After the Boston Legal debacle, I hate to say anything nice about ABC, but I have to admit... Life on Mars is literally whipping ass! This is a fantastic show and definitely a worthy successor to the original - which quickly became one of my favorite shows when it ran.
But it's a whole, whole lot different. I never saw the final several episodes of the original BBC series, so I don't know how it ends yet, but I'm pretty sure it didn't have much of a sci-fi twist. I figure it had to do with him coming out of his coma or something (not that I'm all that clever, mind you - I read a few things online before I realized they were spoilers). ABC's Life on Mars seems pretty firmly set in the sci-fi arena - in fact, my satellite provider (DirecTV) even lists it as fantasy.
Harvey Keitel is always rocking, but he's really putting his all into this role - as is the entire cast! The show isn't as concerned with the period details as the BBC series, which can be jarring at times, but I have a feeling the anachronisms are going to play into the whole thing because they seem to drop them with a wink. Or maybe that's just me.
They've stayed true to the larger, socio-political aspects of the original, as well. There's plenty of rocking '70s music, plenty of corruption (that's not an anachronism; cops are just bad people and always corrupt), and lots of womens' suffrage and stuff. And a load of actual ass-whippings.
If I had a single nitpick, it is that it isn't as pulpish, noirish as the original; that was a lot of Life on Mars' charm. But again, the American version has its own strengths and is far more than a simple adaptation. The other would be the relationship between the two male leads - it's still as complicated, just in a different way.
Life on Mars is rocking real hard - I have to admit, it makes Wednesdays worth watching. And Life on Mars has become an actual phenomena, spawning at least one British sequel, in addition to this series. Which is why ABC is champing at the bit to cancel it.
© C Harris Lynn, 2009
A rambling melange of pop-culture.
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