Shameless

Can I just say how amazing this show is?? None of my friends had heard about it; I just discovered it on Showtime. I started watching it a few weeks ago and thought the whole scenario and characters sounded familiar. I then remembered that I had watched the UK version of it a few years ago, which was also very good. It stars William H. Macy as a deadbeat father of six. He's an alcoholic, collects disability cheques, and is always looking for new ways to cheat the system. I highly recommend it; you can find information about it here.

This show also got me thinking about other remakes, such as the Millennium Series. These 3 books written by Stieg Larsson were made into movies in Swedish with English subtitles. The movies are absolutely amazing. They are very graphic, but well written. At first I thought the subtitles would be bothersome, but I got so into the movies that I didn't notice I was reading them after a while. So, now I have found out that they are remaking the first film "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" in English. It will be released sometime at the end of this year and stars Daniel Craig. I have no doubt that it will be good, and I really like Daniel craig but the remake seems unnecessary. Why mess with a good thing? The original is so good! Another example of needless remakes is "Death at a Funeral". The original British version is hilarious and I won't even bring myself to watch the American remake.

What do you think? Are the American, Hollywood versions of these movies better than the originals? If so, Why?

- A