Life on Mars
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 6:22 pm
OK. I captured a show that I was a bit on the fence about on my DVR recently called Life on Mars. I thought it was going to be another cruddy CBS show that paid barely passable lip service to SF, but was really about some chick's feelings (Jericho, anyone?) And although I was right on a few points, I was pleasantly surprised otherwise. For a pilot episode, most of which totally suck 90% of the time, I give it 3/5 stars, and my recommendation to watch because it smells like its going to get much, much better.
Life on Mars is about a homicide detective from 2008 who inexplicably gets sent back to 1973. The set up is a bit ponderous, but let me try to break it down here for you. Our hero, Det. Tyler, has fallen in love with his partner (Lisa Bonet, in a cameo). The two are investigating a BTK type killer, and they think that they have their man. They arrest the suspect but let him go when the defense attorney comes up with footage of the suspect at a casino during the last abduction time. Turns out that the killer has a twin brother, but the cops find out about that way too late. The girlfriend is convinced that they have their man and tails him without back-up. The psycho sees her, and abducts her. Tyler and the whole force find her bloody shirt in the park, and just know that she is being tortured, so Tyler drives over to a building where he thinks that he will find them. As he exits his car he gets creamed by a passing vehicle, and wakes up in 1973.
Tyler is a cop also in the past, and has recently been assigned to his same post as a homicide detective. He reports for work and learns that his new posse is investigating an eerily similar BTK killer. Using his knowledge of the future and futuristic police procedure Tyler solves the case. As they are taking the nut-job away Tyler sees a boy who can only be a younger version of his girlfriend's torturer looking sternly at him. He talks to the boy who admits that he looked up to the killer that they just caught because he is tough, where the boy is just plain scared of everyone and everything. Tyler gives him a good talking to, and tells him that fear is OK and not to take it too seriously, whereupon he hears his girlfriend's voice over his car radio, telling him that she is safe and OK. Awwww.
I know, I know. It sounds stupid. And it was, but there was much more to the show that I liked. Life on Mars may shape up to be a Lost-type supernatural show with a mystery to it. People talk to Tyler through technology, like TV's and radios. There was even with a grainy shot of a guy in a lab coat who spoke directly to Tyler in the middle of his own show, kind of like the Darma people in the videos on Lost. There are clues to be found in the background noise, cryptic hints in graphics used in the backshot, and it looks like the "accident" that brought Tyler to 1973 may have been arranged by people and organizations unknown. The show has started out as a supernatural show with a lot of questions about what is going on, but I have a strong suspicion that the producers will go to SF in the end, just as Lost seems to be doing. There are many similar thematic elements too, including time travel, psychology, and supernatural elements. That this show is a police procedural and Tyler is on his own make things different enough to be interesting.
The strongest element so far is definately character, and with a cast that includes Harvey Keitel, Michael Imperioli, and Grechen Moll (hubba cubed!) how could it be otherwise. CBS has never really shucked the character angle, and this show definately is a strongly character driven drama. Tyler's character is certainly the strongest. As a homicide detective with knowledge of the future, and who has some outta sight criminology skills for the 70's, he is poised to become the great wise man of his precinct. But he has babbled to everyone about his predicament, so he will come off as the crazy-wise old man, but that could be an interesting way to set him up as an oracle of sorts.
The producers have set the show up well to deal with some 1970's hot-button social issues too, including sexual harassment in the workplace, gender roles in general, employment rights, civil rights and a few others. There is also an excellent soundtrack that included the Rolling Stones, the Who, T-Rex, David Bowie, Five Man Electrical Band, and lots of others. Along with a dramatic (and extremely brief) opening sequence that has no sound at all, and this show really comes off well. The hour simply flew by for me, and I cannot wait for the next episode.
For those of you who don't know, this is a remake of a 2006 BBC show of the same name. I have never seen the UK version.
Life on Mars is about a homicide detective from 2008 who inexplicably gets sent back to 1973. The set up is a bit ponderous, but let me try to break it down here for you. Our hero, Det. Tyler, has fallen in love with his partner (Lisa Bonet, in a cameo). The two are investigating a BTK type killer, and they think that they have their man. They arrest the suspect but let him go when the defense attorney comes up with footage of the suspect at a casino during the last abduction time. Turns out that the killer has a twin brother, but the cops find out about that way too late. The girlfriend is convinced that they have their man and tails him without back-up. The psycho sees her, and abducts her. Tyler and the whole force find her bloody shirt in the park, and just know that she is being tortured, so Tyler drives over to a building where he thinks that he will find them. As he exits his car he gets creamed by a passing vehicle, and wakes up in 1973.
Tyler is a cop also in the past, and has recently been assigned to his same post as a homicide detective. He reports for work and learns that his new posse is investigating an eerily similar BTK killer. Using his knowledge of the future and futuristic police procedure Tyler solves the case. As they are taking the nut-job away Tyler sees a boy who can only be a younger version of his girlfriend's torturer looking sternly at him. He talks to the boy who admits that he looked up to the killer that they just caught because he is tough, where the boy is just plain scared of everyone and everything. Tyler gives him a good talking to, and tells him that fear is OK and not to take it too seriously, whereupon he hears his girlfriend's voice over his car radio, telling him that she is safe and OK. Awwww.
I know, I know. It sounds stupid. And it was, but there was much more to the show that I liked. Life on Mars may shape up to be a Lost-type supernatural show with a mystery to it. People talk to Tyler through technology, like TV's and radios. There was even with a grainy shot of a guy in a lab coat who spoke directly to Tyler in the middle of his own show, kind of like the Darma people in the videos on Lost. There are clues to be found in the background noise, cryptic hints in graphics used in the backshot, and it looks like the "accident" that brought Tyler to 1973 may have been arranged by people and organizations unknown. The show has started out as a supernatural show with a lot of questions about what is going on, but I have a strong suspicion that the producers will go to SF in the end, just as Lost seems to be doing. There are many similar thematic elements too, including time travel, psychology, and supernatural elements. That this show is a police procedural and Tyler is on his own make things different enough to be interesting.
The strongest element so far is definately character, and with a cast that includes Harvey Keitel, Michael Imperioli, and Grechen Moll (hubba cubed!) how could it be otherwise. CBS has never really shucked the character angle, and this show definately is a strongly character driven drama. Tyler's character is certainly the strongest. As a homicide detective with knowledge of the future, and who has some outta sight criminology skills for the 70's, he is poised to become the great wise man of his precinct. But he has babbled to everyone about his predicament, so he will come off as the crazy-wise old man, but that could be an interesting way to set him up as an oracle of sorts.
The producers have set the show up well to deal with some 1970's hot-button social issues too, including sexual harassment in the workplace, gender roles in general, employment rights, civil rights and a few others. There is also an excellent soundtrack that included the Rolling Stones, the Who, T-Rex, David Bowie, Five Man Electrical Band, and lots of others. Along with a dramatic (and extremely brief) opening sequence that has no sound at all, and this show really comes off well. The hour simply flew by for me, and I cannot wait for the next episode.
For those of you who don't know, this is a remake of a 2006 BBC show of the same name. I have never seen the UK version.