Life on Mars: What is life, anyway?

I've been lax in blogging about "Life on Mars" this year, for reasons I'll get into after the jump, but now that it's all over, I wanted to talk about the ending, the meaning of the series, Bowie, etc. So spoilers coming up just as soon as I change my name...

Like I said, I had planned to make this show a part of the regular strike blogging rotation, but as I watched each season two episode, my interest began to fade. I don't even know that they were appreciably worse than season one, but I think once the novelty of the idea wore off, it became clear that "Life on Mars" was just a procedural cop show with an anachronistic twist, and that twist wasn't enough most weeks to overcome the procedure-fatigue I've written about so often of late. It was amusing to see what kind of Sipowicz-esque bit of crudeness would escape Philip Glenister's lips, but I had nothing much to say about the episodes themselves. So I figured I'd wait for the finale, find out exactly what was up with Sam, and then write about that.

And now that I know... whoa.

No time travel here, folks. Our boy was just in a coma, and now he's... what, dead? Is 1973 Manchester supposed to be Heaven, or some kind of endless "life flashing before your eyes" fantasy for Sam?

The finale tried to head fake us with the attempt to make Sam think he was actually from 1973, that it was the 21st century that was the fantasy. But given that what we saw of Sam's life in the present so closely resembled the actual present, I knew that was bogus. What are the odds of a guy from 1973 imagining the iPod all on his own? So when he bailed on the shootout in the tunnel and woke up in a modern hospital, I wasn't surprised.

But when Sam, completely adrift and unable to feel anything back in his real life, went up on the roof, the complete Bowie song played again, and he jumped off the roof? Again... whoa.

I can't for the life of me imagine the David E. Kelley version (if it ever gets made at this point) climaxing with the main character committing suicide because his coma life was more appealing than the real thing. American network TV has gotten more daring, but I imagine most American viewers would consider that as big a middle finger as the "Sopranos" finale. But good on Matthew Graham for taking the dark, unexpected way out. I understand there's going to be a spin-off built around Gene Hunt in the early '80s (or the coma version of same); very strange.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Life on Mars: Voice of the future

Dark days ahead for this blog, I fear. The studios now seems determined to break the union, which means the strike could go on a really long time (not that anyone but critics care, but the mid-winter TCA press tour just got canceled), and most of the shows I follow are either out of episodes or almost out. For the first time that I can remember on a weeknight in-season, my DVR didn't have anything set to record in primetime. I briefly pondered watching ABC's two-hour bloc of "According to Jim" and "Boston Legal" before deciding to be kinder to myself by watching another "Wire" episode, then introducing my wife to McLovin and "Superbad."

Thank God, then, for "Life on Mars," which returned to BBC America's lineup tonight. I'd already seen the premiere, but at least it gives me something to blog about for the evening. Spoilers coming up just as soon as I throw some punks off a rooftop...

I hadn't realized how much I missed Gene Hunt until he broke down the door of Tyler's apartment and boasted that their next case was "as big as Shelly Winters' ass!" Between that entrance, his response to Sam's question about whether he keeps a reporter in his basement for random beatings ("Don't have a basement") and, especially, him threatening to torture cremains to make a suspect talk, it's safe to say they didn't soften up ol' Gene for the second season.

It's also safe to say that they haven't lost that tricky balance between spoofing the cliches and political incorrectness of '70s police dramas and embracing them. Gene provides the comic relief, but he also keeps these stories grounded because you believe he existed back in 1973, while Sam provides both the pathos and the fantastical elements that open every other part of the show up for questioning. Is Sam really in the past? Is he crazy? Some combination of the two? Will he have a crossover with "Journeyman" in the series finale?

I watched all of season one in a rush a year and a half ago before it premiered here, and the episodes have blurred in my memory since, but I think this is the first time Sam has been this overt in his talk of the future (except with Annie) and his attempts to change it. I'm curious to see whether Gene took any of Sam's ranting seriously or if he dismissed it as yet another eccentricity of his second in command, but with the series' end coming with this batch of episodes, I imagine Gene will have to confront the future at some point.

As always when I write about shows that have already aired in another country, I'm going to ask that we keep the discussion contained to the episodes as they air here. No spoilers or even loud hints about what's to come, got it? The one thing I think is fair game is to discuss how the original British cuts differ from the abbreviated versions that are going to be airing on BBC America. I believe my screeners (which I'll be watching one at a time, so I'll be guaranteed at least one interesting scripted show per week for a while) are the original cuts, but I imagine some of you who already watched the show will be doing it again on BBC America. If you want to mention important or memorable scenes that got chopped, feel free -- just so long as you're talking about this specific episode and not something that's going to play out three weeks from now.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Return to 'Mars'

Before some personal issues conspired to prevent it, I was going to write a column for today or tomorrow about the premiere of the second and final season of "Life on Mars" on BBC America. I've only had the time to watch part of the premiere (featuring Marc Warren from "Hustle" as the villain), so I point you to Mo Ryan's review for now. Given the number of shows that are running out of episodes right about now, I may have to move "Life on Mars" into the regular blog rotation, probably starting next week. Click here to read the full post