When visiting another country I’ve often found myself revisiting the same companies and TV shows again, but this time with a bit of a spin and a new cast of actors that can make you wonder if your aren’t in some alternative reality. Take McDonalds for example, in Britain it’s where you go for a no-thrills cheap eat, but in Buenos Aires it’s occupants are Tommy-Hillfiger and Calvin Klein eating in one of the most stylish buildings on the street, and paying more than a steak dinner.

And the TV too.

Recently I’ve been getting into Life on Mars a BBC scif-fi police drama, and discovered, while visiting New York, that there had been an American version with Harvey Keitel, then today while in Spain I saw a Spanish version. The plots are the same but with it’s own cultural-twists and expressions that very much like a different language makes you rethink the assumptions in your own.

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