Ask Matt: Remakes, Crossovers, ‘Murderbot’ and More
Welcome to the Q&A with TV critic — also known to some TV fans as their “TV therapist” — Matt Roush, who’ll try to address whatever you love, loathe, are confused or frustrated or thrilled by in today’s vast TV landscape. (We know background music is too loud, it’s the most frequent complaint, but there’s always closed-captioning. Check out this story for more tips.)
One caution: This is a spoiler-free zone, so we won’t be addressing upcoming storylines here unless it’s already common knowledge. Please send your questions and comments to [email protected]. Look for Ask Matt columns on most Tuesdays.
Why Remake a Perfectly Good French Series?
Question: The British TV series Patience (airing on PBS, season finale July 20) is based on the French series Astrid et Raphaël, a far superior detective series. Even the plots from the original are reused, adding nothing new to the French 2019-2023 series. Sara Mortensen, the actress playing Astrid, is neurotypical but portrays the autistic character perfectly. So, why bother remaking the series in English? Or why not improve on the original by making it into something completely different and special, like The Office? Much as I like Ricky Gervais, the U.S. version really tickled my fancy. — Carol C.
Matt Roush: Why remake an excellent series for an English-speaking audience? In my experience, the majority of English-speaking people tend not to watch TV from other countries with subtitles (unless it’s a megahit like Squid Game, and even then, they sometimes go for the dubbed option). Obviously, this isn’t true for everyone, but Patience, a very good adaptation that also features a fine neurodivergent actress in the lead (Ella Maisy Purvis), wasn’t made for those who’ve seen and enjoyed Astrid. It’s a terrific premise for a procedural crime drama, and because the source material is so strong, making significant changes, especially in the early going, might be seen as a case of trying to fix what isn’t broken. (This could also be a budget issue, and adapting pre-existing scripts is no doubt cheaper than writing their own.) Perhaps in future seasons, Patience will go its own way, just as NBC‘s The Office eventually did — and even that beloved series took some critical knocks early on for hewing too close to the original’s formula.
I’m not going to play one version of this series off of the other, because they’re both quite good, and from my experience, many of my readers probably have no idea there was a French predecessor (though it’s right there in the show’s credits) and wouldn’t be likely to watch it if they did. This falls into that “I liked the one I saw first” trap, which is understandable, and reminds me of those who contend the U.K. version of Ghosts is way better than the CBS version, which has made many times as many episodes, so there are more opportunities to swing and miss. I’m a fan of both. All of which is to say that there’s a long history of cross-cultural TV adaptations — even All in the Family was based on a British series back in the day — and there’s nothing wrong with it. In the broadest sense, adapting Astrid as Patience exposes the show in this form to a much wider audience.
Comedies from Two Different Worlds
Question: Back in January, I wrote about whether I needed to know anything about It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (which I’d never seen) in order to understand the appearance of their cast on Abbott Elementary in the crossover episode. That ended up not being an issue at all. It just played as an episode in which the Abbott staff was dealing with weird and ill-suited volunteers. I’m sure Sunny fans appreciated the episode in a different way, but the fact that those characters were from a different show was almost irrelevant to the plot. Then I watched Sunny‘s season premiere last week to see the other half of the crossover.
I still haven’t seen any previous episodes of Sunny, but I started wondering how it would play to Sunny fans who might not have paid attention to Abbott Elementary. Framing this episode as “extra footage” made sense to me, but only because I watch Abbott. It seems to me that the structure of this episode requires more knowledge of what happened on Abbott than the Abbott episode required of Sunny. (I was glad you mentioned in the daily “Worth Watching” email that ABC was repeating that episode. I watched it again and then turned the channel to FXX and made it essentially an hour-long block across two channels. For me, it was a smooth transition.) How do you think the episode turned out, and have you had any responses to it from Sunny fans? I was happy to see the Abbott cast during their normal summer hiatus, and there were a lot of funny scenes in this half. But I was coming to Sunny as an Abbott fan already. Your thoughts? — Jake
Matt Roush: For me, this was less a typical crossover than an inspired collision of comedies from two different worlds and sensibilities. (Hearing Abbott‘s Janine describe Sunny‘s Dee in the most R-rated FXX terms was just the beginning of the hilarious tonal disconnect.) I won’t even try to speculate about how much overlap there is between audiences of these sitcoms, but neither is what I’d call a well-kept secret, and I’d think most longtime Sunny fans would have already seen the Abbott crossover episode out of curiosity at the very least. Even if they didn’t, they’d get what was happening here. (I have yet to hear anything to the contrary.)
More Murderbot!
Comment: Knowing that the season finale was about to air, I got a head start on binge-watching Murderbot in the days leading up to last Friday’s finale. Rarely do I wish a series went on longer, but this one seemed to go by too fast. I can’t wait for more! — D.P.
Matt Roush: Not only did I want the series to last longer, I found myself wishing the individual episodes were longer! And this is from someone who despairs nearly every time I call up a 40-minute episode of a so-called comedy or an episode of a drama series that drones on past the 60-minute mark. Averaging around 20 minutes per episode, Murderbot was brisk and brilliant entertainment—and while I’m not always a fan of the all-at-once binge model that streaming has popularized, Apple TV+ might have benefited here by dropping two episodes a week to give us more than just a mere taste of this exciting and amusing sci-fi series each week. I’m so glad this has already been renewed.
Busted Up Over Duster
Question: I know everyone says this when their favorite show is canceled, but seriously, what is HBO Max thinking, canceling Duster? It was a cool, unique show, which was a lot of fun to watch and not just because I’d watch Josh Holloway read the phone book. It felt like there was a lot of story left to tell, and I know it’s probably wishful thinking, but I’m hoping another streamer picks it up. It’s very disappointing. — Debbie
Matt Roush: I agree that Duster was a blast of a joyride and a welcome throwback in style and substance, perfectly suited to Josh Holloway as an escapist vehicle, but to use another auto metaphor, it didn’t get much traction and is the latest victim of the streaming glut. I wish I could give you hope that another streamer would rescue it, but this was an in-house Warner Bros. TV production for the company’s streaming platform, so that’s not going to happen.
What’s in a Name Change?
Comment: Just an observation: When HBO changed its name to “Max”, we had to delete our HBO apps and download new Max apps. Now that they’re changing back to “HBO Max,” they seem to be trying to do it stealthily and sheepishly, with as little fanfare as possible. Overnight, my Max app became an HBO Max app, apparently just by updating the app invisibly. – Paul T.
Matt Roush: This is what I call a happy ending for all. They never should have taken “HBO” out of the platform’s name to begin with, and now that they’ve restored it, they didn’t make it difficult for subscribers to adjust. I wish everything in the streaming world was this easy.
Poker Face‘s Finale Cameo
Question: I really enjoyed Season 2 of Poker Face on Peacock. Every episode was entertaining and well-written, and there was even a reference to Columbo in the penultimate episode, which was a fun thing to see. I thought Natasha Lyonne did a fabulous job directing the season finale. I was a bit shocked to see how little of a part they provided for Rhea Perlman as Beatrix Hasp in the season finale, though. Not giving anything away, but how did they manage to get her to return without giving her much (or basically anything) to do? — Kent M.
Matt Roush: Wasn’t that just the most fun season? And the finale was sensational, including the twist in the reveal of “the Iguana” (no spoilers), setting up a nemesis for the future. As for Rhea Perlman as (spoiler alert) the ill-fated Beatrix, I don’t know if she returned for that one shot—so to speak—or possibly filmed that silent cameo when she was appearing earlier in the season. My understanding is that the marquee guest stars are so eager to appear on this series that it probably wouldn’t have been that difficult to get someone even as well-known as Perlman to return for that scene. Can’t wait to see who they line up for the next season, whenever that happens.
And Finally …
Question: Why does 60 Minutes always say “New” in the listings when, in fact, it is just another repeat? — Jim D.
Matt Roush: They’ve been doing this for years, and it’s terribly misleading. Their explanation seems to be that these segments never aired in this precise arrangement before, and sometimes they provide new intros or updates to the pieces. If 60 Minutes does produce a new news-making report during the summer hiatus, which is very rare, we’ll always call attention to that in our daily “Worth Watching” report if we know ahead of time. But for the most part, just assume that until the official season premiere on Sept. 28, the segments are all repeats.
That’s all for now. And speaking of summer breaks, this column will be taking occasional weeks off as we head further into the summer. Look for new installments most but not all Tuesdays. Remember, we can’t do this without your participation, so please keep sending questions and comments about TV to [email protected]. (Please include a first name with your question.)
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia where to stream
Watchlist Easy access to only the shows you care about — all in one simple place
Alerts Only important notifications — when a show is returning, when it becomes available to stream, and more.
Special Offers Exclusive products we release related to your favorite shows and streaming services