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lifein1973
Life On Mars: A Review (no spoilers)
I can't remember the last time I liked all the first 6 episodes in a row of a show as much as I like the first 6 episodes of this show. Even Doctor Who, I loved the characters, the concept, and the style more than the actual writing of the plotlines. But this show... wow. Six episodes so far and each has been interesting and provocative. Even familiar tropes (an undercover episode, a crime boss episode) have been played with a fresh zeal and energy.
The characters, mainly Sam, Gene, and Annie, are all fully-fleshed out, engaging characters. They have more development in six episodes than most achieve in their entire first season. Sam's gotten the most attention (naturally) and Annie the least, but even though we know little of Annie's past her personality in the present is strongly defined.
Given that this show is about a 2006 cop stuck in 1973, the show so easily could have been sucky. I can just picture it turning cheesy like Quantum Leap. But even the moments that could have been cheesy if played with lesser actors or filmed with a lesser cinematographer or written by a lesser screenwriter... all of them rise to the task. The filming is awesome, first of all, with great perspective shots and framing, and great color. The brownish, saturated color scheme works perfectly for the era and also displays a sense of grit and everything being tactile. The visual difference between this show and stuff like CSI is a bit like the visual difference between Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone versus Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban. And now that I've brought up HP in a conversation about Life On Mars, I think I'll go bang my head into the wall in shame.
Linking the visuals of the show to the story is the music. Oh, the music! I haven't been so concious of the soundtrack of a show since the first time I watched Cowboy Bebop. In most tv the music is background noise, only really noticed when its overlaid with a climactic kiss, death, or closing scene. But you really feel the period music all throughout this show. And since this is a generation of music I'm not that familiar with beyond a few of my parents' CDs, I'm really getting a kick out hearing all this stuff. This show is making me want to buy its soundtrack. Like, pay money for it.
The music links the setting (1973) to the narrative. This show manages to play for drama and realism while delivering a tone of the surrealistic out of body experience. The narrative really is what does it-- you identify so strongly with Sam as a character, and the actor John Simm really delivers to carry the scene. In the first episode I thought he was a bit blah, a bit of a boring character dwarfed by the awesome events around him. But he's really come through to shine. We see the full spectrum of emotion with no holds barred-- in six episodes we've seen him cry more than once, laugh more than once, have mulitple psychotic breakdowns, and smile the smile of total desperation with life. And all the time he's having minor auditory and visual hallucinations. What's real? What's not real? Even as Sam investigates crimes in 1973 he and we never forget that all of this could disappear at any moment and he could wake up in a hospital bed or even at the pearly gates.
Sam reminds me of several characters I've seen before, but also has an essential center that doesn't duplicate exactly from anyone else. In him I see flashes of the out-of-time leads in sci fi shows like Time Trax, Quantum Leap, but he is quite, quite different from those characters. He's a lot more like a normal person. He reminds me the most of Henry DeTamble in The Time Traveler's Wife. Like Henry and unlike out-of-place characters like Arthur Dent, Sam Tyler is well-equipped to handle his situation. Even when he's totally out of control of events and bewildered and frustrated, he copes. He's quite remarkable at coping, actually, and his character does it with honesty and grace. He's off in space (dreaming of life-support machines) and totally grounded at the same time. It's very interesting to watch.
I didn't at first, but after a few episodes I also began to find him a very sexy character. The actor not so much on a purely surface level, but the character... he's got charm and energy. He's dangerous enough to be exciting, smart enough to be interesting, and kind enough that you think he actually might be safe to crush on. Trustworthy. And, also, the open-collar look of those 1970s shirts is REALLY flattering. He wears them well. He's kind of like Ginko from Mushishi... not sexy at first, but then he's caught in just the right pose with just the right look and BOOM suddenly he's got sex appeal. Unconventional but present nonetheless, and once you notice it you're always noticing it. Like a switch being flipped. And he cooks!
What's also interesting to me about Sam's character is that he's extremely emotional and contemplative, but at the same time is one of the least-woobified characters I've seen on tv. Sam may cry and Sam may rage and Sam may tilt at windmills all the while reeking vulnerability and anger... but he never ever comes off as a woobie. I think that it's because he's not an asshole to start with. A woobie has to begin as an asshole and then display vulnerability. Sam starts off as normal and his vulnerabilities are completely in-line with his situations.
He's a very comfortable character. The actor is comfortable in Sam's skin and the audience is comfortable in Sam's head. It all meshes together so nicely.
Another interesting thing about the narrative of LoM: I have a great desire to rewatch every episode and analyse everything that comes out of each character's mouth as a piece of Sam's subconcious talking to him. Most of the time the words are part of everyday conversation but sometimes a character says something and you can tell Sam's thinking about it. It's subtle and I didn't really become aware of it until about episode 4. But now I want to go back and analyze every single bit of dialogue as one big psych profile of Sam's head.
Now, that's quite a bit of squeeing for only 6 of 8 episodes of season 1. Is this my favorite show? No. My favorite current shows are still Doctor Who and Veronica Mars. But if episodes 7 and 8 are as entertaining as 1-6, Life On Mars is definitely unseating House, M. D. as my third favorite currently running series. House is funny, but everything that House does wrong with character development and writing, Life On Mars does right. And its missteps are smaller, and don't leave me with the frustration that House does. Can this strength in writing and dramatic tension last through multiple seasons? Hard to say. It depends on where the writers choose to take the supernatural aspect of the series. If they let it get too much like a crime procedural in retro, it'll be boring. If they make it too supernaturally, they'll risk being like Lost... endlessly frustrated and nonsensical with the underlying appearence of making it up as they go along. But if they keep the writing tight, this show could easily go three or four seasons. Especially with such short seasons.
Overall, I'm smitten with LoM. Smitten is the perfect word for it. Everyone should go buy the DVDs or download it or something. Be wary of the BBC America airings-- they cut out about 20 minutes of every episode to make it fit the time slot, and from what I hear they butcher the best part of the show-- the characterization--all to hell. But go find it! Because I need some fic from y'all.
You Stand A Good Chance of Enjoying Life On Mars If You Enjoy These Shows/Movies:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (!!!)
Dead Like Me
Groundhog Day
Angel
Early Edition
Veronica Mars
Doctor Who [new]
Strange Luck
Almost Famous (the movie)
Quantum Leap
The X Files
Monk
Fight Club
Firefly/Serenity
Millenium
The Outer Limits
Monster (anime/manga)
Picket Fences
The Dead Zone
Haunted
Law & Order (on crack)
Trigun (don't ask)
The Sixth Sense
I'm sure this show also owes a lot to cop shows and cop movies of the 1970s, but those are all out of my knowledge space so I can't comment.
Hmm... I *really* need to see a LoM fanvid to "Mr. Blue Sky" by E.L.O. I wasn't kidding about the Eternal Sunshine exclamation marks.
lifein1973Life On Mars: A Review (no spoilers)
I can't remember the last time I liked all the first 6 episodes in a row of a show as much as I like the first 6 episodes of this show. Even Doctor Who, I loved the characters, the concept, and the style more than the actual writing of the plotlines. But this show... wow. Six episodes so far and each has been interesting and provocative. Even familiar tropes (an undercover episode, a crime boss episode) have been played with a fresh zeal and energy.
The characters, mainly Sam, Gene, and Annie, are all fully-fleshed out, engaging characters. They have more development in six episodes than most achieve in their entire first season. Sam's gotten the most attention (naturally) and Annie the least, but even though we know little of Annie's past her personality in the present is strongly defined.
Given that this show is about a 2006 cop stuck in 1973, the show so easily could have been sucky. I can just picture it turning cheesy like Quantum Leap. But even the moments that could have been cheesy if played with lesser actors or filmed with a lesser cinematographer or written by a lesser screenwriter... all of them rise to the task. The filming is awesome, first of all, with great perspective shots and framing, and great color. The brownish, saturated color scheme works perfectly for the era and also displays a sense of grit and everything being tactile. The visual difference between this show and stuff like CSI is a bit like the visual difference between Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone versus Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban. And now that I've brought up HP in a conversation about Life On Mars, I think I'll go bang my head into the wall in shame.
Linking the visuals of the show to the story is the music. Oh, the music! I haven't been so concious of the soundtrack of a show since the first time I watched Cowboy Bebop. In most tv the music is background noise, only really noticed when its overlaid with a climactic kiss, death, or closing scene. But you really feel the period music all throughout this show. And since this is a generation of music I'm not that familiar with beyond a few of my parents' CDs, I'm really getting a kick out hearing all this stuff. This show is making me want to buy its soundtrack. Like, pay money for it.
The music links the setting (1973) to the narrative. This show manages to play for drama and realism while delivering a tone of the surrealistic out of body experience. The narrative really is what does it-- you identify so strongly with Sam as a character, and the actor John Simm really delivers to carry the scene. In the first episode I thought he was a bit blah, a bit of a boring character dwarfed by the awesome events around him. But he's really come through to shine. We see the full spectrum of emotion with no holds barred-- in six episodes we've seen him cry more than once, laugh more than once, have mulitple psychotic breakdowns, and smile the smile of total desperation with life. And all the time he's having minor auditory and visual hallucinations. What's real? What's not real? Even as Sam investigates crimes in 1973 he and we never forget that all of this could disappear at any moment and he could wake up in a hospital bed or even at the pearly gates.
Sam reminds me of several characters I've seen before, but also has an essential center that doesn't duplicate exactly from anyone else. In him I see flashes of the out-of-time leads in sci fi shows like Time Trax, Quantum Leap, but he is quite, quite different from those characters. He's a lot more like a normal person. He reminds me the most of Henry DeTamble in The Time Traveler's Wife. Like Henry and unlike out-of-place characters like Arthur Dent, Sam Tyler is well-equipped to handle his situation. Even when he's totally out of control of events and bewildered and frustrated, he copes. He's quite remarkable at coping, actually, and his character does it with honesty and grace. He's off in space (dreaming of life-support machines) and totally grounded at the same time. It's very interesting to watch.
I didn't at first, but after a few episodes I also began to find him a very sexy character. The actor not so much on a purely surface level, but the character... he's got charm and energy. He's dangerous enough to be exciting, smart enough to be interesting, and kind enough that you think he actually might be safe to crush on. Trustworthy. And, also, the open-collar look of those 1970s shirts is REALLY flattering. He wears them well. He's kind of like Ginko from Mushishi... not sexy at first, but then he's caught in just the right pose with just the right look and BOOM suddenly he's got sex appeal. Unconventional but present nonetheless, and once you notice it you're always noticing it. Like a switch being flipped. And he cooks!
What's also interesting to me about Sam's character is that he's extremely emotional and contemplative, but at the same time is one of the least-woobified characters I've seen on tv. Sam may cry and Sam may rage and Sam may tilt at windmills all the while reeking vulnerability and anger... but he never ever comes off as a woobie. I think that it's because he's not an asshole to start with. A woobie has to begin as an asshole and then display vulnerability. Sam starts off as normal and his vulnerabilities are completely in-line with his situations.
He's a very comfortable character. The actor is comfortable in Sam's skin and the audience is comfortable in Sam's head. It all meshes together so nicely.
Another interesting thing about the narrative of LoM: I have a great desire to rewatch every episode and analyse everything that comes out of each character's mouth as a piece of Sam's subconcious talking to him. Most of the time the words are part of everyday conversation but sometimes a character says something and you can tell Sam's thinking about it. It's subtle and I didn't really become aware of it until about episode 4. But now I want to go back and analyze every single bit of dialogue as one big psych profile of Sam's head.
Now, that's quite a bit of squeeing for only 6 of 8 episodes of season 1. Is this my favorite show? No. My favorite current shows are still Doctor Who and Veronica Mars. But if episodes 7 and 8 are as entertaining as 1-6, Life On Mars is definitely unseating House, M. D. as my third favorite currently running series. House is funny, but everything that House does wrong with character development and writing, Life On Mars does right. And its missteps are smaller, and don't leave me with the frustration that House does. Can this strength in writing and dramatic tension last through multiple seasons? Hard to say. It depends on where the writers choose to take the supernatural aspect of the series. If they let it get too much like a crime procedural in retro, it'll be boring. If they make it too supernaturally, they'll risk being like Lost... endlessly frustrated and nonsensical with the underlying appearence of making it up as they go along. But if they keep the writing tight, this show could easily go three or four seasons. Especially with such short seasons.
Overall, I'm smitten with LoM. Smitten is the perfect word for it. Everyone should go buy the DVDs or download it or something. Be wary of the BBC America airings-- they cut out about 20 minutes of every episode to make it fit the time slot, and from what I hear they butcher the best part of the show-- the characterization--all to hell. But go find it! Because I need some fic from y'all.
You Stand A Good Chance of Enjoying Life On Mars If You Enjoy These Shows/Movies:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (!!!)
Dead Like Me
Groundhog Day
Angel
Early Edition
Veronica Mars
Doctor Who [new]
Strange Luck
Almost Famous (the movie)
Quantum Leap
The X Files
Monk
Fight Club
Firefly/Serenity
Millenium
The Outer Limits
Monster (anime/manga)
Picket Fences
The Dead Zone
Haunted
Law & Order (on crack)
Trigun (don't ask)
The Sixth Sense
I'm sure this show also owes a lot to cop shows and cop movies of the 1970s, but those are all out of my knowledge space so I can't comment.
Hmm... I *really* need to see a LoM fanvid to "Mr. Blue Sky" by E.L.O. I wasn't kidding about the Eternal Sunshine exclamation marks.
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 12:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 06:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 08:58 pm (UTC)Just as soon as I re-organize my entire apartment.
As soon as I saw the first ad on tv, I was pretty certain I was going to like it. Unless I find something that just completely turns me off, I'm pretty sure I'll love it.