Life on Mars

Elki

Not the song, but the British drama.

A detective gets into an accident, and finds himself back in 1973. There are some sci-fi elements, but they're sparse. It's mostly about him trying to fit into the time; also, it's totally awesome.


Season two will start its American run in less than an hour with back-to-back episodes starting at 8:00 PM EST on BBC America. Does anybody else watch this?

If you're British (or some other weirdo who watched season 2) don't spoil it for me, or I'll fucking kill you.

James

This thread has a deceiving title.

It sounds interesting, a little bit like Hot Fuzz?

Smasher

I was wondering how the hell they'd do a show about him fitting into the middle ages, but you lied to us!

Proto

James wrote: »

This thread has a deceiving title.

It sounds interesting, a little bit like Hot Fuzz?

...they are both about cops.. that's about it.


it's 1973 btw.

Veegeezee

So this looks pretty good. I wish I had access to BBC America; although, I heard they were cutting out big chunks of the shows to fit them into one-hour blocks. Confirm/deny?

Also that may be the longest list of references I've ever seen attached to a Wikipedia article.

Adrien

Proto wrote: »

James wrote: »

This thread has a deceiving title.

It sounds interesting, a little bit like Hot Fuzz?

...they are both about cops.. that's about it.


it's 1973 btw.

Damn. That's not nearly as interesting.

Elki

It was a typo. They're close together on the keyboard. :oops:

Proto

Veegeezee wrote: »

So this looks pretty good. I wish I had access to BBC America; although, I heard they were cutting out big chunks of the shows to fit them into one-hour blocks. Confirm/deny?

Also that may be the longest list of references I've ever seen attached to a Wikipedia article.

it's a one hour show, they shouldn't need to cut anything.

unless they are cutting things to fit more comercials in

Veegeezee

The little blurb under "overseas sales" on the wiki makes it sound like that's what's going on.

The Mighty Thesaurus

It is currently one of my favourite shows.

Sentry

Damn my lack of BBC America... they have such good shows.

JamesKeenan

It's a god awful small- :whistle:

Oh, uh... nevermind.

I'll have to pick this up now. Time travel? A-yes please.

Jacobkosh

BBC one-hour shows have fewer ads than American one-hour shows, so they usually have to trim anywhere from two to five minutes.

Anyway: I've been dying to see this but have no cable, but by all reports it's excellent. Get in before the inevitable American remake fucks it all up.

James

Proto wrote: »

James wrote: »

This thread has a deceiving title.

It sounds interesting, a little bit like Hot Fuzz?

...they are both about cops.. that's about it.


it's 1973 btw.

I mean about a cop who's put in a completely different situation than he would normally handle and has difficulty adjusting. The wiki article mentioned cultural clashes and his different approach to policing. Instead of a city cop transferred to a rural area, it's a modern cop "transferred" to a different time.

Bionic Monkey

Elki wrote: »

Not the song, but the British drama.

A detective gets into an accident, and finds himself back in 1973. There are some sci-fi elements, but they're sparse. It's mostly about him trying to fit into the time; also, it's totally awesome.


Season two will start its American run in less than an hour with back-to-back episodes starting at 8:00 PM EST on BBC America. Does anybody else watch this?

If you're British (or some other weirdo who watched season 2) don't spoil it for me, or I'll fucking kill you.

I watched about half of season one, then stopped. I'm not really sure why, because I enjoyed it. I still have the entire season, and intend on watching it again at some point. Maybe now's a good time.

The Cheese

JamesKeenan wrote: »

It's a god awful small- :whistle:

Oh, uh... nevermind.

the song is in the show

anyways

Life on Mars is almost a perfect show. The ending is totally amazing.

tehkensai

I watched the entire first season of this in a day. Great stuff.

BoredGamer

It's a great show

Silmaril

Its a fantastic show. Watch out for the episode that starts off as a Camberwick Green homage. It was a kids TV show from back in the seventies, so sadly I think most of it will be lost on an American audience.


But this is one of the best shows to come out of our fair Isles in a very long time.



Gene Hunt is the man we all want to be.

Bogart

Silmaril wrote: »

Watch out for the episode that starts off as a Camberwick Green homage.

Is he kicking in a nonce?

Along with Doctor Who and State of Play, one of the best shows the Beeb have put out over the last ten years. Weirdly, John Simm was in all of those.

Also, trust the Gene Genie. Best TV cop ever.

poshniallo

That line (from season 1, but I'll spoiler it)

Gene Hunt and his mob, armed, surround some robbers.

"Drop your guns, you are surrounded by armed bastards!"

.... is genius.

Panda4You

YOO'RE NICKED!

Tube

jacobkosh wrote: »

BBC one-hour shows have fewer ads than American one-hour shows

No ads at all in fact

No Cars Go

Yeah, no BBC channels have adverts , apart from 1-2 minutes between programmes, and that's to just advertise other BBC programmes.

Tach

I hadn't realized they made a second season of this show. I only managed to catch a few episodes.

Damn, I need a TIVO.

RoundBoy

Season 2 is quite nice... It wraps up the series pretty well.

i also suggest checking out John Simms in Doctor Who in the later epsiodes of the latest season. he does not dissapoint.

thebovrilmonkey

At the end..

He wakes up, turns round to see Bobby getting out of the shower and OMG it was all just a dream

oh wait..

Brilliant program although I missed a few episodes from both series. Maybe I should start dropping hints that I'd like the dvd box sets with christmas coming up and all

Beedle

Life on Mars is indeed awesome. How does it work on BBC America then? An hour-long show on the BBC actually has 59 minutes of show, which would be about an hour and a half on a commercial channel. So are they cutting it down or is it in really long slots?

joshua1

How do they explain the time travel? Is there a fantabulous machine, like a temporal escalator?

Vulpine

joshua1: Major, major spoiler up ahead. Only click if you want the final episode totally, utterly ruined for you:

It turns out he was in a coma all along. During a shootout which goes badly wrong, Sam is brought back into consciousness in 2006. However, he doesn't feel at all at home, and decides to return to the Seventies by hurling himself off a building. He returns to '73, rescues the team, and mends his relationship with Annie. At the end, we hear the usual life support machine noises on the radio, which Sam switches off. The episode and series ends with the creepy test card girl 'switching off' our TV.

Which means that although we get an answer, it's not explicit whether or not it's real.

joshua1

I wish I didn't click that spoiler.

Jacobkosh

A kindly friend just supplied me with the first couple episodes and I can confirm that Life on Mars is bitchin' good. Solid writing, quality acting, and the show just looks like a million bucks, which I'm not used to seeing from BBC dramas.

I was sort of worried that the show would hit one of the two obvious pitfalls of its premise: that it would either indulge in mindless nostalgia for the days when manly men got to do their thing without regard for the rules, or that the hero would be a saccharine saint surrounded by cretins. So far so good; everyone seems to get their bit in, though our sympathies are still made to lie with Tyler, but not to a retarded degree. In real life I don't approve of the Gene Hunts of the world, but the character's great - he's a deceptively smart guy who's as much a product of his environment as Tyler is of his.

Now I just gotta wait for the next couple. Arrgh.

Haikira

I've only watched the first season, amazing show and would recommend it to anyone. This thread has got me in the mood to resume it :P .

Adrien

Love the soundtrack. Though you gotta figure they're going to run out of 70s hits that are, you know, good.

Jacobkosh

Adrien wrote: »

Love the soundtrack. Though you gotta figure they're going to run out of 70s hits that are, you know, good.

PSHAW.

Bogart

Necroposting to point out that the sequel to Life on Mars (Ashes to Ashes) is on the Beeb tonight. Johnny Foreigner can presumably get his hands on the episodes sooner or later, but here's a taster - here.

First episode was last week, and it seems to be played more for laughs this time. Which is fair enough, as they aren't going to get away with the 'is he dreaming or isn't he' again. Anyway, that's beside the important point, which is that anything which leads to Gene Hunt toting an Uzi while riding in a speedboat down the Thames as if he's been drafted into Miami Vice is what TV was invented for.

RoundBoy

I read the synopsis .. what?

John simms wrote down all about his dream / not dream and she red the reports .. and is now in that dream / not dream ?

You British are a funny lot.

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

Crap. I was hoping this was about life on mars.
I forgot that it wasn't until someone necroposted.

The Cheese

Bogart wrote: »

Necroposting to point out that the sequel to Life on Mars (Ashes to Ashes) is on the Beeb tonight. Johnny Foreigner can presumably get his hands on the episodes sooner or later, but here's a taster - here.

First episode was last week, and it seems to be played more for laughs this time. Which is fair enough, as they aren't going to get away with the 'is he dreaming or isn't he' again. Anyway, that's beside the important point, which is that anything which leads to Gene Hunt toting an Uzi while riding in a speedboat down the Thames as if he's been drafted into Miami Vice is what TV was invented for.

iguanacus

Anybody heard anything about the American remake? Other than a cast list, I haven't heard anything.

Bogart

They're remaking it? Gene Hunt won't stand for that.

Fire up the Quattro.