Any other Americans love this show? - Fresh Meat (2011) Discussion

[–] bkstosell 11 years ago

American in Florida, LOVE IT!!! And a number of my friends do too. Can't wait for the next round.

On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?

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[–] zukny 11 years ago

Let me know if I am alone on this:

When I watch British television, I find that a lot of the stuff relates more to real life situations than American television would. To compare:

The Community (community college tv series) - In america Community college is a 2 year program and typically all students work part time while in school living at home or are just moving into an apt. In the television series they have: 4 year program, a cafeteria w/ outside companies food. DORM ROOMS!!!, and the list can go on. I love the series, but in no way is the show realistic in my eyes.

Fresh Meat (college television series) - In america most people that goto college enter the dorm rooms first and later get into a house. That said, many times people move into houses or dorm rooms w/ people they don't know. College is often a time where people of different backgrounds look past those backgrounds and become friends - Like in Fresh Meat.

Let's look at 2 more series:

New Girl - Teacher w/ a Model as a friend? 30 year olds living in an APT together? The one is a freaking lawyer, he has to have enough money to build his own house for god sake. The token black guy roommate that used to play sports? or did he.. I mean, every character in this series is a bit over-dramatic. Again, I really enjoy the series, but in no way does it ring home as realistic what so ever. If they were young 20's like (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26) But this series is about 30 year old people who are marrying into Indian weddings, riding elephants, fathers who are Con-Men. etc.. etc.. etc..

The Inbetweeners - Television series about a group of friends who grew up together finding out about women for the first time.. Not too much unusual about that. Many of the stories in this series may be a bit radical, but really not to far off the mark from things that actually happen either.

What is the point of all of this? I will say that I enjoy watching British series sometimes more often because they seem to be more relatable to actual events in one's life. British or American.

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[–] dootmoot 11 years ago

Let me know if I am alone on this:

You are not alone, but there is a pretty simple set of reasons why there are such different styles to the TV shows you've mentioned, which may or may not also have an effect on the base concept of the shows as well, depending on how you look at it.

The biggest differences between these American & British TV shows are budgets, and budgets impact the next two differences: Writers & Number of Episodes.

Lets look at the American shows you've mentioned first:

"Community" and "New Girl" both have writing staffs with 13 people on them. And that's not even all that much; the Simpsons has over 20 writers. Having so many writers means they sit around a table and spitfire jokes and episode premises as a team, and whoever comes up with the "best idea" gets their concept written. Different parts of each episode are then written by different people. Sometimes that means writers are broken up to handle the different storylines - Primary, Secondary, if needed Third- of the episode. Or sometimes different writers are given only 1 character they are responsible for in that episode (ie: 1 writer would write the Schmidt storyline while another writes Winston, while a third handle's CeCe), then they come back together, see what they've got, and make the dialogue work.

One of the biggest things that happens is different staff writers wind up writing different episodes, or different parts of multiple episodes, meaning one person's view of the characters may not show up again until later in the season, if at all, since the head writer gets to say "I don't think the character would do/say/feel/ "X," so American comedies tend to be more wacky/unrealistic/have much less solid continuity than British comedies.

British shows like Fresh Meat or Skins have more continuity or seem more plausible because they tend to have fewer writers who have fewer episode orders, meaning they don't have to force out filler scripts that put their TV characters in unimportant situations that don't advance the artistic direction of the show. Only once has Fresh Meat use more than 2 writers (they used 3) for an episode and a lot of the time they only used 1, meaning the characters, situations, and flow of the show will be mostly similar, and the storyline grows at a consistent pace.

Now, Fresh Meat does have, maybe, 6 different people who've done some writing for it, but Brits only have to worry about filming 6-8 episodes a series/season, so the same people can let their creative ideas for the characters evolve organically instead of American sitcoms where writers are more worried about coming up with funny premises so that they look useful and don't get fired.

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[–] shuhel360 (72) 7 years ago

Hit the nail on the head with this. Completely agree.

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[–] standrkm 11 years ago

Hell yeah, it's pretty amazing. It's like the offspring of the inbetweeners and the it crowd or something. It's like part of the family.

"the day I tried to live, I learned that I was alive"

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[–] snakeye355 11 years ago

I'm American and I also tried to show my friends this show but they just don't get British Humor. Strangely, I Do. I guess its one of the benefits from being a Brooklyn native (the place where slang is constantly reinvented for no apparent reason other than to sound cool). I love this show and although my friends don't, my brother and younger cousin always like coming over to watch Fresh Meat and have good laughs.

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[–] call-betelguese 11 years ago

This show is awesome. I don't get why people say they can't understand British comedy or accents. Obviously there are cultural jokes you are just not going to understand. I would say the character with the jokes i least get is JP, but i still find his character amusing.

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[–] deniseactress 11 years ago

I don't know if I love it, but it is addictive to watch. All of the characters are completely irritating but then I must see what they'll do next!

what Jordie?

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[–] aribus-906-564108 11 years ago

This has quickly become one of my favorite shows. The blend of comedy and drama is perfect. I'll admit that some of the humor goes over my head, but that seems to be the case with a lot of the entertainment I watch from overseas.

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[–] morn1960 11 years ago

just started watching on hulu, I would like it much more if a quarter of each episode wasnt missing. There were 15 minutes cut from the first episode and 10 from the second

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