Sister Wendy | Brass Eye | Dear John | Changing Stages
wonderful genre films including quite a few from Hammer Studios. Inspired by it's success at home the Dear John formula crossed The Pond and began a modest run on American television with Judd Hirsch in the lead. While the American versiondid alright for itself the original has kept an unfortunatly low profile in the US. That's why the UK Dear John is on the wish list.
I personally find the UK version a far superior show. Part of that is probably just my natural bias American TV but it's also due to the comparative quality. Unlike most TV series that make the trip from UK to US with Dear John the similarities go far beyond the series' basic premise thanks to Hollywood labor problems. With no writers available to craft new scripts NBC simply took John Sullivan's original scripts and made minor cosmetic changes. Thanks to union strife we have an opportunity to see two versions of the same exact stories and in every case the UK version wins.
Dear John (both versions) focuses on recently divorced John (Bates/Hirsch) who's having so much trouble recovering his confidence and self-esteem that he joins a support group full of entertaining characters played by strong ensembles in both versions. Neither series is a masterpiece but there's something about Bates performance that totally outclasses Hirsch's take on the role. Bates was a master of charming self-depreciating comedy that Hirsch simply can't compete with.
The chances of Dear John getting a high profile release here in the US
are hurt by a number of factors. The success of the American series might
actually work against it with distributors afraid that viewers will confuse the
two. Also, there were only three short seasons of the UK version - not because
it lacked popularity but because of lead actor Bates untimely and unspeakably
tragic death from cancer. Still a relatively young man Bates's death was a
stunning blow not only to the Dear John series but to film and television fans
world wide who had so enjoyed his work.
News:
That Joke isn't Funny Anymore
Chris Morris, the inspired but often extreme and highly controversial comedian
and social critic, has taken quite a spanking, from critics, audiences and
broadcast standards watchdogs recently for his one-off Brass Eye special
satirizing the current national obsession with pedophiles. Morris's work as
always induced strong, sometimes violent, reactions and Morris darn well knows
it. The special, presented in mock-documentary
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