The big news at BBC America this week was the announcement of “Copper,” its first original drama series. For the channel, it’s a major step in establishing an independent identity; it’s also a sign that that identity will be increasingly American. The show will be set in New York in the 1860s and produced by Yanks, including the veterans Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson (“Oz,” “Homicide: Life on the Street”).
While you might cringe at the suspicion that BBC America wants to turn itself into a cross between AMC and Bravo — in other words, just another American basic-cable channel — it continues, often with little fanfare, to import the British series that make it distinctive. Sneaking onto the schedule on Saturday night are “Outnumbered” and “Friday Night Dinner,” shows that reflect the continual trans-Atlantic cross-pollination of the situation comedy; both are comfortingly familiar and appealingly strange.
The better of the two (and the recipient of numerous awards) is “Outnumbered,” a harried-parents show with a set-up basically identical to that of “The Middle” or the Phil-and-Claire segments of “Modern Family.” (It predates both of those ABC shows, having gone on the air in Britain in 2007; a fourth season is scheduled to begin there later this year.) We have the slightly terrifying mother and the slightly clueless dad (Claire Skinner and Hugh Dennis) uneasily sharing a suburban house with a morose 11-year-old son and two younger children whose weirdness is meant to be endearing.
The show is made in a partly improvised, single-camera, no-laugh-track style that registers to an American viewer as HBO-Showtime, but the humor is closer to that of a standard family sitcom — except that the jokes are so understated and the performances so reserved (by our standards, anyway) that it can seem as if not much were going on. There’s a lot of skill being brought to bear, though. The pilot opens with a tour de force segment, 16 minutes of getting the kids out the door to school that plays as if in real time and feels natural, without the staginess and underlined humor you would get in even a good show here.
Mr. Dennis, a stand-up comedian, and Ms. Skinner are fine as the parental punching bags, but the real find is Ramona Marquez, who was 6 when the show went on the air. Her character, Karen, the youngest child, combines an angelic appearance with a bloodthirsty imagination, conveyed in a wonderful deadpan.
Asked what she’s drawn for art class, she wrinkles her brow and says matter-of-factly, “A cow killing some people because he doesn’t want to be made into food.” Later, arguing with her brother about whether guns or fairies are more deadly, she appears to be improvising when she triumphantly tells him, “They fly down your throat and turn your heart into a pumpkin, and your blood stops running, and you die!”
“Friday Night Dinner,” which had its first season on the British Channel 4 this spring, is a rowdier, sweatier, more profane show that will probably seem more typically British to American fans of “Fawlty Towers” or “The Royle Family.” When the father, played by Paul Ritter, wrenches his back and develops a sudden case of Tourette’s, you can see the shadow of John Cleese’s Basil Fawlty.
Each episode takes place at the weekly gathering of a Jewish family, when the two grown sons, one uptight and one goofy, come home for dinner with Mom (Tamsin Greig of “Episodes”) and Dad and immediately regress to quarreling teenagers. Other stock characters drop by, like the lonely, greasy-haired neighbor or the deaf grandmother. Mundane circumstances spiral embarrassingly out of control, in a manner heavily reminiscent of “Seinfeld” — the first episode manages to work in a broken toilet, the sale of a sofa bed, the disposal of a collection of New Scientist magazines and excitement over the season finale of “MasterChef.”
Neither “Outnumbered” nor “Friday Night Dinner” is a great show — we’re not talking “Gavin and Stacey” here — and Americans accustomed to the fast pace and big laughs of network sitcoms will more than likely give up on these quieter, less eventful British counterparts within five minutes. Patience has its small rewards, though. You can laugh at the oracular pronouncements of Brick on “The Middle,” knowing that no child would ever actually say them. But when Karen on “Outnumbered” looks thoughtfully at her father and asks, “Is a fork a weapon?,” a little chill runs down your spine.
OUTNUMBERED
BBC America, Saturday nights at 11, Eastern and Pacific times; 10, Central time.
Produced for BBC One by Hat Trick Productions. Written and directed by Andy Hamilton; produced by Guy Jenkin.
WITH: Hugh Dennis (Pete), Claire Skinner (Sue), Tyger Drew-Honey (Jake), Daniel Roche (Ben) and Ramona Marquez (Karen).
FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER
BBC America, Saturday nights at 11:30, Eastern and Pacific times; 10:30, Central time.
Produced for Channel 4 by Popper Pictures and Big Talk. Created and written by Robert Popper; Kenton Allen, Nira Park and Caroline Leddy, executive producers; Mr. Popper, producer.
WITH: Tamsin Greig (Jackie Goodman), Simon Bird (Adam), Paul Ritter (Martin Goodman), Mark Heap (Jim) and Tom Rosenthal (Jonny).
