Life On Mars (ABC-US) Episode 1

In case you missed it, here's the entire first episode of the US version of "Life On Mars".

(Actually, I was at work last week when this aired, and, even though it's on my DVR, I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, myself. That pesky "paying job" thing keeps interfering in all the important things I need to do...)

[UPDATE May 2009: Apparently ABC has changed the stream attached to this link. It no longer shows the entire first episode, but only the first eight minutes of the first episode. I personally changed nothing and have no control over the content, so any changes have been wrought on the other end. I guess if you want to see the whole thing, you'll just have to wait until the DVD comes out.]

"Life On Mars" review in SF Chronicle

Tim Goodman reviewed "Life On Mars" in today's Chronicle.

"ABC's remake of 'Life on Mars' is surprisingly great, its pilot living up to the lofty expectations of the original. Not many observers following the ill-fated path of this remake would have put odds on 'Life on Mars' being anything less than a full-fledged disaster....

"The American version is impressively loyal to the original as it switches out Manchester for New York City, but most important, it works on its own as an intriguing, exceptionally well-cast pilot....

"The British original was rife with delicious cultural references that went beyond the gold mine that is the '70s. For example, the series reflected on whether Sam was having an existential crisis, frequently referenced 'The Wizard of Oz' and made judicious jokes about technology. (Here's hoping the American version uses the same restraint - one or two per episode at maximum.) No doubt ABC believed that 'Life on Mars' was a perfect import because New York (and America) in 1973 held storytelling arcs that went above and beyond the premise.

"They certainly nail the pilot - O'Mara is wonderful, Keitel comes on like a lion and Imperioli, who was added late, could end up separating himself wonderfully from his 'Sopranos' legacy, which is no easy feat....

"And yet - you knew this was coming - there are certain worries. With only 16 episodes in England successfully wrapping up Sam's journey, will stretching it out for American television doom it? ABC will want the network standard of 22 episodes for five seasons, at minimum. That may be asking for too much delayed audience gratification, but the pilot does create a lot of room for optimism."

More "Life On Mars"

Two promo videos: a two-minute trailer, and a two-minute scene from the first episode.

Notable things:

(1) Some dialog and shots are recreated from the BBC series. So it sounds like (at least for the first episode) they're sticking relatively close to the source material without falling into the "Coupling" trap (i.e., re-shooting the British scripts without any adaptation). The sideways shots of Sam lying in the street appeared in the opening credits of every episode of the BBC series, so those shots are almost iconic, in a way, if you know the original.

(2) Is it possible that Glenn Fletcher has been inserted into the first episode? That would be good foreshadowing for a later episode. (In the BBC series, this character shows up in the second episode of Series 2 as someone Sam knows in the present day and also runs into in 1973). It sounds like he says, "Ready, Glenn?" just before they knock down the apartment door. (No, I don't remember all the characters' names, I went and looked up the Glenn Fletcher episode on the BBC site. Really, honestly, I'm not a total fanboy, I'm just an anal-retentive accountant with what I like to think of as "a reasonable memory for details.")

(3) I notice one "Wizard of Oz" reference in the trailer. The BBC series was full of such references (not the least of which was Gene Hunt repeatedly calling Sam, "Dorothy").

Through the magic of YouTube, for comparison, here's a clip from the BBC series containing the "Don't ever waltz into my kingdom acting King of the Jungle" scene, mirrored briefly in the trailer:




So here are my humble predictions and recommendations:

If the fine folks at ABC have done their jobs right, (i.e., if they've found the right mix of replication of and adaptation of the original series), then people who are not familiar with the BBC series will get hooked. People who have seen the original will almost certainly draw comparisons to the original (and, when the scripts are so similar, it's almost impossible not to do so). I kind of hope that Jason O'Mara and Harvey Keitel (and their interpretations of their characters) are different enough from John Simm and Philip Glenister that direct comparisons become difficult or meaningless.

I believe that the real point at which this series either fails miserably or succeeds wildly is the moment when they start to diverge from the BBC series. As long as they're adapting other people's writing, they're constricted and constrained, so the real test is when they have the opportunity to create new material that flows naturally from the same source.

But the series needs to last long enough to reach that point -- that is, if no one watches early on, then the show will be canceled after only a few episodes. So I will be watching Thursday night in hopes that the show gets the chance to prove itself on its own terms rather than as an adaptation or remake.

Life On Mars

"My name is Sam Tyler. I had an accident and I woke up in 1973. Am I mad, in a coma or back in time?"

This week will see the Americanization of Annie (and Sam and Gene and Ray and Chris). ABC's remake of the highly successful and critically acclaimed BBC show "Life On Mars" premieres on October 9. (I also notice that the two websites' color schemes are amazingly similar.)

For me, possibly the biggest question is how they'll sustain the premise. One of the reasons that the BBC series worked so well was the promise of a resolution of the mad/coma/back in time question. With an open-ended, long-running series, that question can't be answered. Or, rather, if they answer it, it will require a very basic shift in the underlying premise of the show.

The BBC series extended past the resolution of this question by starting a new series. In "Ashes To Ashes," another modern-day detective (a woman this time) is shot in the head and wakes up in 1981, only to find that Gene Hunt, Ray Carling and Chris Skelton have been transferred from Manchester to London.

Another big question is whether they'll re-shoot the original scripts verbatim with different actors, or whether they'll keep the premise and write new scripts. I would hope the latter. The former method rarely works out well ("Coupling" didn't last a month on NBC). My understanding is that they shot a pilot and then re-cast every role except Sam Tyler. On the one hand, that sounds expensive and frustrating. On the other hand, it means they're trying really hard to make it work well.

For now, all I can say is that the original series was fascinating and very easy to get caught up in. The writers did it right -- they included elements of "culture clash" between the two time periods, but they didn't focus on those details. For example, in the first episode, when Sam mentioned mobile phones, and no one understands what he talks about, instead of going on and on about it, he realizes that they don't know what he's talking about, and he lets it drop and moves on. So I'll check out the US remake and see whether they've ruined it or done it justice.

In anticipation of the ABC remake, BBC America is running a "Life On Mars" marathon (Series One, episodes 1, 4 and 8, and Series Two episodes 1, 4, 7 and 8) today from 1 p.m. (EDT) until 8 p.m. (EDT).