Director: Michael Katleman
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then writer Matthew Graham must be bright red; as the US remake of Life On Mars again uses a script he wrote for the British original as its foundation. "The Real Adventures Of The Unreal Sam Tyler" is a direct lift from episode 2 of the BBC series, with Sam (Jason O'Mara) helping Gene (Harvey Keitel) stop a spate of robberies at check-cashing businesses down town, while also trying to work out the exact nature of his arrival in 1973...As with last week's premiere, any gripes about the plot are also directed at the original episode, as Bryan Oh's script adhered closely to the BBC original. It's a fun story, but it's not particularly compelling and has a rather obvious solution. There are also quite a few moments where Sam comes across as an idiot or incredibly naive, which isn't the best way to be writing this character.
As a fan of the original, I also can't help feeling déjà vu every few minutes. It's strange to see scenes being re-enacted by Americans, particularly when most don't play as well: the opening foot chase -- with Sam, Gene, Chris (Jonathan Murphy) and Ray (Michael Imperioli) chasing a criminal while dressed in swimwear -- wasn't as joyous and funny, a scene where Sam mops a colleagues blood off the road with his jacket was very awkward (for the wrong reasons), and a fight between Sam and Gene in hospital just didn't click (possibly because the 36-year-old O'Mara is essentially beating up a crotchety grandad in Keitel.)
The few original aspects were intriguing, but ultimately quite silly. The producers clearly don't want audiences to blindly accept Sam's in a coma and dreaming of 1973. Wisely, they want to keep viewers on their toes, but I'm not really sure that's possible. Here, Sam makes a list of possible reasons for his arrival in '73 (time-travel, virtual reality, purgatory, etc); an idea taken from a similar list written by Alex Drake in the BBC spin-off Ashes To Ashes.
Throughout the episode, Sam also glimpses a high-tech NASA rover robot (designed to search for life on the planet Mars, fittingly) and there's lots of mirror symbolism and tiresome talk of things being "real" or "unreal". These new flourishes are sometimes intriguing, but Life On Mars US will have a tough time convincing me Sam's not in a coma. We saw him get hit by a car in 2008 last week, so surely options are limited regarding what's going on? I think we can rule out alien intervention, or anything too futuristic and sci-fi – can't we? And hopefully the Mars rover isn't going to be this remake's version of the spooky TV Test Card Girl. That would be a very bad decision.
"The Real Adventures Of The Unreal Sam Tyler" is a half-decent follow-up episode, exhibiting a sense of fun missing from the pilot, and developing the interplay between crabby Gene and bewildered Sam. O'Mara looks to be settling into the role slowly (although I can't hear certain lines without imagining John Simm speaking them), and I'll admit Keitel slightly improved here. But I still wish they'd gone for a new, younger face to match Philip Glenister, though -- surely it's the idea that will attract viewers to this series, not Keitel's involvement? Still, there's really not much point bitching about his casting now. On the flipside, I already prefer Imperioli and Gretchen Mol as Ray and Annie, and I can only hope Jonathan Murphy starts making an impression as Chris, too.
Overall, Life On Mars US is off to a good start, with a few caveats. Like the American version of The Office, it's going to be nigh impossible to truly assess the remake until it starts filming original scripts. The weaker moments of both episodes have been the new elements shoehorned into proceedings. And I just don't believe in Sam's out-of-time situation yet; he's not back in time, he's in the middle of a '70s cop show starring Harvey Keitel. It may have been wiser to embrace the concept of time-travel for a half-dozen episodes, before slowly expanding audiences minds to consider other alternative explanations...
Overall, I just want to have some fun on the mean streets of '70s New York, and don't believe the US producers can tease audiences about the mystery of Sam's predicament for as long as they think. It would be fantastic to eventually discover the showrunners have a cohesive, intelligent answer for what's going on that avoids (and maybe improves) on the controversial BBC finale, but I can't really see it happening...
16 October 2008
ABC, 10/9c
Cast: Jason O'Mara (Sam), Harvey Keitel (Lt. Gene), Gretchen Mol (Annie), Michael Imperioli (Ray), Jonathan Murphy (Chris), Lisa Bonet (Maya), Mike Russo (Police Officer #1), Rob Falcone (Policeman), Patrick Noonan (Dax Benson), Bruce Kirkpatrick (Freddy Gerald), John Cenatiempo (Sizeable Ted), Sylvia Miles (Mrs. Salvaggio), Tanya Fischer (Windy), Pablo Schreiber (Kim Trent), Heather Matarazzo (June), Danny Aiello III (Police Officer #2) & Lee Tergesen (Lee Crocker)
