Few remakes stand up to the original. Only one I can think of was battlestar galactic, which far exceeded
it looked about as interesting as Babylon 5, so I passed.
--
Just finished watching a marathon of House of Cards(US) and Arrested Development.
On the former, good acting saves this wannabe soap opera and cable style gratuity. We're lead to believe that only one man (or three - including an outsider) plays political intrigues in Washington. Also, there is no direct B-line from congress to the White House that this series assumes. This would make more sense in a Parliamentary system where the elected party has a near monopoly of power. I might check out the British version but fear it might be even more of a soap opera the way MI5/6 is.
--
ok, I'm shocked by Arrested Development. There are more laughs per minute in this show than anything since Airplane. I never got around to it the first time and I never knew it was cancelled. I guess that's owed to its cult following or the rap group of the same name.
The attention to the complex details is something akin to Lost but without the plot holes or unresolved threads. In fact, there are story arcs that go unnoticed until its final season. when they're resolved. You only discover that they didn't come out of nowhere but their subtle hints in the early episodes. The big scene stealer is Tony Rossi as the brother in law Tobias, who was not intended to be a major character.
The new season is not as good but it gets better. I can name three things that are problematic about it: the focus on individuals, though probably necessary given their filing schedules, rather than the ensemble; the retconning of two characters; and the change in the character we had the most empathy for, because now there's no one to like or feel (bad) for.