ORBzine - Life on Mars TV Review
[Season 1 !Season 2 !Ashes to Ashes ]
Season 1
Life on Mars [Season 1, Episode 1]
Shown 9th January 2006 [Monday]
With the success of the return of Doctor Who , the HBO team-up Rome and the experimental comedy Hyperdrive , the Beeb has also brought out this time travel drama.
A Detective Inspector from an English police service in 2005 is in a serious accident. He wakes up in the year 1973!
Luckily he arranges to be transferred into the 1973 Police Service. The unit he ends up in is a cliched remake of The Sweeny. Partnered with a neanderthal, he must solve a series of murders.
This is part cop show, part fish-out-of-water comedy. Disappointing, perhaps. But no worse as a cop/time travel show than Crime Traveller .
Life on Mars [Season 1, Episode 2]
Shown 16th January 2006 [Monday]
The detectives arrest a suspect in a series of ARVs. They have nothing on him, so the 70s cop beats him up and plants evidence on him. However, Y2K cop decides to let the suspect go.
In the next ARV a supporting character is coincidentally hospitalised.
The girl from the BBC test-card appears to him in a nightmare. And at the end, we get a hint about how the time travel took place.
The music used is Live and Let Die , which as well as being a great tune was also released in 1973.
Life on Mars [Season 1, Episode 3]
Shown 23rd January 2006 [Monday]
A man is found hacked to death in a spinning-mill. The DCI's main suspect is the local Union rep.
Meanwhile, it turns out that the Regional Crime Squad, the most senior detective unit in the local Police force, are even more crooked than the local CID.
Life on Mars [Season 1, Episode 4]
Shown 30th January 2006 [Monday]
The CID are in cahoots with the local gangster. He's an old-fashioned 1960s gangster, the kind that we only see in cliched detective stories.
The hero goes all honest cop, refusing to accept gratuities. Then he meets a damsel in distress. Things follow very predictably from there, I'm afraid.
The hero is so modern that he cooks exotic mexican meals [where he gets jalopenos from is anyone's guess] rather than open a can of baked beans. Real cops in 2005 would get their Mexican food in a microwaveable packet! However, he is more than willing to compromise his ethics when he feels like it. Torturing suspects [for inadmissable statements!] is only part of it. He even gets everyone to bet on a horse he knows will win the race.
He hears his mother's voice talking to him via a sock-puppet on TV. Naturally he tracks down his family in 1973, and pays the a visit. Creepy bastard!
Life on Mars [Season 1, Episode 5]
Shown 6th February 2006 [Monday]
A car chase on a football pitch is followed by a murder case. The victim is suspected of being murdered by supporters of a rival team.
The protagonist's memories of going to the game with his dad are mirrored by his encounters with the victim's son.
The police work, including undercover work as pub staff and a riot-squad punch-up, is all perfectly cliched and predictable. However, this is really a drama. The core is the protagonist's life.
Life on Mars [Season 1, Episode 6]
Shown 13th February 2006 [Monday]
The hero's mum phones him to say that he's being taken off life-support at 2pm. Just then, he is told that a local newspaper office is scene to an armed siege. The hostage-taker intends to kill someone ... at 2pm!
The DCI and his friends act like gun-toting thugs. But when it comes down to it, they're extremely reluctant to shoot. Convenient for the plot. But then, since it's all a halucination in the mind of a coma patient, who cares?
Life on Mars [Season 1, Episode 7]
Shown 20th February 2006 [Monday]
In the penultimate ep, the protagonist realises the doctors are testing him for response to stimuli. Unfortunately he's unable to respond.
A drug dealer is left in the custody of the thug cop while the protagonist and his boss pop out for a curry. When they come back, he's dead.
The protagonist goes on a witch-hunt to find out what happened. Fact is, the entire department are thugs. It's pointless pinning all the blame on one scapegoat.
Life on Mars [Season 1, Episode 8]
Shown 27th February 2006 [Monday]
The CID investigate a new bunch of gangsters who are trying to take over the Manchester underworld. Unfortunately, the trail leads to the protagonist's dad!
The protagonist relives events from his childhood, in scenes reminiscent of 12 Monkeys . Shockingly, he ignores all the evidence, both physical and remembered. Yes, he makes the psychotic DCI look like a smart, well-adjusted person in contrast!
Life on Mars [Season 2, Episode 1]
Chapter 1
Shown 13th February 2007 [Tuesday]
The ep starts with a flash from Sam's past - Marc Warren [ Dracula, Hogfather ], his gangster nemesis.
Life on Mars [Season 2, Episode 2]
Chapter 2
Shown 20th February 2007 [Tuesday]
The ep starts with a flash from Sam's past - his future mentor from Hyde arrives as a young rookie. Naturally, racism is part of the problem he faces.
The cops are after a gang of armed robbers.
Life on Mars [Season 2, Episode 3]
Chapter 3
Shown 6th March 2007 [Tuesday]
The racism prevalent in the 1970s police and society is explored. Specifically, against recent immigrants from Ireland - someone's setting bombs, and the cops treat everyone like potential IRA terrorists.
The creepy mustachio'd one gets shell-shock, but they give him a gun anyway!
Life on Mars [Season 2, Episode 4]
Chapter 4
Shown 13th March 2007 [Tuesday]
The ep starts with a flash from Sam's past - his favourite aunt, who worked for a perfume company.
A young woman has been murdered, giving the cops the chance to arrive in a single, masterful helicopter shot. Unfortunately, the case resembles the work of a serial killer Manc the Knife
The cops go undercover at a wife-swopping party. Posing as Tony and Cherie Blair!
Life on Mars [Season 2, Episode 5]
Chapter 5
Shown 20th March 2007 [Tuesday]
The ep starts with a flash from Sam's past - he becomes a character in Camberwick Green, a 1970s childrens TV show made with stop-motion animation. The voices in his head say that someone's made a mistake with his coma medication.
A man's wife and daughter are kidnapped.
Life on Mars [Season 2, Episode 6]
Chapter 6
Shown 27th March 2007 [Tuesday]
The ep starts with a flash from Sam's past - his ex, Maya, a half-Asian girl from 2006.
The investigation is into the shooting of a Ugandan Asian immigrant. It seems that there is a drug-smuggling angle, although Sam insists this is impossible.
Life on Mars [Season 2, Episode 7]
Chapter 7
Shown 3rd April 2007 [Tuesday]
Gene Hunt is wanted for murder. A new DCI is brought in, someone with a much more Hyde-style way of doing things. Someone who may have a secret agenda of his own.
Can Sam solve the murder?
Life on Mars [Season 2, Episode 8]
Chapter 8
Shown 10th April 2007 [Tuesday]
Gene and the team prepare to ambush some armed robbers. However, the DCI from last ep has a different plan for Sam.
Sam must choose between life with the team, and his old life in Hyde. But his choice is not as easy as he thought it would be.
This is the final ep of the series. The makers intended to go out on a high note, and they certainly achieve that. Unlike so many successful US TV shows, which drag on for many years after the show has passed its best.
Ashes to Ashes [Season 1, Episode 1]
Deja Vue
Shown 7th February 2008 [Tuesday]
Keeley Hawes is a female police officer, a trained hostage negotiator studying Sam Tyler's case. She gets involved in a hostage situation, and ends up getting shot ...
She wakes up in 1981, and ends up helping the cops with their enquiries. The Detectives are the same team - Gene Hunt, Ray and nervous guy, all transferred from Manchester to London. The cases are ones that affected Keeley in the (relatively) modern day. She knows what Sam Tyler went through, so she assumes that everything is a product of her subconscious - but she plays along anyway!
Things aren't exactly the same. Nervous Guy Chris now has a girlfriend named Shaz, the female WPC.
Ashes to Ashes [Season 1, Episode 2]
The Happy Day
Shown 14th February 2008 [Tuesday]
It's the Royal Wedding, but not everyone is celebrating. The Isle of Dogs, an area of central London, is being redeveloped. The 21st Century version is seen in 28 Weeks later , and now Thatcher's legacy is taken for granted. Keeley has to witness the resistance to Thatcher's policies, although her University education and personal experience all tell her that it's for the best.
Someone is trying to assassinate the Yuppie property developer responsible for the redevelopment. The suspect's lawyer is Keeley's mother - a bit of a bitch, really.
Ashes to Ashes [Season 1, Episode 3]
Nothing Changes
Shown 21st February 2008 [Thursday]
A sex pervert is attacking women. A choir-girl was murdered, while a prostitute is raped and left for dead. Keeley must use her psychoanalytical skills, and overcome the preconceptions of her co-workers. Unfortunately, she also makes assumptions herself.
Keeley's own childhood intersects with this ep. Her mother is making anti-Police Brutality statements on the BBC News, while her friend is defending the Rape suspect. Keeley has to decide between Law and Justice.
Ashes to Ashes [Season 1, Episode 4]
The Missing Link
Shown 28th February 2008 [Thursday]
A man is murdered, and it turns out he was linked to some Peace Protestor women. Keeley suspects that the eeevil MI5 Security Service might be involved. Keeley's mother, the crusading lawyer who wants to bring down the Government, gets involved.
Keeley and Gene break into a secret Government base, protected by soldiers in Second World War uniforms. They get trapped in the vault, and as it heats up they strip off ... and Keeley has a strange flashback to her childhood, just like Sam Tyler did in Season One. Wow, this is such a carbon-copy of the original show ...
Admittedly, Keeley looks a lot better in the red lingerie than Sam Tyler ever would!
Ashes to Ashes [Season 1, Episode 5]
The Smoking Gun
Shown 6th March 2008 [Thursday]
The team investigate a gangster. Keeley wants him because he's importing illegal guns - how very Modern of her. Gene and the lads don't like the thug either - like a villain in Season One of Life on Mars, he's a homosexual!
This ep shows Ray go undercover in a gay bar!
Ashes to Ashes [Season 1, Episode 6]
Over The Hill
Shown 13th March 2008 [Thursday]
The team investigate an old-fashioned ARV. A couple of thugs with shotguns raided a Post Office. Gene thinks it's an old enemy of his, a big-time bank robber who's now retired.
In the previous ep, Keeley was trapped in a hot room. This time she gets stuck in a freezing one!
Ashes to Ashes [Season 1, Episode 7]
Charity Begins At Home
Shown 20th March 2008 [Thursday]
A fellow with OCD raises twenty thousand pounds for charity - the starving kids in Africa, a very Eighties topic. He's an almost unrecognisable, mullet-wearing Matthew McFadyen (Keeley's RL husband). Unfortunately he gets mugged, and the lads get called in to solve the crime.
Keeley is told by the Clown of Death that someone will die. She tries to divert Hunt's efforts into modern policing (like a TV appeal for witnesses) but he prefers old-fashioned brute force.
Ashes to Ashes [Season 1, Episode 8]
Alex's big Day
Shown 27th March 2008 [Thursday]
Lord Scarman arrives to do an inspection of the Police Station. He's heard about the anti-gay and colour-conscious attitude of certain cops, and he's come to get rid of it.
Alex plans to prevent her parents from being killed. Unfortunately she's still a bit hazy on the details, so it's not an easy job. The best way to save them is to arrest them - but she just sets up a lot of trouble with Scarman and his friends!
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