside from the aforementioned Trading Spaces, I have become adicted to MI-5 on A&E, which is a rebroadcast of the Brit show Spooks. The show revolves around a team of people towards the top of the U.K.’s domestic security service – sort of a cross between the FBI, NSA and Homeland Security in the States.

Recently, NBC tried bringing Coupling to the U.S. Anyone who has seen the BBC version knows it is hilarious. Unfortunately, NBC didn’t hire any of the writers for the original Coulpling. Instead, they churned out a boiler plate sitcom about how everyone’s a pervert when you get down to it. Every character was a cliche and every punchline was low-brow and stereotypical. To put it mildly, it sucked. Fortunately, BBC America carries the original show.

Lately, I have heard NBC is going to try and bring The Office to the U.S. If any NBC execs happend to stumble upon this page, heed the rest of this paragraph: Don’t import The Office to NBC; nobody will like it and it will fail worse than Coupling – especially with the dumbed down, “beat you over the head with the punchline” style of comedy that most sitcom writers and netoworks seem to prefer. If you want a good comedy, learn from the ones that worked well. They all had wit. The punchline wasn’t some kind of catch phrase to be repeated over and over thtoughout the series. If normal Brit humor is dry and subtle, The Office is overly normal. It is so dry it’s chapped, and I think most American viewers would miss most of the humor completely. If you want a sitcom about cube life, talk to Mike Judge or Scott Adams.

About the only U.S. comedy I consistantly laugh at is Scrubs. If you haven’t watched it yet, check it out. The humor is different from the average 30-minute series of set-ups and one-liners that comprises just about everything else out there. Grounded For Life, Malcom in the Middle and That 70’s Show often have some good moments, but aren’t really as consistent as Scrubs. They’ve become pretty predictable. Where Scrubs get me is in the little things they do every episode, like having Re-Run come in and dancing with the staff, or the 99 Red Baloons daydream scene. The quirks of each character that are revealed in the episodes are the best.

Aside from Comedies, nothing beats HBO. They have some of the best shows on TV, and the latest one, Carniv?le, has me thoroughly hooked. Nevermind that I am a fan of Clea DuVall. I noticed on IMDB that she will be playing Susan “Sexy Sadie” Atkins in an apparent Helter Skelter TV remake. Having enjoyed From the Earth to the Moon, Band of Brothers and Carniv?le, I am curious about Angles in America, HBO’s next big miniseries. Pacino with blonde hair!? That will take getting used to.

I guess the good thing about my not liking most of the new shows I see is it means I watch less TV. That would be great if it were true. When I got DirecTV, the promotion they offered made getting every channel they offered cheaper than just getting HBO and the mid-level channel line-up. So, if I am not watching network, there’s usually a movie on one of the 20-something movie channels I have. That ends in about another month, so I’ll be able to get back to reading and some other stuff.