Life on Mars
Life on Mars
9 January 2006
The
BBCs Monday night police drama "Life on Mars" is a treat. John Simm plays
Sam Tyler, a modern day detective who is transported back to 1973 when a car
accident leaves him in a coma. I was looking forward to a light-hearted
look at life in the 70s - with a basic plot like that it can't be that serious
can it? The show, though, has a real depth and an eerie weirdness that
leaves you wondering quite what you are watching.
The opening part shows Tyler in the modern world. He brings in a murder suspect for questioning - a disturbed young man - he has an alibi and has to be released. His girl friend, also a detective, has her own theory and pursues the suspect herself. Now she is in danger and Tyler is desperately using his skills to find out where she is. The scene is a grey vision of sixties tower blocks and concrete - the clichéd view of the 60s dream gone wrong. Then he is quite literally knocked back to 1973. A blue Rover P6 is on a piece of waste ground and a 70s policeman walks up to him. A sign says "Coming soon Manchester's highway in the sky", they might have said that in the 60s, this seems out of place to me.
It seems he has another life in 1973. He is working as a detective for a boss who made John Thaw's portrayal for Regan look polite and charming. Everything seems dark and brown. His flat looks more like scruffy student digs - surely an inspector could afford better - the seventies wallpaper couldn't have been that grimy! In fact the most colourful thing we see is an out of place red 1980s Trimphone (sorry, I'm a pedant).
We can forgive the details though, since the programme is such compelling viewing. It has some great moments too - Tyler and his boss jumping over the desk when they get the vital lead is pure Sweeney!
The case Tyler is working on in 1973 seems coincidentally similar to his job in 2006. The same psychopath, it seems has claimed another victim in 1973 and there is the haunting vision of a young, ginger haired boy. He is a younger version of the suspect whom Tyler, in 2006, brought in for questioning. Tyler has a chance to change history and takes it...but he is still trapped in 1973.
Life on Mars final episode
12 April 2007
More on the Life on Mars ending
Well, having watched the final episode of Life on Mars I have to agree the ending was weak. It left me with feeling of disappointment. It could have ended earlier as Caitlin suggested. All Sam's 1973 colleagues had died, but then it was a dream.
Did Sam really live in 1973and dream about the future, or did he live in 2007 and dream about 1973? It seems that Sam Tyler preferred 1973 in the end.
7 April 2007
It's a great shame that the BBC's hit drama Life on Mars is about to end (Tuesday 9pm BBC1). We are all looking forward to the final conclusion with anticipation. Will Sam Tyler escape from 1973? Or will he be stuck in the 70s forever, or not even wake up at all?
Reading the Times Television critic Caitlin Moran's piece about Life on Mars got me fuming. See 'Any dross will do' and scroll down. I wonder how many people watch the series because it's set in the 70s and how many would have watched it if Sam Tyler had woken up in 2003 or even 1873?
Come on Caitlin, Life on Mars would not have had half the audience figure without the retro angle. Yes it's great drama and no, you don't have to be an idiot to like retro.