Does anybody know if BBC America is any good?

[zanana]

I'm going to be changing from cable to satellite, and the only extra news channel they're offering is BBC America. I'm less than enthused by my choices, but does anybody have BBC America?

[BigMcLargehuge]

1. waaay too many DIY shows for me

[rhino47]

2. I get BBC america news on PBS

Every night.I like it.They go more into detail on stories so it seems to me.

[matcom]

3. WONDERFUL!!

the ONLY news to watch at 6:00

(mostly) good DIY shows

couple of GREAT dramas and TONS of WONDERFUL comedy. set your VCR for The Office. you will want to watch over and over again

[Lavender Brown]

4. Some good dramas, I don't know about the news

but they show "Changing Rooms" and "What Not to Wear" (those women are EVIL!) over and over and over...

[MallRat]

5. Actually, a little disappointing.

My wife and I were psyched when we heard we were getting BBC America with our cable package, but the variety of programming is really quite thin. They show a lot of "Changing Rooms" and other house makeover shows. The old episodes of Black Adder and Monty Python aren't bad, but probably nothing you haven't already seen.

I haven't caught the news on BBC America. The Office is quite funny. But all in all, I had expected more.

[trotsky]

12. Same here.

I was very excited to see it on the lineup when we got digital cable. And there are some bright spots, as you mention. But overall not that impressive.

[elfin]

6. I love it

Agree there are too many DIY - but "Mystery Mondays" are great - also "The Office" and some other silly sitcoms. Lots of Monty Python too. The news is shown at a different time than on PBS here so can be sure to catch it on one or the other.

[elfwitch]

7. BBC America ROCKS!!

I love the channel. Best things:
Coupling
Manchild
Graham Norton
Flying Circus
Absolutely Fabulous
The Vicar of Dibly
Red Dwarf
You also get BBC World News.

I love BBC America!

[NashVegas]

8. 1/8 of the Time, Yes

I got over BBCA real quick. (repetition city). However, when they run something like State of Play, BBCA rocks the house.

[Nevernose]

9. Sucks

I was very dissappointed with it; it seems as if the only thing on it are fix-it shows (as if I don't already get 12 channels devoted to painting my bedroom new, vibrant colors, and then decorating it with a lamp I made myself from things I found in the neighbor's garbage).

[Guy_Montag]

10. I would have thought that BBC America

would just put on the good stuff. Not the shite like changing rooms etc. I presumed they only made that sort of thing as very cheap filler to keep the schedules full now TV runs 24 hours a day.

I guess things like "Walking with Dinosaurs", "Band of Brothers" are shown on paid for channels, rather than for free.

[Teddy_Salad]

11. Repeats...Repeats...Repeats

It's Changing Rooms and other DIY shows over and over and over again.

I'm very pissed with BBC America because the only reason I got Directv was so I could watch what is without doubt the greatest soapie on television, Eastenders.

After two years, BBC America cut it from their line-up. :grr:

BBC America is nothing at all like the real BBC. Nothing at all.
Yeah, BBC News is wonderful but you can also see that on PBS.

[cestmoi]

13. FYI Eastenders is carried on CBC. nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. Mixed bag

There Mystery Mondays can't be beat, some of the best drama on television anywhere.

The Office is brilliant, and I can't imagine that the U.S. remake will be anywhere near as good.

Occasionally, they show movie-length dramas that are quite edgy and would have trouble finding a home on American network TV. For example, they showed a drama about an ordinary guy who started exhibiting supernatural powers and claimed to be the Messiah.

But the rest of the schedule is deeply disappointing: hour after hour of DIY shows that mostly demonstrate that there are stupid, shallow people in every country, and old comedies that have already been shown many times on PBS.

If you look on the BBCAmerica message boards, you'll find a constant clamor for better programming, but they are outweighed by the boards for the DIY shows, which get all kinds of posts from people who discuss the minutiae of every episode.

By the way, BBCAmerica is not owned by the BBC. It's owned by the folks who own the Discovery Channel, and they plead "poverty" when asked about the possibility of getting some of the quality programs that the real BBC is known for. Yeah, right.

I get BBCAmerica as part of the digital cable package, which includes some other fine channels, so I'm not as upset as I would be if I had to buy the channel separately.