Two years ago, I posted the first ten minutes of the pilot for “Misfits,” a British show about working-class teenagers who acquire superpowers after a freak electrical storm. At the time, I called it “like ‘Heroes,’ but British and not crappy.” The show has since gone on to become a critical and commercial success: it won the BAFTA award for best drama series last year and gained a considerable American audience on Hulu this summer.

You know what that means: TIME TO AMERICANIZE THIS MUTHA. The production company run by Josh Schwartz (creator of “The O.C.” and several other, crappier shows) has acquired the rights to show.

Schwartz will team up with U.K. Misfits creator Howard Overman to write a U.S. translation. There’s no network attached as of yet, but given the response to the original series, it’s hard not to imagine it finding a Stateside TV home…

Schwartz and Overman are foregoing the traditional development process, in which a network buys a pitch from a scribe and later decides whether or not to film a pilot. Instead, the two have opted to write the new Misfits on spec… One advantage of the spec path is that it lets creators develop a pilot without networks nitpicking development details. [Vulture]

Hmmmm… Original creator involved AND no network involvement in the pilot development? I’m downright hopeful that this could be a faithful adaptation. And say what you will about Josh Schwartz, but he made the shows that made Rachel Bilson and Blake Lively famous. That gets you some leeway in my book. Enough leeway to ignore Mischa Barton in that equation.

Gordon Ramsay is apparently at work on yet another TV show — this time for the UK’s Channel 4 — and he claims that Costa Rican shark-hunting gangs interfered with his filming by pouring gasoline on him and holding him at gunpoint.

Ramsay told a newspaper: “It’s a multi-billion dollar industry, completely unregulated. We traced some of the biggest culprits to Costa Rica. These gangs operate from places like forts, with barbed wire and gun towers.

“At one point, I managed to shake off the people keeping us away, ran up some stairs to a rooftop and looked down to see thousands of fins, drying on rooftops as far as the eye could see. When I got back downstairs, they tipped a barrel of petrol over me.”

He added: “Back at the wharf, there were people pointing rifles at us to stop us filming. A van pulled up and these seedy characters made us stand against a wall. The police came and advised us to leave the country. They said, ‘If you set one foot in there, they’ll shoot you.’” [The Sun]

Seeing as how this comes from a fame-whoring TV personality as reported by a British tabloid, I’m sure this fantastic story is all 100% true. Isn’t that right, Mr. Ramsay?

Back in December, the first couple minutes of “The Increasingly Bad Decisions of Todd Margaret” were leaked online. The show, written by and starring David Cross, was a pilot for Britain’s Channel 4 that was recently picked up for a full series run. But wait! Don’t fly to England just so you can watch the pilot — the entire first episode is right here online (first part above, second two videos below — and thanks to reader “kahlua groove” for the tip).

Anyway, watch and enjoy — you know, if you’ve got 25 minutes at work where you don’t actually need to do any work. The humor, based on awkward situations and the ineptitude of Cross’s titular character, sometimes falls flat when characters’ actions veer off into the unrealistic, but it mostly succeeds as a comedy. A helluva lot more than the average sitcom pilot in America. Isn’t that right, Michael Strahan?

This is the first ten minutes of the first episode of “Misfits,” a British show that debuted on Channel 4 last month. It’s kind of like NBC’s “Heroes,” except with a Breakfast Club premise and swearing. From Wikipedia:

Misfits follows five teenagers on community service who get struck by lightning and are given special powers. Kelly (Lauren Socha) becomes telepathic, Curtis (Nathan Stewart Jarrett) can rewind time by small amounts, Alisha (Antonia Thomas) can send people into a sexual frenzy when they touch her skin, Simon (Iwan Rheon) can make himself invisible when he feels he’s being ignored. Seemingly left unaffected is smart alec Nathan (Robert Sheehan).

This looks outstanding to me, but mostly because everyone talks like Jason Statham and there’s a sexy black girl. Oh, I’m sorry, did I say “sexy black girl”? I meant, “Oi fink dat black bird’s right fit, now innit?”

[via Topless Robot]

Back in June, I wrote about a new show for the UK’s Channel Four starring Will Arnett, David Cross, and Spike Jonze called “The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret.” It sounded awesome.

Here’s the first clip. It is awesome. You really can’t go wrong with Will Arnett swearing at people and David Cross lying like an awkward little weasel. HBO needs to buy the American rights to this with a quickness. I want more of this immediately. Like yesterday immediately.

[BuzzFeed]

Last week Sophie Reade was named the winner of the most recent iteration of UK’s “Big Brother,” and this is news because of her ginormous breasts. It’s also news because she gained some weight and said she’s gonna get bigger boobs and plastic surgery on her vagina. Good times.

Of her weight, the glamour girl said she was having to wear tracksuits as none of the rest of her clothes fitted. Talking in this week’s issue of New! magazine, she said: ”I’m usually between 7st 11lbs and 7st 13lbs [109 to 111 lbs] and I’m now 9st [126 lbs]. I can’t believe I’ve gained more than a stone in weight!” [Mirror]

That sound you just heard? Thousands and thousands of normal-breasted women who weigh more than 126 pounds flipping open a switchblade and announcing they’re going to cut a bitch.

The model, who already wears a 30GG bra, says she wants to give herself an even bigger boost with the £71,321 she won. When asked if she would be considering a boob job Sophie said: “I’m going to, yes. Go bigger? Why not, just for a change, go massive.” She cheekily added: “Maybe I’ll have a designer vagina. Maybe pink and fluffy.” [Mirror]

Don’t stop there! See if the surgeon can remove your uterus, too! Oh, that’s too harsh, you say? We should let her reproduce because of her awesome gigantic breast gene? I say watch the video below and tell me if you think this person should be responsible for anything more complicated than sea monkeys.

Sexy Post-jump BONUS: Sophie topless here.

This is a clip from the U.K.’s version of “Big Brother.”  It’s kind of hard to tell what’s going on without context, but basically the housemates had to pass a metal ring over a twisting electrified bar, and if the ring touched the bar, other housemates got an electric shock (hence the ridiculous suits, I believe).

The video is kind of lame until the two-minute mark, at which point one of the guys just repeatedly touches the ring to the bar, intentionally shocking his housemates over and over again.  And I think I speak for everyone when I say: OUTSTANDING.  I’d be a much bigger proponent of reality television if more contestants got electrocuted.  In fact, I’m putting together a proposal for a show right now called “Electric House.”  Or maybe “High Voltage.”  Or “Shock Treatment.”  Okay, I don’t know what to call it yet, but the bottom line is that people suffer constant electric shocks.

My biggest gripe about “Ugly Betty” — other than the completely false premise that someone with horrible fashion taste would succeed in the cutthroat world of fashion magazines — is that the America Ferrara’s character has been wearing gigantic steel braces for three years even though no adult wears braces like that, or for that long (see here).  And now dentists in the UK have totally got my back.

According to dentists train track braces are very seldom prescribed to adults and even then are not worn for more than two years.  British orthodontists said they were worried the programme could discourage young viewers from seeking corrective dental treatment.

Those crazy Brits, always looking for excuse to have terrible teeth.

Tracey Posner, of the British Orthodontic society, said: “It is irresponsible of the programme makers to portray Betty as ‘ugly’ because she wears prominent braces. Ugly Betty is in its third year on our TV screens and Betty remains in over-exaggerated, heavy ‘train-track’ braces.  This is not a true reflection of orthodontic practice. It is highly unlikely an adult would wear braces beyond two years.”

There you have it.  Vindication.  Finally, some professional experts have backed me up on this exposé.  We’ve revealed that something on TV is not 100% the way it is in the real world. My work here is done.

The channel is showing five life drawing classes through the week as part of its education show Life Class: Today’s Nude.

Each half-hour broadcast has a different model and tutor to tell viewers about art and drawing techniques, guiding them through drawing their own picture as if they are in a real life class…

Section 1.18 of Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code says: “Nudity before the watershed must be justified by the context.”

Sweet, I love justified nudity!  I’m getting pretty good at it, too.  “No, your honor, I wasn’t wearing pants.  But in my defense, have you SEEN the rack on the plaintiff!?!?”

David Cross is one of those excellent acerbic comics who will never attain mainstream popularity in the United States unless he lowers himself to do crap projects like Alvin & the Chipmunks movies.  (What?  Oh no.)  And while comedy geeks will worship him forever for “Mr. Show” and for playing Tobias Fünke in “Arrested Development,” his humor always seems like it might be a better fit in the drier comedic climate of Great Britain.

And with that lengthy intro aside, we can segue seamlessly into his new project: a comedy series for the United Kingdom’s Channel 4 called “The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret,” co-starring Will Arnett and Spike Jonze (in his first big acting role since Three Kings).

American Todd Margaret (David Cross) bluffs his way into an apparently great job opportunity, heading up the sales team in his employer’s London office. All he has to do is sell several thousand energy drinks before his boss visits him in a week. Simple. Apart from the fact that he knows nothing about British culture and nothing about sales. This is further complicated when he lies continuously to cover his ignorance and spectacularly fails to impress Alice the first beautiful girl he meets. [RDF Media via /film]

BBC America needs to pick this up ASAP, because you know who wants to watch this show? ☛ This guy ☚