Mother country

I’ve often tweaked BuzzerBlog’s Alex Davis for his “British are better than us” devotion to game shows from across the pond. Alex doesn’t use that tag line so often any more. Maybe he got tired of the jabs from me and others. But his fondness for Brit game shows burns on brightly, as anybody can see from BuzzerBlog’s frequent entries on them.

My grumpy old self is neither an automatic admirer nor detractor of the Mother Country’s products. When the Brits come up with a terrific format like Millionaire, well, congrats to the Queen’s sometimes restive subjects. But they make their share of stinkers, too, along with a bunch of so-so efforts.

What bugs this unreconstructed Yank is the reflexive belief that Brit game shows must somehow be better or classier or just generally more swell than our feeble endeavors in the colonies. The idolization of The Cube really gets my goat. I’ve seen a fair amount of the show on YouTube, and it’s an okay ripoff of Beat the Clock.

But lordy be, the show takes itself so flipping seriously. Not to mention a glacial pace that makes most tortoises look like the Roadrunner in an all-out beep-beep scamper. Minute To Win It got dumped on as an inferior substitute for the august British production, but I liked the less pretentious doings of Fieri and company.