days when I didn’t find something to watch, no matter how marginal the shows sometimes were.However, during the last few years, my interest in television has plummeted as surely--if not as quickly--as GOPer Bobby Jindhal’s presidential aspirations. The rise of “reality” shows and the equivalent decline of more expensive scripted programming, the wont of networks to retread old programs such as The Bionic Woman, The Night Stalker, and Knight Rider, and unnecessary schedule tinkering by TV execs who won’t let struggling series remain in one place long enough to build up a following have all contributed to my declining interest. So has superior cable-TV programming (Mad Men, Deadwood, etc.).
Nowadays, I’m much more likely to slide a DVD of some classic film or old TV crime drama into the player than I am to switch on whatever ABC, CBS, or NBC have to offer.
However, a few bright spots remain: Life, the consistently quirky Los Angeles cop series starring Damien Lewis and the beautiful Sarah Shahi; Law & Order: Criminal Intent, with Vincent D’Onofrio, Kathryn Erbe, and now ex-Raines man Jeff Goldblum; a pair of USA Network shows, the lighthearted spy series Burn Notice, with Jeffrey Donovan and Gabrielle Anwar (which, unfortunately, ends its second season on Thursday), and Mary McCormack’s In Plain Sight, about the U.S. witness protection program (making its second-season debut on April 19); the sitcom Scrubs; and the time-travel cop drama Life on Mars.
Whoops! Scratch that last one. This morning brought word that Life on Mars--the American version of an extremely popular British series, focusing in this case on a New York City police detective, Sam Tyler (Jason O’Mara), who, after being smacked down by a car, is flung back in time from 2008/2009 to 1973--has been canceled. ABC has announced that Life on Mars “will complete its 17-episode freshman series order with the season finale written as a series finale that will wrap the loose story ends, explain how Tyler got transported back in time and (maybe) bring him back to his own time.”
Bad news. No question about it. Although some critics say that the U.S. adaptation of Life on Mars pales beside the UK original, as one who has never seen the British series, I could hardly care less. I’ve enjoyed this version starring Irish actor O’Mara from the first time I watched it, and I would probably stick with it for two years, three years, or more. Not necessarily because of O’Mara (who was once slated to become television’s new Philip Marlowe), but because of a combination of the performers, the often complicated story lines, and the series’ colorful Nixon-era setting. Harvey Keitel, as Sam Tyler’s boss, Lieutenant Gene Hunt, is a tempestuous marvel of a character, a law-breaking lawman who harbors a warm spot in his heart for the crazy men of his squad. Former Sopranos star Michael Imperioli, as Detective Ray Carling, is foul-mouthed, impatient, and apparently no great respecter or women, yet he genuinely seems to love his stay-at-home wife. And the underappreciated Gretchen Mol (remember her from The Notorious Bettie Page?)--well, as policewoman Annie Norris, she’s pretty much the only one who takes Tyler seriously when he starts babbling about being from the future, and you can see there’s chemistry between them which neither one wishes to acknowledge or fully extinguish.
Life on Mars has been especially interesting, because I remember the 1970s--the pull-tab beer cans, the double-knit pants, the cars, the music, the Watergate scandal. It’s been rather a nostalgic thrill to tune in to O’Mara’s series every Wednesday night, even though I think I like reliving the ’70s from the distance of the small screen more than I did living through that decade the first time around.
I’m going to miss this series, more than just a little bit. Sure, maybe the British version is better (I’ll have to find out, after the U.S. series goes off the air on April 1). But Life on Mars has been a trip of uncommon delights, with some fine acting, a number of interpersonal relationships worth keeping tabs on, and the realization that, as much as Tyler dislikes having been tossed back in time, he’s starting to enjoy the people he finds there. I might just be the first person in line to buy this show on DVD, whenever it is released.
While you still have the chance, dear readers, tune in Life on Mars--Wednesdays at 10 p.m.
READ MORE: Click here for TV Squad’s coverage of past Life on Mars episodes and series developments; “Ashes to Ashes on BBC America,” by Robert Lloyd (Los Angeles Times); “Why Did Life on Mars Work in the UK but Not in the U.S.?” by Seth Stevenson (Slate).
8 comments:
BBC American is about to air a followup series called Ashes to Ashes where the same gimmick is applied to a woman thrown back to the eighties. I loved the original BBC version-which was only about the same length as the US one-two short seasons. The US version used a lot of the same plot lines so it was hard to judge it on its own merits.
There was hardly a night in my younger days when I didn’t find something to watch
Funny, that. I tell my kids that when I was growing up, there were only three channels. And yet, somehow, there was always something to watch.
Now we've got hundreds of channels, and nothing is ever on.
Go figure...
LIFE ON MARS, the BBC version, is a great show. Great. I tried to watch the American show, stuck through three episodes, but finally the recycled scripts made it impossible -- I kept asking, why do I want to view lesser, watered-down versions when I can just go back to the originals?
THE OFFICE is enough of a new show derived from the original to more than justify its existence (it only refried one script, the pilot).
LIFE ON MARS, USA, however, seemed redundant -- why remake a show already done in the English language? Now it's "redundant" in the British sense.
Life, Burn Notice and In Plain Sight are amongym favorites. One thing, Burn Notice just wrapped up its second season, but they broke it up un two parts so it seemed as if there had been a short third seasom.
RJR
Max you lasted longer then I did. I gave up on the American version halfway through episode 2. I then popped in the original instead since it felt as though they took the acripts and force fed in the 70's refrences.
Also Burn Notice ends this Thursday
I totally agree with Max. Instead of raving and moaning and groaning on and on about the feeble U.S. remake, why not take a peek at the UK original which is widely available?
I thought I was the only person out there watching Life (not Life on Mars, the other one). Good to know I'm not the only one who appreciates an incredibly quirky cop show.
I see no reason why I can't regret the cancellation of ABC-TV's version of Life on Mars, even if some people don't think it measures up to the British original. I shall make my own judgment on that score, but only after the U.S. version has run its course. In the meantime, I'll enjoy the work of all the actors who put so much work into the Americanized Life on Mars.
Cheers,
Jeff
Post a Comment