Might take a while, though, given that I’m in Asia at the moment and have little interest in flying to the old country (or continent). There’s too much of Asia to see: Vietnam and Laos and Cambodia and Indonesia and the many many provinces of China and all the islands of Japan, and Korea and perhaps even India if I can get one of my colleagues to give me his top secret list of authentic Indian experiences (not the horribly packaged stuff that they try to sell to the tourists).

But back to the topic at hand, I just thought of an example of true brilliance that was done (by Americans) on a relatively small budget: Gattaca. Distinctive art direction, and a beautiful plot (not really that original, I’ll admit, but well written), and superb acting by a fine cast. The budget (if it is not ludicrously small) is less important than the quality of the acting, the script, and underlying story.

For the past almost 40 years or so, however….not so much.

Will always love that original theme tune though!

Kwok Ting Lee – it’s almost like we’re the same person! People who know me are going to start suspecting you are just a pen name of mine, and that I am writing your remarks myself in order to bulk up the comments section of my blog

As for Dr Who, it has to be said that I only watched one full episode. Other than that I have just caught occasional snippets but, so far, never enought to tempt me back into giving it another chance.

(Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ve enjoyed the over-the-top craziness of Doctor Who, and I do think that David Tennant is incredibly sexy and–based also on his performances outside of Doctor Who–incredibly talented. I also think that there are moments when Doctor Who does manage to rise above its corny-ness and its over-the-top craziness to deal with some very interesting questions of what it means to be alone, and what it can mean to realize that you are the last of your kind. Besides, there’s a lot of Doctor Who that has permeated the cultural space of anyone brought up with a connection to the old country: Daleks and Cybermen and that police box and all that malarkey. And I am enjoying the Tudors.)

However, in terms of truly great television, there’s no arguing with the success of the Americans. I dare anyone to say that Angel and Buffy have not permeated the cultural consciousness so thoroughly that we can toss references to them with a reasonable chance that people will know what we are talking about. Star Trek gave us such phrases as “Beam me up, Scotty”, “warp drives”, “Klingons” and “Set phasers to stun” (and various permutations thereof). Lost has become quite an incredible success. The Big Bang Theory is hilarious, and How I Met Your Mother has the fantastic Neil Patrick Harris delivering wonderful performances as Barney. Babylon 5 gave us a remarkable vision of a series with a defined story arc that spread itself over many seasons and genuine continuity between episodes. (We’ll ignore the way that some of the dialogue grates on the ear and how sometimes JMS seemed to lose sight of the trees in his attempt to focus on the forest.)

It is a fallacy to suggest that all this success was simply a result of a bigger budget. The talent of such individuals as Joss Whedon, J.J. Abrams, and JMS has been to create worlds that resonate with us. They’ve made us believe in their characters and feel for them. The best British (and Cantonese and German) television is likewise able to do that. However, they just don’t do it often enough. And the proper way to encourage these industries to produce better work is to critique their failings and force them to raise their game. They cannot claim low budgets as the only reason for their inability to produce memorable television. Nor can they suggest that American television is “low-brow”, or caters to crass commercial interests.