This is the part where I act like an authority on entertainment, and criticize the work of professionals who are, without exception, more successful than I in the industry in which we both work. Some people would say this is proof I have "balls", or "chutzpah" in Jewspeak. Others would say it's proof I'm a "douchebag". To catch up on any old reviews, you can find the link on the right hand side of the page, or just click here.Yet another re-make of a British show, the new ABC drama 'Life on Mars' is reflection of its concept -- it looks great on the surface, but there's not much underneath. The conceit is interesting enough: NYC Detective Sam Tyler (Jason O'Mara) gets hit by a car and somehow ends up 25 years in the past, in 1973. What's more, he's still a cop in the same city -- just a different world.
It's a world which doesn't understand DNA evidence, and a force where he works with racist, homophobic cops like boss Lt. Gene Hunt (Harvey Keitel) and Det. Ray Carling (Michael Imperioli), who prefer beating up suspects to simply interrogating them. And there are hippies, and bell-bottoms, and sideburns, and cool retro tunes. This all sounds good, right? Only the entire show seems to exist for just this reason -- to be a cool idea.
Digging deeper, however, there doesn't seem to be any foundation to the story which necessitates any of this. In the pilot, Sam is dealing with real-life issues with his partner and love interest, Maya (played by Lisa Bonet), while following a serial killer suspect when he suffers his accident. Back in 1973, he meets the serial killer as a child, and the impression is given that Sam is able to convince to not grow up to be a serial killer. (I know, it's patently ridiculous, but try and play along.) But once this stpryline is over, Sam never goes back to the present, so there is no driving force keeping the story moving forward, no reason to be in the past.
As future episodes progress, a new motivation develops -- Sam wants to go home to his love, and therefore needs to figure out why he's here. But we're also given hints that maybe he's just in a coma -- he hears Maya calling his name, telling him it will be alright. He also sees her reflections in windows, the show's writers seemingly searching for any device which will allow them to keep that storyline alive, despite there being no real link. But Maya disappears in episodes three and four, and Sam seems to move on quickly, flirting with Gretchen Mol's Officer Anne Norris (called "No nuts" by her male colleagues -- clever, huh?) and a hippy chick down the hall.
They also go out of their way to remind us of the differences in our times -- like 1973's ignorance of terms like "hate crime" and "gaydar". It's an interesting idea, but it would help if there were some substance to go with all our style. It also doesn't help that the execution is ham-fisted -- the tone jumps from emotional and reverent to madcap and goofy and back in a heartbeat, and the switch is usually accompanied by an equally jarring switch in classic rock songs (the best thing about the show).
The cast is a strong point. O'Mara is believable in an unbelievable role, Mol is particularly good (always underrated, really), and Imperioli and Keitel are as good as advertised, albeit in roles well within their comfort zone. It's in the writing where the show becomes a bit cartoonish. This shouldn't come as surprise -- the creators (Andre Nemec, Josh Applebaum, and Scott Rosenberg) are the same team which brought us last season's one-and-done dramedy 'October Road', which served up syrupy melodrama with extra helpings of pap.
'Life on Mars' is just good enough -- and superficial enough -- to do very well with middle America, the folks who actually decide the fates of most TV shows (as much as us cultural elitists on the coasts would like to ignore that fact). For that reason, this is the kind of show which can be on for some time. But that can only happen if the creative forces behind it can make the concept last, and that will take a bit more than what they've delivered thus far.
Using the age-old Hollywood scale of judgment -- HIGHLY RECOMMEND/RECOMMEND/CONSIDER/PASS (circle one) -- I rate 'Life on Mars':
CONSIDER
2 comments:
When exactly did Mol learn how to act? I know I am channeling far too much Bill Simmons by saying this but if you go back rewatch rounders (which has aged horribly btw), she really is quite awful.
Good question. I haven't seen ROUNDERS for awhile, but I do remember her being bad -- at the time, she was being touted as The Next Big Thing (specifically, she was compared to Gwenyth Paltrow), and I recall thinking it was much ado about nothing. But I think after her accession to Hollywood's elite got derailed, maybe she went back to the drawing board (or acting class) and worked on her skillz.
As for when she got good, I'm going to go with 5 years ago -- in Neil LaButte's THE SHAPE OF THINGS, an underrated indie also starring Rachel Weisz and Paul Rudd. Then, two years later, as the titular lead in THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE, she carried a good indie drama, got nominated for an award, and put herself back on the map. Since then, she's done quality work in drama on TV (here) and film (playing Christian Bale's wife in Ron Howard's 3:10 TO YUMA, as well as big screen comedy (David Wain's THE TEN -- in arguably the best vignette).
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