Enter 2008, New York City. The streets are dirty, the people are jaded, and I’m annoyed by the ridiculous blue camera filter! (Come on guys, the whole Matrix filter effect thing is a little overdone!) That being said, ABC’s new gritty, time-warped, existential crime drama, Life on Mars, hit the ground running.
The main character, Sam Tyler (Jason O’Mara) is thrown into 1973 after a beautifully filmed ‘hit and run’ leaves him face down on the pavement literally 6 minutes and 15 seconds into the first episode. Cue David Bowie‘s Life on Mars on the iPod… wait no… the 8-track. Oh yeah! To make a long, one-hour story short, Sam discovers that he must “be the change” and alter the past (his present) in order to save his fiance/girlfriend Maya Daniels (Cosby Show’s Lisa Bonet) in the present (his future).
At first, I thought the whole ‘back in time to save the present’ thing was… well… done before. NBC’s Journeyman, released in 2007, did it! But in my humble opinion, Life on Mars does it better, at least as far as acting and character interaction goes. Fairly newcomer Jason O’Mara plays ‘befuddled’ much better than Kevin McKidd ever did on Journeyman. I guess that’s why Journeyman was canceled… oh well.
The supporting cast is fantastic, at least so far. Harvey Keitel and Michael Imperioli light up the LCD flat-screen monitor with their smart-ass comments and memorable quotes as Lieutenant Gene Hunt and Detective Ray Carling respectively. All-in-all, only time will tell if Life on Mars fares any better than Journeyman in today’s fickle TV market. I for one will be watching… online… streaming… waiting for 24 and Lost to return. But that’s a whole different post.
November 9th, 2008 at 5:26 am
People are stupid. They couldn’t wrap their mind around the concept of tachyon’s and that’s why Journeyman got cancelled. For the record, I thought Journeyman was a better show.
I like Life on Mars, and it’s still too early to say for sure, but right now it looks like everything we as an audience are being shown is the result of Sam’s (present day 2008) coma induced dream.
What’s the series finale gonna be? He wakes up in hospital bed surrounded by his loved ones – “I had the most vivid dream…”
It negates everything you’ve invested in as a viewer. It’s a cop out and it pisses me off. They go all the way back to 1939′s Wizard of Oz for a plot device? There was nothing from this century they could have “borrowed”?
Hopefully I’m wrong, cause like I said, I like this show…for now.
November 9th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
How true, as far as the stupid viewing public is concerned. I mean, after all Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie poisoned the television screen for however many seasons that God awful Simple Life show aired, which was more than one season, which means TOO LONG!
That being said, I agree that the premise behind Journeyman was much better… but, I just didn’t buy the acting. Not that Life on Mars is Emmy worthy… because, well it’s just not. But it is watchable for now.
I, too, hope the season finale doesn’t come to such a ghastly end. God, what a horrible cliche. With any luck, the writers will not dip into the “vivid dream” basket and perhaps have a little bit of professional creativity.