Look, just chill for a second
It looks like Peep Show is going to get another attempt at an American remake – but this time with female leads.
According to Deadline, FX is developing an adaptation of the superlative Channel 4 sitcom, with Portlandia and Superstore writer Karey Dornetto spearheading it.
And yes, we can hear you getting those pitchforks outs – or at least getting very angry about it online. But chill for a sec, yo. Here are multiple reasons why you don’t need to have an aneurysm over it just yet.
1) American remakes of British TV shows are not necessarily all bad. They can actually be very good. Look at The Office, which was allowed to grow its own identity and become its own thing, which is now just as beloved as the original (House of Cards was also pretty good, even if the whole Kevin Spacey thing makes it a bit icky now).
2) It probably won’t happen. In 2016, Starz made the first attempt at a US version of Peep Show, starring The Big Bang Theory’s Johnny Galecki. It didn’t get past the pilot stage. And before that, in 2008, Spike also took an unsuccessful stab at it. Plenty of UK shows, from Dads Army to Red Dwarf to The IT Crowd, have had failed attempts at a US adaptation. Not many of them get off the ground.
3) If you are annoyed that the remake will have female leads, you need to stop listening to Eminem and move out of your mum’s basement.
Unfake News Flash. Very excited to be climbing inside the head of @kareydornetto with @FXNetworks & @Objective_Fic: https://t.co/Jm7TSdUeR1
— Sam Bain (@sambaintv) May 26, 2019
4) Peep Show co-create Sam Bain is on-board. “People sometimes ask if I look at my earlier work differently now – whether my shows would have been better if they had been more diverse,” Bain wrote in a Guardian article. “What would Peep Show have been like with women as the two leads? It’s a great question – and it’s one I’ll shortly have the answer to, because there is a script in development for a U.S. Peep Show with two female leads.”
5) Remember The Inbetweeners remake? No? Exactly. It ran for one season on MTV in 2012, and was terrible, and then everyone forgot about it. Just because they make a bad American version of your favourite show, it doesn’t mean the original is going anywhere. You will still have your DVDs or can watch it on Netflix or All 4. You can get all angry about it for no reason, or you can just ignore it.
