Australian creative properties have, at best, a shaky history with American adaptation – particularly in the realms of TV. The past few years have seen a surge in things being sold off overseas and reworked for US screens. Some have found some modicum of success, like Wilfred or Review with Myles Barlow (named Review with Forrest Macneil in the States). Some have been unmitigated disasters like Rake or the unbelievably terrible adaptation of Kath & Kim.
And then there’s still some that are upcoming that are yet to see the light of day, like Secrets & Lies, or in this instance The Slap.
NBC is handling the US adaptation of the ABC series originally based on the book by Christos Tsiolkas, which is scheduled to begin airing on February 12th. The cast, in and of itself, is pretty stacked. Zachary Quinto, Peter Sarsgaard, Uma Thurman, Melissa George, Thandie Newman, and Brian Cox make up the core of the people who will emote and seethe and posture their way through the dramas that arise when a dude slaps a kid that isn’t his at a backyard barbecue.
So with the premiere date under a month away, NBC’s starting to ramp up the promo for it by putting trailers up online. As Australians, who by virtue of maybe having seen an episode of the original series on Aunty are the cultural and spiritual owners of the series, surely our curiosity is piqued enough to at least have a look to see what the Americans have done with it? Kind of like driving past the house you moved out of a few years ago, just to see if it’s noticeably different.
In that natural progression of thought, we mosey on over to YouTube, find the official trailer NBC has uploaded, and go to hit play.
Wait, whaaat? Surely that’s an error. Refresh.
What the effing fuck? What is this nonsense?! It’s not like we want to steal the whole series, NBC. We just want a peek at what you’ve done with our shit, that’s all. It’s not a country-wide effort to launch some sort of Royal Commission, and it’s not like we thought you’d be expecting some sort of Spanish Inquisition.
As far as I’m concerned, there’s only two reasons for geoblocking this in Australia. NBC either thinks we just won’t be interested in it, which is a half-truth at best, or they’ve got something to hide.
What are you hiding? Seriously? What have you got to hide from us, NBC? What? Is it that shockingly bad that you can’t bare to show it to us? Are you that embarrassed about it? Is there some sort of giant plot twist where halfway through the trailer it’s revealed that the whole cast is really just a bunch of mops with coats hanging off them? Do rocks fall and does everyone die?
WHAT ARE YOU HIDING FROM US, YOU BASTARDS?
CONFESS, FOOLS. CONFESS.
Fortunately for everyone this is the internet and other sources of video exist. Curiously enough, despite being geoblocked on YouTube, it’s perfectly viewable worldwide on Facebook.
Why? Because *shrugging dude*.
