The British Isles. The United States of America. Two veritable juggernauts in the world today, I'm sure no one will argue. In the realm of television, the influence of both countries can be seen very strongly, leading, inevitably, to many drawing comparisons between the two countries' television programs and asking that age-old question; which is better? What? You want me to tell you? What makes you think I have any idea? Personally, my allegiance is divided. I'm technically a British citizen, so I've got to have some national pride, but I can't escape the behemoth that is American Television. Such networks as AMC and HBO have become well known in Britain, and have imported a great many of their shows to various British channels. So, yeah, it's pretty hard for Britons to escape them, and thus many start to appreciate them. Guilty as charged. Similarly, such British shows as
Downton Abbey and the like have done very well across the pond, which I'm very happy about, even if there is a tendency to sometimes spawn a dreaded "American Version" of the British show to appeal to American audiences more. Suffice it to say, they are nearly always terrible. Both
Skins and
The Inbetweeners have suffered this cruel fate, and I'm not even going to get into the American version of
Red Dwarf. So, with Americans and Britons both having plenty of experience with the TV shows of the other, I guess it's up to me to decide which country has the better content. To do this, I'm going to take 5 genres of of television, select an example from both America and Britain, and then see which is better. At the end, I'll tally up the points and whoever has more will win, and officially has the best television. Sound fair? No? Good. Let's begin.