Who hasn’t fantasized about going back in time to their youth knowing what they know today and living it all over again? In this case a young British detective from 2006 suddenly and unexplainably finds himself back in the year 1973. I especially loved that because it was the year I graduated from high school. In this case though it’s more of a nightmare than a fantasy.I’d seen promos for this show in print and on TV and found the premise intriguing. The first thing an uninitiated American needs to know is that the BBC’s idea of a “season” is only eight episodes long. Sort of like this year’s season’s worth of The Sopranos, it was over just as you were getting into it. I was used to this, having fallen in love with other British offerings like The Avengers as a kid and later on with the hilarious Are You Being Served?
If you’ve ever played the computer game MYST, you can really feel for the main character. In the game you find yourself on an island and you don’t know how you got there, what you’re supposed to do now that you’re there, or how to get back home again. In this case Detective Inspector Sam Tyler (John Simm) is frantically searching for his kidnapped girlfriend in 2006 when out of nowhere a car hits him. When he wakes up to the sounds of a hospital operating room, he finds himself lying in the street, wearing strange clothes and no idea how he got there. He sits up and smiles at an old car just like the one he used to own, but this one looks brand new and he’s holding the keys to it. In a daze he jumps into it and hurries back to his precinct house only to discover the clean well lit and computerized office he once knew is now a dingy primitive and very low-tech place he doesn’t recognize. In short order he’s told it’s his first day there after being transferred from another precinct. His boss DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) is a rough no-nonsense taskmaster, who cares little about suspects' rights or proper procedure. Sam’s co-workers begin looking at him funny when he talks about DNA samples, cell phones or modern detecting techniques. A favorite is when Sam aims his pistol, one of his detectives asks another "Do you think he can hit it?" To which Sam replies, "You should see my PlayStation Scores!"Throughout the first episode and ultimately the series Det. Tyler keeps trying to figure out if this is really 1973 or a coma-induced dream. At one point he becomes convinced that committing suicide will bring him back to his own time. He finally confides this to officer Annie Cartwright (Liz White) and at the end of the first episode she keeps him from jumping off the roof of the precinct house to test his theory.Throughout the series, Sam hears voices apparently coming from an operating room or a hospital. They seem to come unexpectedly from TVs, radios etc, all asking if he can hear them. He’s taunted by a constant mental struggle not to intentionally change the future in order to save himself.Episode One (View a clip here)Sam investigates a murder, only to discover a connection between it and the serial killer who’d kidnapped his girlfriend in 2006. In a daze from his new surroundings, he debates manipulating the present to influence the future to save himself and his girlfriend.
His gruff boss believes in acting on instinct—shoot first and ask questions later. The struggle for Sam gets rough because though his superior disregards every rule that Sam lives by as a 21st century police officer, the man is always infuriatingly right and gets results. In the end Sam wins the respect of his skeptical fellow detectives because he uses techniques from the future that they’ve never heard of and gets better results.Episode Two (View a clip here)37-year-old Sam still can’t figure out if he’s really back in 1973. Since he was born in 1969 that would mean that somewhere nearby there was a four-year-old boy with his name. This was also the year his 29-year-old father disappeared leaving his mother to fend for herself with a young son.The detectives arrest Kim Trent, a much sought after suspect on the “most wanted” list and Sam’s boss Gene is so determined to make sure the man is convicted, that he plants incriminating evidence on him. Anger taints the precinct house when Sam has him released after proving the evidence was tainted.Trent resumes his crimes and as a consequence, one of the well-liked workers at the precinct house is seriously hurt. An infuriated Gene eventually comes around to Sam’s way of thinking when our hero uses modern techniques to nail Trent for his crimes assuring a genuine conviction.Episode Three (View a clip here)Sam, while investigating a stabbing visits the scene of the crime. He discovers with astonishment that the textile mill where it occurred is the very building where he’ll eventually live in 2006 after it was converted to apartments (flats) sometime in the future.As expected Sam butts heads with his boss over methods. Sam also raises a few eyebrows when he starts a complicated forensic analysis. Gene and his fellow detectives confront a gang of mill workers, and Hunt predicts that the first man in the group to speak up is the killer. After the chosen man confesses, Sam is convinced he’s lying and goes about proving it, gaining the respect of the men who serve him… and grudgingly Gene too.Sam is beginning to feel comfortable in 1973, though he’s still convinced he’s really not there, but in a hospital room in 2006.Episode 4 (View a clip here)Sam discovers that Gene Hunt has formed an uneasy alliance with a local gangster in an attempt to keep local crime under control. While Sam tries to untangle things, he comes face to face with his own young mother and offers her money to tide her over the rough times, which she refuses. Sam eventually arrests the gangster for murder. As he tries to figure out how to get back to 2006 he’s still reeling from meeting his Mum and wondering whatever happened to his missing father.Episode 5 (View a clip here)
Rival soccer teams sometimes cause rabid fans to clash with brutal and deadly results. Tyler and Hunt collide about methods as usual and go undercover to solve a gang murder by infiltrating a local bar, taking Annie along as a barmaid. The next archrival match up is sure to result in another murder or worse—mob violence, so it becomes urgent that they find the killer beforehand.While deep into the case Sam suddenly remembers that the next soccer game is the last one that his father ever took him to before disappearing. By solving the murder and proving it wasn’t related to the rivalry, Sam and his detectives avert a deadly riot.While standing in the crowd filing peacefully into the stadium, a familiar man and his 4-year-old son walk past and Sam sees himself for the first time.Episode 6 (View a clip here)Sam Tyler frantically, but unsuccessfully, tries to communicate into the future after hearing his mother tell him that there’s no hope for him and that the doctors have decided to shut off his life support soon. Meanwhile in 1973, a man has taken hostages at the local newspaper and threatened to kill them at the same exact time Sam thinks they’re going to pull the plug on him in 2006. Tying the two events together, he must now find a way to keep anyone from dying here in the past in order to keep him from dying in the future.Annie risks her life to go into the captive publisher’s office undercover to scope out the situation and becomes a hostage herself. Frightened for her, Sam goes in next as a negotiator and almost succeeds until Gene impatiently forces his way in a few minutes later, determined to end the standoff by force. Gene’s failure results in the perpetrator becoming agitated enough to promise to kill the three of them ahead of his other hostages at the appointed time.Using his brains instead of Hunt’s brawn, Sam talks them out of the tense situation, even managing to keep the man from killing himself. Later Sam’s mother’s voice is heard refusing to let them shut off the machines keeping him alive because she saw him grin.Episode 7 (View a clip here)Sam is deeply troubled, because none of his theories on how to get back to 2006 have worked. Annie has become more and more convinced that he’s losing his mind, but keeps her thoughts mostly to herself.A suspect dies while in custody after being beaten to death in his cell by another prisoner. Sam finds himself fighting against everyone in the precinct including Annie, because he believes there’s an internal cover-up concerning the details of the man’s death. Gene goes ahead and lets Sam investigate against everyone’s objections. When Sam comes to the appalling realization that everyone but his boss actually did have a hand the man’s death, he becomes convinced that the only way home is to destroy his own and everyone else’s carriers on the theory that it’ll change the future.Taking his preliminary evidence to Gene is a fruitless gesture. As Sam gets closer and closer to the facts he discovers taped evidence that after the other prisoner was removed from the cell, one of his fellow detectives forced the suspect to take cocaine orally. When the man pleaded for help while painfully dying, Annie and everyone else that was there at the time ignored his cries until it was too late. After learning this, Sam proceeds with his plan by going over Gene’s head to the Chief Superintendent with his evidence.The superintendent destroys Sam’s taped findings in front of him shattering the cassette on his desk. Outside the office, Gene regretfully consoles Sam by telling him that he let him investigate because Tyler was the only one that would be able to do it fairly, though Gene knew nothing would come of it.Sam, once again, is left wondering if he’ll ever get back to his own time.Season Finale-Episode 8 (View a clip here)Inspector Sam Tyler has begun accepting the fact that he may never get back to 2006, even though he’s constantly taunted by voices trying to break through to him in his coma.Gene arrests a traveling salesman identified as 29-year-old Vic Tyler (Lee Ingleby) after a local bookie is murdered. Vic finally confesses to running small time poker games in his hotel room, but doesn’t realize the participants are all mob connected until it’s too late. 
Complication: Vic Tyler is our hero Sam Tyler’s father. Vic disappeared when Sam was only four and now he is beginning to understand why. An emotional roller coaster ensues as Sam befriends his younger father and tries to clear his name, praying that he can keep his dad from fleeing. Hoping it’d change the future Sam cooperates with Gene to set Vic up in a confrontation with the mob. Sam vaguely remembers as a child, chasing after his father through some woods and finding him attacking a woman in a red dress, then a stranger scares him away before he can watch what happened next. Sam never saw his father again.Complication: After managing to get his father freed and the charges dropped if he’ll cooperate in the undercover mission, his father disappears anyway. Sam comes to the heart-wrenching conclusion that his father had murdered the two mobsters he was supposed to meet.Sam convinces Annie to go with him to a local family gathering where he’s sure Vic will be, because he remembers it as a child. He’s relieved to find his dad there, but Gene’s there too. Vic disappears after recognizing Annie and Sam follows fast behind after being unable to locate her. As he leaves he encounters himself and stops the boy from following his father into the woods, promising his younger self he’ll find his daddy.As he recovers from that, he realizes that Annie’s the woman in the red dress from his childhood and catches up to them as she tries to arrest Vic. Vic overpowers her and begins beating her, so Sam holds him at gunpoint sending her to get Gene. After soul searching and accusations, he decides his mother and he were better off without him and allows him to escape... Then pulls his gun on Gene to keep him from following Vic, coming to the conclusion that the only way back to 2006 is to kill Gene!The end of the episode leaves you wondering again if he’ll ever make it back to his own time, and now that he’s reconciled with his partners if he even wants to.In conclusion, I found the storylines well written and acted. I went into it hoping to see cars from my childhood and was disappointed—after all this takes place in England. 
Speaking of the cars, there’s the problem that no studio seems to be able to figure out with their “period pieces.” Every auto was clean and shiny and in perfect condition. Not that that’s their fault; after all, running-condition 33-year-old cars are hard to come by unless you get them from collectors.Another thing that struck me is that the actors didn’t seem comfortable in their clothes—which is understandable because they were actors from 2006 embarrassed to be wearing 1973 fashions.I liked the way that the characters Sam and Gene interacted. I’d put it on a par with how Mr. Spock interacted with his superior Captain Kirk on Star Trek. They both were equally intelligent, just in different ways.The romance between Annie and Sam could’ve been more thoroughly fleshed out and seemed to just be an excuse to have an attractive female in the show. You got the feeling that Sam didn’t want to commit to her because he’d be leaving soon. It left me cheering for the budding romance, disappointed when it wasn’t going anywhere, but wondering why he wasn’t doing all that much pining for the girl he left back in the future.I liked watching Life on Mars, enjoyed the period music and got caught up in the main character’s plight. However the premise seems to be a “one trick pony” and I don’t see how they can sustain it for more than another season or two. If it’d been up to me, I’d have keep the same scripts and let the premise just be a period piece from the 70’s letting him be the stranger in a strange land because he’d transferred from Australia and wasn’t used to the police procedures of the U.K.I’d recommend seeing it though and when it comes out in reruns I’ll watch it again.For a preview of this program Click here, then click "Videos" at the bottom right of the screen, then click Sneak Peak "Life on Mars"
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Jet in Columbus
Thanks for your help with the links TV
2 - Matthew
I did a simlar article for Everybody Hates Chris when I came on-board. It won't horribly wrong and Joan went postal on me just about. Luckily I've learned never to get too ambitous and just do what I'm capable.
Nice job BTW.
3 - Jet in Columbus
Thanks Matthew... I think?
4 - Ian Woolstencroft
I wondered how this series would translate for American audiences and the answer seems to be not very well.
When you talk of making the series a straight period piece you’re missing the point. This isn’t designed as a real 70’s set police drama, Sam’s view of 1973 is coloured by the TV of the time. The series is a parody of shows like The Sweeney and (to a lesser extent) The Professionals. DCI Gene Hunt is Jack Regan (played by John Thaw who’s probably more well known to Americans as Inspector Morse) from The Sweeney, just moved from London to Manchester (my hometown) in the north of England. Britain in 1973 was only like this on TV, I should know I was around at the time.
As for the clothes, I thought the actors looked perfectly fine in them. If they were embarrassed about wearing the fashions of the 70’s they wouldn’t be very good actors. And god help them if they had to do something set in Ancient Rome, I’m sure a toga is far more embarrassing than a pair of flared trousers from the 70’s. I can’t say I noticed all the cars looking new but I’ll look out for it next time I watch the series.
David E. Kelley (Boston Legal) is working on an American remake and while I’m not a fan of Americanised versions of British shows (Cracker, The Office) this is one I’m looking forward to. Given the abundance of cop shows at the time, it will be interesting to see where they go with it.
And just for the record The Avengers seasons ran for 26 episodes.
5 - Jet in Columbus
Ian, Thanks for the perspective from "across the pond"! I was/and still am trying to figure out what constitutes a British TV season. Considering this show was only 8 episodes long, what do they do for the rest of the year, and do fans have to wait (ala The Sopranos) a whole year for another 8 episodes?
I have the box set of the Avengers (which I love) and also (Are You Being Served? (which is hilarious) I'm a fan. A absolute favorite British comedy is "The Black Adder" which also has an extreeeeeeemly short set of episodes per year.
I had no idea that Life on Mars was supposed to be a parady-in my ignorance I was taking it a full face value. No laugh track?
I especialy loved when Sam sets up with a karate stance and Gene sucker punches him in the hospital room "Ahh that felt better!"
As for the cars, the scene when Sam first appears you'll note that it just rained, yet the car the Bobbie is standing next to is completely shiny dry and clean. Sam walks down a muddy alley and sees the sign for the new expressway, then down the street and every car looks brand new shiny and clean even though it'd just rained and the Volkswagon he staggers up against and sees his reflection is in pristine condition.
Even in the 21st century there are dirty cars with a ding or a dent.
All in all taking it at "face value" I enjoyed the show and look forward to next "Season".
...but that's only my opinion
Jet in Columbus
6 - Bill Sherman
I've enjoyed the first season of Life on Mars, and while I can see the parodic aspects of the show (e.g., the overblown seventies era chase music that becomes more prominent as the season progresses) there's a neat dark undertone to Sam's plight that makes the show even more fascinating: while our hero is trapped in a coma/the past/a psychotic breakdown, his ex-girlfriend apparently still remains in the clutches of a serial killer. This adds an extra layer of desperation to his situation that is never overstated but remains in the back of the audience's mind . . .
7 - Jet in Columbus
Bill as an American, the only real complaint I have is that it was only 8 episodes long...
...but that's only my opinion
♥ Jet in Columbus
8 - Ian Woolstencroft
Jet
It’s a different, more subtle kind of parody than that found in US shows.
Also I looked on it as how Sam would view the 70’s i.e. from a child’s view but also coloured by the TV of the time. Seen that way it could even account for the cars as they are looked at through the rose-tinted glasses of childhood memory. I can’t remember if we find out exactly how old Sam was in ’73 but as someone who was eight at the time I can say it’s easy to have your perceptions clouded by TV, after all you only live it once but TV shows are repeated again and again.
Black Adder is one of the best British (or anywhere else) comedy shows ever but I have to say I hated ‘Are You Being Served?’ It’s the kind of catch phrase comedy show that’s being spoofed in the second season of Extras.
I spent more time in the 70’s watching American shows than British ones with the main exception being Doctor Who.
And Bill you’re spot on about that ‘dark undertone.'
9 - Jet in Columbus
Ian, having never been in the U.K. I took the whole thing seriously (not knowing any better) and enjoyed it thusly.
I guess when it comes back out in reruns, I'll see it from a different perspective.
Sam was born in 1969 and was 4 years old in 1973. He was 37 in 2006 when he met his 29-year-old father in the final episode.
I fear I've never heard of the Sweeney and The Professionals... sorry.
I turned 18 and used to wear clothes very similar to what he wears in the show.
As for Black Adder season 2 & 3 are my favorites.
I liked season 1 when I first saw it, but after he became more sophisicated in two and three I couldn't watch Season one or four any more.
I loved Baldric, especially the time the Lord told him to go answer the knock at his door by ordering him to "Go get the door" and Baldric came back... carrying the door.
Sorry, I liked AYBS for all the double meanings. When Captain Peacock came out in drag to dump his girlfriend and go back to his wife I nearly died laughing.
One thing I don't like about BBC America though, I've seen shows on our Public Broadcasting System that were later shown on BBCA only to find them re-arranged and cut to add commercials and I'm wondering if maybe that's why I have such a skewed view of Life on Mars?
That why I put an "American's point of view" in the title. I figure we may speak the same language but have different entertainment and cultural histories.
Alas
Good cooresponding with you
Jet
10 - Ben
Over here in the UK, we've just had the season 2 finale which is, sadly, the last ever episode.
Season 2 is even better than the first series. And, being shown on BBC, we get hour long episodes without any adverts to spoil the fun.
The show includes a lot of great 70s references but is not intended to be a 70s show. It takes everything that's best from the era and uses it in each episode. The cars are better than the cars we used to drive in the 70s but they are the ones everyone remembers (the ones we wanted at the time).
Above all, the show is a release from today's hectic, stressful lifestyle and it lets us reminisce on times gone with the benefits of hazy hindsight. And all this wrapped up in some good writing and acting.
Incidentally, John Simm shot to fame over here in "The Lakes" which showed what a good actor he is. You can pick it up from Amazon UK and I'd receommend it.
11 - Jet in Columbus
Thanks Ben, I'll have to check that out. I wish they'd hurry up and show season two here!
Jet
12 - billy-joe
it doesnt matter that it is eight episodes long, this means it doesnt stay on the same subjects for a few episodes, like in America aka. Lost....hmmmmm, thats all.And it also means it's not tooo boring, it's done quickly and good and the episodes dont allways leave a stupid massive clif hanger at the end, wich ussually turns out to be nothing, but all in all, the series are really good, are are much better than theese stupid cop shows theeses days, their all the same, even the series Heart Beat is slow and boring, the fact it's set in the sixties....bla..bla...bla....ect.
13 - Mark
Sorry, but "letting him be the stranger in a strange land because he’d transferred from Australia and wasn’t used to the police procedures of the U.K." shows you've missed the point rather. This programme aims to show that the past is not just another country, it is another planet. Far more alien than a different contemporary country. Yet that very alien nature makes Sam feel alive. Things he once took forgranted he now has to fight for.
Granted, seeing it reduced by 25% can't have helped, but it's a little disturbing that a number of American reviews I've seen seem unable to view the world outside their own context. It's rather like me saying "Dances With Wolves" would have been a good film if only it had been set in Dorset. While the BBC are keen to export it, this is a British show about Britain aimed at a British audience.
Sorry about the lack of American cars in 1973 Manchester! Our roads have bends, so we design cars that can turn corners ;-)
14 - Jet in Columbus
Mark, it was meant only as an alternate context for americans that aren't familiar with the show, or the culture.
Lighten up.
I LOVED the show... or couldn't you tell, whether I "got" it or not. many people love shows without knowing everything necessary to enjoy it!
Jet
15 - Jet in Columbus
The new season begins next Tuesday on BBC America December 10th with back-to-back episodes at 8 and 9 PM Eastern time in the U.S.
Enjoy!
16 - Jet in Columbus
The new season begins TONIGHT on BBC America December 10th with back-to-back episodes at 8 and 9 PM Eastern time in the U.S.
Enjoy!!!
17 - Jet in Columbus
...sorry that's tonight Dec. 11th on BBC America
18 - Jet
Did anyone catch the American ABC version of this last night. I thought they did a great job on the pilot?
19 - El Bicho
glad to see you are back manning the keyboard
20 - Jet
For the moment anyway my friend, for the moment...
And thanks
jet
21 - bliffle
I saw the pilot last night. It was OK.
Good to see you back Jet.
22 - Jet
Thanks Blif,
Just to update everyone, My heart is only putting out 19.9 percent of what it's supposed to. I'm very weak. I just spent 4 weeks in the hospital; when I passed out I slammed my bare knees, then my elbows and then face into our concrete driveway.
my upper left arm had one spiral fracture from shoulder to elbow and three additional lateral fractures.
I'm trying to update my diary blog, and getting there.
Thanks
23 - Jet
Now, as for the casting and writing in the American version of "Life on Mars". I loved it, and it show a lot of potential.
Of course (as witnessed by this article) I loved the original British version, though some are nonplussed that I didn't know it was supposed to be a parody.
Apparently neither did ABC.
I think the difference will be when the american version peels off the original and goes its own way.
I will say I was overwhelmed with nostalgia by the 1973 era muscle cars.
I'll wait a few episodes before I pass judgement, but so far, I like it a lot.
24 - Dr Dreadful
Jet, good to see you up and about. You certainly have been in the wars (again!). Sounds like you need to take your body back to the store. Do you still have the receipt? ;-)
Best wishes for a good recovery!
25 - Jet
Doc, in 21 days I've used up three M.D.s, two cardiologists, 1 orthopedic surgeon, 2 psychiatrists, 1 psychologist and more nurses than I could count. I've had two surgeries and have spent probably 18 of the 30 days of September in a hospital.
Nothing is under warrantee repair, unfortunately.
I'm trying to recount it all in my diary blog, but some of it was experienced in a drug hazed fog.
Thanks for the kind words
Jet