The Killing flaw

Not so long ago, the British believed their home-grown TV was the best in the world, a view that was apparently impervious to the regular presence of the likes of Mr Blobby or Jeremy Beadle or Terry and June on the nation's screens. These days, it must be said, a lot of the more watchable stuff comes from abroad. From Europe, we get crime dramas (Wallander, from Sweden; Spiral, from France; Forbrydelsen, from Denmark, of which more later) and even quirky comedies (Night Shift, from Iceland). From the US, there's a whole range of well-written and immaculately produced series, from The Sopranos and The Wire via Mad Men to Larry David's cringefest, Curb your Enthusiasm.

By comparison, the UK seems stuck in the past: still churning out the increasingly preposterous Doctor Who, shamelessly reaching back into the past with the flaccid Downton Abbey, or producing excruciatingly old-fashioned sitcoms like the unwatchable Miranda. (For non-UK viewers -- and aren't you the lucky ones? -- this features a very tall and, shall we say, homely-looking woman who falls over a lot). Oh sure, there are exceptions -- Sherlock was pretty good -- but aside from news and sports, the discriminating viewer could very easily meet his or her home entertainment needs without once watching anything produced on these shores.

The revival of US television is arguably the major entertainment story of the past decade. Driven by HBO and a gaggle of ambitious competitors, the small screen has largely usurped the cinema as the major medium for creativity and storytelling. To a greater and greater extent, it's where all the money and talent -- writers, directors, actors -- want to strut their stuff.

So here's the question. With all of this creativity bubbling away, with the reputation of US television growing around the world, why did anyone think it was a good idea to remake Denmark's remarkable Forbrydelsen* (The Killing) for US audiences? The reason usually given is that US audiences won't watch anything with subtitles, but hasn't anyone ever heard of dubbing? And anyway, the subtitles thing isn't even true. When The Wire boxset became available in the UK, newbies were advised to switch on the subtitles in order to pick up on the Baltimore gangspeak -- and were assured that Americam viewers had done exactly the same thing.

The remake, sad to relate, is feeble and dull. It's a shame that US viewers, growing increasingly used to seeing high-quality output from their own country after so many years of dreck, have been deprived of seeing a product of equal merit from an unexpected source. Forbrydelsen 2 arrives in the UK later this year; it would be nice if US viewers could get to see it too, rather than some pointless and half-baked remake, but alas, a second series of The Killing is already in the works.

* For those of you who have let your once-fluent Danish lapse, the title actually means "crime", but it was shown in the UK, and has been remade in the US, as The Killing.