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Downloaded the US version of the British show Life on Mars.
For those who don't know about this show, it is about a modern day cop who wakes up in the 1970s. One of the major issues there is that he has a life and a background there. He doesn't know which world is real, the 21st century he remembers, or the 1970s one he exists in. Does he get some kind of amnesia? Is he in a coma in the 21st century? Or did he really travel through time. The British show, and its sequel series Ashes to Ashes were both excellent. Very dramatic and very emotional.
The US pilot is almost the exact same script as the first episode of the British series, just updated for the American culture. The major flaw I saw was the toned own nature of the show. I guess the British can get away with more. Though I can't think of a better actor than Colm Meaney to play the tough as nails Gene Hunt, he just did not put out the raw power that Philip Glenister did. Jason O'mara as well just did not seem to put out the emotion that John Simm gave to the lead role of Sam Tyler. However I believe Rachelle Lefevre saved the show, playing the Americanized Annie Cartwright. She was immediately an incredibly likeable character. Though that may still be seen as a problem by some. Liz White British protrayel is probably more realistic of a female cop trying to survive a more sexist environment.
In the end, I will keep watching it. I think it does have potential. I am curious how the story will play out once they run out of scripts from the British version to copy. However with the toned down atmosphere, I am afraid it just won't catch on. Similar to the US version of Coupling, cutting out the adult nature ruins the vibe.
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posted
2 seasons of Life on Mars and 1 of the sequel (so far) of Ashes to Ashes. I downloaded them all from Pirate Bay, no US release yet.
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Oh man, it's so interesting to have the same script remade. I'm definitely going to procure it and watch the two together!
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Also, they're recasting two of the main roles. So what eventually airs could be substantially different.
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I'm uncomfortable with downloading shows online unless they come from an official source or the show's creators say they don't mind.
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I really thought the US pilot was quite weak. I did not like the Annie role (she was too significant a member of the police force already and wasn't believable to me for the era). They basically didn't have two of the characters that the UK version had (Chris and Ray).
They are apparently recasting and re-locating the series to New York (it was in Los Angeles in this version). I'll still check it out when it shows up in the fall.
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I have started re-watching the UK version and it confirmed to me that I enjoyed the performances and script much more. Annie is much more believable as a women police officer in the sexist 1970s environment. Sam is way more internal with his thoughts about being from the future (he has a couple of outbursts but mostly is trying to figure things out in his head).
I've heard that the UK version has some difficulty in being released in the US due to licensing of the soundtrack (there are some pretty big names on their - The Clash, Paul McCartney, and others). I'm not too sure how official this is (and I also heard that the soundtrack was changed when it aired on BBC America but that could be false).
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quote:Originally posted by solo: I really thought the US pilot was quite weak. I did not like the Annie role (she was too significant a member of the police force already and wasn't believable to me for the era). They basically didn't have two of the characters that the UK version had (Chris and Ray).
They are apparently recasting and re-locating the series to New York (it was in Los Angeles in this version). I'll still check it out when it shows up in the fall.
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I have started re-watching the UK version and it confirmed to me that I enjoyed the performances and script much more. Annie is much more believable as a women police officer in the sexist 1970s environment. Sam is way more internal with his thoughts about being from the future (he has a couple of outbursts but mostly is trying to figure things out in his head).
I've heard that the UK version has some difficulty in being released in the US due to licensing of the soundtrack (there are some pretty big names on their - The Clash, Paul McCartney, and others). I'm not too sure how official this is (and I also heard that the soundtrack was changed when it aired on BBC America but that could be false).
Good take on it. You definitely explained it better then I did. I really liked the American Annie, but you are right, she was a bit to 21st century in attitude and personality. Maybe they should use that actress to do an American Ashes to Ashes in the future? I think our US shows tend to be a little too politically correct, especially prime time broadcast network shows. I have a feeling that in this environment, it just won't have the force the BBC version has.
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EDIT: I think setting it in New York will not solve many problems. Too many cop shows are LA or New York, although they might have better luck with finding locations that still have that seventies look. I think choosing a different city might mix things up a little, and get everyone's brains working.
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I agree about the city. My brother and I were talking about it and we thought that Boston would make a good area to set it in given the Irish slant they had to the cast in the pilot.
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I also read recently that Colm Meaney and Jason O'mara are both staying on (nothing seems to be confirmed yet) and that the new show runners are bringing in the Ray and Chris characters which I think is vital to the success of the show.
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I think the best city would be one that has changed considerably since the seventies (or a date that they pick) and where they can play on those details in the same way they play on the dramatic change between 1970s and 21st century Manchester in the UK version. I thought somewhere in the South might be more regionally unique and more dramatically different. By my parents have pointed out how modern 70s America was compared to 70s Britain (esp. places like Manchester!).
solo: I agree that any introduction of more complexity of the plot to the show will be good. The more that is going on to bring it back to a faster sleeker script, the better.
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The creators of ABC's upcoming time-shift series Life on Mars told reporters on July 16 that they have moved the series' location to New York and changed character traits to adapt the hit British series for an American audience.
The producers and two stars of the show spoke at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., about the show--one of only two new shows on the network this fall--in which 21st-century detective Sam Tyler finds himself inexplicably thrust back into the year 1973 after he's struck by a car. The original British show ran for 16 episodes and aired on the BBC in the United Kingdom two years ago.
"We were huge fans of the British show," executive producer Josh Appelbaum said in an interview. "There was the David Kelley version, and the biggest thing we did was move the show to New York. He had it in L.A. We are New Yorkers, and when you think of the early '70s cop genre, New York is perfect."
Kelley (Picket Fences) acquired the rights to the original U.K. series, but ultimately left the show and relinquished his rights after an initial pilot was shot--supposedly so that he could continue running Boston Legal.
Not so, said ABC entertainment president Stephen McPherson. "There was some scuttlebutt about that. ... He made it very clear that David was going to make a deal to move off Life on Mars and just for a variety of reasons, and that he was really passionate about Boston Legal, and so were we."
In any case, executive producer Andre Nemec said that the new, revamped American Mars is not science fiction in the traditional sense. "We should be clear that it's not a time-travel show," he said, adding: "They won't be traveling between 1973 and today." Tyler, played by Jason O'Mara (Resident Evil: Extinction), will come up with a dozen theories to explain his strange predicament.
Some of the British characters will be restructured for an American storyline. So far, the cast includes O'Mara and Sopranos veteran Michael Imperioli, whose characters will remain relatively intact. But others, who still remain to be cast, will change.
"One character by necessity has to be changed: the female cop, Annie," Applebaum said. "In the BBC version, a female police officer in Manchester is one thing, but a woman in the New York Police Department in that time period requires a whole other character to endure the ferocity around her. She has to be more connected to the women's lib [liberation] movement, for one thing."
Life on Mars debuts Oct. 9 and will air Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. --Mike Szymanski
I'm curious who Imperioli is playing. A much thinner Hunt?
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I'm probably going to watch the show and try to enjoy it. If I can handle half a dozen different versions of Superman over the years, I should be able to manage this.
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ABC's Americanized version of the British time-travel series Life on Mars will alter the show's mythology--and possibly the reason that the protagonist, a 21st-century police detective, finds himself suddenly thrust back into 1973. (Major spoilers ahead!)
The BBC's original series, which aired two years ago, revealed that the detective, Sam Tyler (John Simm), was actually in a coma, and his time-travel experience was all a dream.
"We talked to the creators of the BBC show and asked if we could change the mythology of Sam Tyler, and we got permission to do it," executive producer Josh Appelbaum said at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 16. "With this mythological element to it, it's not just a cop show, and if he was ultimately just in a coma or it was all a dream, it felt a bit unsatisfying. So we made it a deeper mystery."
The American version of the show takes place in New York, not Manchester, England, and stars Jason O'Mara as Tyler, an NYPD detective.
The creators know exactly what is going on, but they hope to keep audiences guessing. "By the second episode, he [Tyler] writes on a blackboard the 13 options of what could have happened to him," Appelbaum said. "He could be in a separate plane of reality, two worlds at the same time."
Will Tyler have to deal with the paradox of time-travel stories, in which he commits an act that can wreak havoc on his own future? "We're really trying to stay away from that," Appelbaum said. "It's not a time-travel show where he may change something that affects him in the future. ... They've done that in other movies, and assuming that he has traveled back in time, it may be, but our mythology is much deeper than that."
That being said, "there are a lot of similarities in what happened in 1973 and today," Appelbaum said. "There's an unpopular president. We're trying to get out of a war. There's a run on the gas prices, and we're going into some kind of a depression. It's tumultuous times."
Life on Mars debuts on Oct. 9 and will air on ABC Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. --Mike Szymanski
Sounds like it may not end the same way as the BBC show. Makes sense though, US shows like to drag things out longer. They will have to come up with their own stuff, one season alone is going to be more stories then both seasons of the BBC show.
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So, it ends Wednesday. The writers promise it will be a real ending to, because they were given enough notice from the network.
How will it end? They say it will have a different ending then the BBC version.
Last week's episode, with a familiar scene from the BBC pilot episode, had him accepting this new reality more than ever.
Personally, I think he will wake up in 2008/2009. But it will all have been real, and he will run into an older version of Annie.
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