television.

in the past month the united states has come out with its own versions of two hugely popular and in my opinion brilliant british shows. why we have to reproduce our own versions of everything i'll never know. epscially when there was absolutely nothing wrong with the original. in any case, skins and shameless both premiered this week and as a fan of both the originals i was excited but nervous. skins proved to be a total waste of time while shameless has me hooked and i am desperately awaiting the rest of the season.

with skins, i enjoyed the soundtrack, and even the fashion choices (cadie's boots anyone?!). but for some reason, watching american kids get themselves into the situations that seemed so natural and plausable for the kids on the UK version just didn't. the episode was almost shot for shot the same as the original, but it just didn't work. i actually think i would have enjoyed it more had they used the same concept for a show, but changed it up and made it something new. i love the idea of using relative unknowns, and actors that are actually in their mid teens. but i think that the US version is trying too hard to recreate the magic of the UK version and it just failed miserably. the characters of cadie (cassie in the original) and tony bothered me the most. cassie is perhaps one of my favorite females in a show of that nature, and the american version of cadie played by britne oldford fell flat and came across as creepy rather then eccentric. and no one can compete with nicholas holt's misanthropic tony stonem from the original. nick holt was so perfect as the manipulative leader of the pack tony it was hard to believe he was once the adorable kid from about a boy. bottom line: watch the orignial series on netflix instant.

moving on to shameless. i never delved too deep into the UK version, but i watched the first season and most of the second and thoroughly enjoyed it. somewhere along the line i got distracted and almost forgot about it entirely until this past month when shotimee was promoting its version relentlessly. i'm a big fan of emmy rossum (she's just so pretty in phantom of the opera) and justin chatwick (i was definitely disappointed when he only showed up in the pilot episode of weeds as doug's closeted drug dealing son), plus william h macy as a drunk single dad of six... what more could a girl ask for? the show kept me on my toes, and i was caught off guard several times as the story developed. jermy allen white as lip and cameron monaghan as ian are definitely my favorites so far. bottom line: i may have not finished the UK version, but i'll certainly be keeping up with this new series.