On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 2:07 AM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 5:43 PM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 5:28 PM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> > #2. As part of my British TV surfing I got hooked on MI-5 (my son >> > doesn't >> > like this so much). I noticed that around Season 3 the on-screen title >> > changed to "Spooks", even though it is still listed as MI-5 on netflix. >> > A >> > little googling revealed that the show is actually called "Spooks" in >> > the >> > UK, and goes by MI-5 in the US (which seems a little strange - I might >> > have >> > thought the reverse would have made more sense, since "spook" is kind of >> > a >> > universal term for spy). Anyway, my question is, does anyone know why >> > Netflix shows the MI-5 titled episodes from the first two seasons, and >> > now >> > the Spooks versions starting in season 3, and are there any actual >> > differences in content between the two versions? >> >> When A&E aired the series, they changed it to "MI-5" because "Spooks" >> is a racist term in the US. A&E edited all but the pilot episode down >> for time, and only aired the first two seasons, so any subsequent >> seasons would be the direct-from-the-beeb versions. Oddly, I've seen >> later seasons of the series on PBS, and they are also called "MI-5." > > Are you serious about this? I am familiar with the racist use of "Spooks" of > course, but that seems a bit of a stretch. I guess that fits though - > Netflix must be using the MI-5 title even when they are really linking to > Spooks to avoid offense. I guess they don't care that I have several times > thought they were talking about the 5th season of Mission Impossible. Does > that mean if they made a movie of a novel from one of my favorite detective > series called "The Corpse on the Dike" they would have to change the name > for US distribution? > > The episodes titled MI-5 in the on screen credits were about 51-52 minutes > long. The ones titled "Spooks" on screen are about 54 minutes - yikes that > looks like the first ones were cut a bit. Maybe that explains why netflix > went to the Spooks version later, to get the unedited versions. >
It's worth mentioning that on the BBC, Spooks tends to run closer to 57-58 minutes since its scheduled for a full-hour slot, ad-free. Indeed just about all BBC drama has a similar running lenght. Doctor Who is the notable exception, but then is scheduled much more "flexibly" early Saturday evenings. The other thing about Spooks is that when it runs on BBC there are no end credits at all. From the end of the action, aside from the "Next time" preview, it goes straight to the Kudos production card at the end. You have to go online if you want to see the credits. It's only when it gets repeated on BBC3 or other digital channels, that the credits also run. Adam -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
