Life on Mars and other awesomeness
I am continuing with the brilliance that is Life on Mars and have finished ep 7 of Series 1. I have to say, LoM really is one of the most original, mind-bending, awesome shows in ever. And hey, it can make me laugh so hard that I have to pause the ep, and sniffle like a ten year old.
I am now tending to think that Sam really is in a coma and this is all in his head, his subconscious trying to cope and come up with a whole world for him. It doesn’t explain how he is able to recreate the 1970s world so well, but I am struck by the fact that the crises in the 1970s world reflect what is going on, via snatches, when he hears coma references/2007. I am not just talking about the serial killer in ep 1, the capture of whom, and because Sam destroys proof of his insanity, would mean that his 2007 gf is not caught by the killer (of course, this leads to time travel paradox. If 1973 Sam got killer behind bars for life, then his gf is not kidnapped in 2007, then he is not falling apart and is paying attention and is not hit by a car, and thus doesn’t go back to 1973 etc etc. But hey, after Who, I am immune to paradoxes :))
But there is the parallelism in ep 6 (which is my fave so far), when he hears voices talking about turning off machines at 2pm, and this is also the time the hostage taker gave them, or he will start killing. And the machines are not turned off because he hears his Mom’s voice that Sam smiled at 2pm (and that was the time he was smiling when about to be shot).
I really really love that episode. By far my favorite. What really got me the most was the scene of Gene Hunt, and Sam, and Annie sitting in that closet, tied up, waiting to die (the hostage taker will shoot them at 2pm) and thinking about the memory to hold at that moment. And Sam remembering being four, and it’s his birthday, and wanting his Dad to be there, and then thinking he wasn’t and then…hearing ‘for he is a jolly good fellow’ and not wanting to turn, just savoring.
And then when Sam is about to be shot, and he is so scared and yet somehow composed, and thinking about that, and Gene yelling at the hostage taker that he better shoot him (Gene) quick after Sam or else he will tear him apart. And then taking a bullet and being saved by his whiskey flasks :P
It’s so funny, because the hostage taker was looking for heroes, but even though it’s not the grand Victorian heroics, Sam, and Gene, and Annie were real heroes. And he was just a weak guy with a gun.
And then ep 7, when Sam conducts the internal investigation. It’s a wonderful ep, especially since it balances what is Sam’s very real and very passionate decency and sense of justice (guuuh, I love that) and his very ‘selfish’ belief that is he breaks up the team, he will break this illusion of reality and wake up. Because that is the thing, he is not allowed to believe he went back in time, to sink into that feeling: we have scenes like him tasting tabasco randomly (after voices say they are doing tests on him), or having a phone ring which nobody sees.
And I love the scene with Annie, when she tells him they are real. But of course, if she was his imagination, she’d say that, wouldn’t she? The scene near the end of ep 7 where he asks her not to abandon him: it’s wonderful and full of shippiness, and his loneliness, and her care, but it’s also unsettling because he is still unsure if it’s all in his head. Is he begging a figment of his imagination for companionship?
And of course, the cynicism of the ending, where the chief has no interest in justice and internal investigation and destroys the tape. Gene did give justice, but the chief? No. But that is the thing. Gene might be a sexist, racist, violent alcoholic and a ‘bad’ cop, but he is, though he could never articulate it, a just man. Which is as much as you can hope for, in that world.
Picspam:
Hearing Annie volunteer to pretend to be a nurse to the hostages:
Annie is awesome:
Seeing hostage taker Ray threaten Annie:
Chained with Gene by the bad guy:
Doing CPR (shippy squee):
Discussing their memories before dying (one of my favorite scenes in the whole show):
Before death:
After Gene is shot:
Shippy!
In ep 7 investigation:
OTP!
Seeing the tape destroyed:
Asking Annie not to abandon him:
In other news, I got my Blackpool DVDs today. EEEEE! That and Our friends in the North with Christopher Eccleston. I'll be a happy obsessive.
ETA: Just finished ep 8 of Life on Mars and OMG. It broke my heart and was so perfect and OMG.
Sam's dad and the longing on Sam's face. It's amazing how his absence shaped Sam so much, hurt him in a way he never healed from. And that's the interesting thing, Vic is a crook and a scumbag but he did love his family a lot.
Smelling his Dad's jacket (he asks the permission to search it, OMG and then looks if no one is watching. I sniffled. Something in my eye, no more. Honest. Yeah.)
Playing soccer with him, while killing time. I love seeing Sam happy.
Waiting for him to come home:
Hearing voices and wanting to wake up:
Seeing his parents:
Remembering his Dad murdering a woman in a red dress. I gasped when I realized it was Annie!
That was my favorite, most heartbreaking scene. Facing his Dad with a gun, giving him the gun, needing to believe but yet taking the bullets out because deep down he knows...
And he let him go:
I squeed like mad. When he tells Annie he will never believe this is real, but he doesn't hate everything about his place. And he holds her cheek. (He did save her, from his Dad, which was...)
ETA2: I just found out that people write Gene/Sam. I think something in my soul just died.
I am now tending to think that Sam really is in a coma and this is all in his head, his subconscious trying to cope and come up with a whole world for him. It doesn’t explain how he is able to recreate the 1970s world so well, but I am struck by the fact that the crises in the 1970s world reflect what is going on, via snatches, when he hears coma references/2007. I am not just talking about the serial killer in ep 1, the capture of whom, and because Sam destroys proof of his insanity, would mean that his 2007 gf is not caught by the killer (of course, this leads to time travel paradox. If 1973 Sam got killer behind bars for life, then his gf is not kidnapped in 2007, then he is not falling apart and is paying attention and is not hit by a car, and thus doesn’t go back to 1973 etc etc. But hey, after Who, I am immune to paradoxes :))
But there is the parallelism in ep 6 (which is my fave so far), when he hears voices talking about turning off machines at 2pm, and this is also the time the hostage taker gave them, or he will start killing. And the machines are not turned off because he hears his Mom’s voice that Sam smiled at 2pm (and that was the time he was smiling when about to be shot).
I really really love that episode. By far my favorite. What really got me the most was the scene of Gene Hunt, and Sam, and Annie sitting in that closet, tied up, waiting to die (the hostage taker will shoot them at 2pm) and thinking about the memory to hold at that moment. And Sam remembering being four, and it’s his birthday, and wanting his Dad to be there, and then thinking he wasn’t and then…hearing ‘for he is a jolly good fellow’ and not wanting to turn, just savoring.
And then when Sam is about to be shot, and he is so scared and yet somehow composed, and thinking about that, and Gene yelling at the hostage taker that he better shoot him (Gene) quick after Sam or else he will tear him apart. And then taking a bullet and being saved by his whiskey flasks :P
It’s so funny, because the hostage taker was looking for heroes, but even though it’s not the grand Victorian heroics, Sam, and Gene, and Annie were real heroes. And he was just a weak guy with a gun.
And then ep 7, when Sam conducts the internal investigation. It’s a wonderful ep, especially since it balances what is Sam’s very real and very passionate decency and sense of justice (guuuh, I love that) and his very ‘selfish’ belief that is he breaks up the team, he will break this illusion of reality and wake up. Because that is the thing, he is not allowed to believe he went back in time, to sink into that feeling: we have scenes like him tasting tabasco randomly (after voices say they are doing tests on him), or having a phone ring which nobody sees.
And I love the scene with Annie, when she tells him they are real. But of course, if she was his imagination, she’d say that, wouldn’t she? The scene near the end of ep 7 where he asks her not to abandon him: it’s wonderful and full of shippiness, and his loneliness, and her care, but it’s also unsettling because he is still unsure if it’s all in his head. Is he begging a figment of his imagination for companionship?
And of course, the cynicism of the ending, where the chief has no interest in justice and internal investigation and destroys the tape. Gene did give justice, but the chief? No. But that is the thing. Gene might be a sexist, racist, violent alcoholic and a ‘bad’ cop, but he is, though he could never articulate it, a just man. Which is as much as you can hope for, in that world.
Picspam:
Hearing Annie volunteer to pretend to be a nurse to the hostages:
Annie is awesome:
Seeing hostage taker Ray threaten Annie:
Chained with Gene by the bad guy:
Doing CPR (shippy squee):
Discussing their memories before dying (one of my favorite scenes in the whole show):
Before death:
After Gene is shot:
Shippy!
In ep 7 investigation:
OTP!
Seeing the tape destroyed:
Asking Annie not to abandon him:
In other news, I got my Blackpool DVDs today. EEEEE! That and Our friends in the North with Christopher Eccleston. I'll be a happy obsessive.
ETA: Just finished ep 8 of Life on Mars and OMG. It broke my heart and was so perfect and OMG.
Sam's dad and the longing on Sam's face. It's amazing how his absence shaped Sam so much, hurt him in a way he never healed from. And that's the interesting thing, Vic is a crook and a scumbag but he did love his family a lot.
Smelling his Dad's jacket (he asks the permission to search it, OMG and then looks if no one is watching. I sniffled. Something in my eye, no more. Honest. Yeah.)
Playing soccer with him, while killing time. I love seeing Sam happy.
Waiting for him to come home:
Hearing voices and wanting to wake up:
Seeing his parents:
Remembering his Dad murdering a woman in a red dress. I gasped when I realized it was Annie!
That was my favorite, most heartbreaking scene. Facing his Dad with a gun, giving him the gun, needing to believe but yet taking the bullets out because deep down he knows...
And he let him go:
I squeed like mad. When he tells Annie he will never believe this is real, but he doesn't hate everything about his place. And he holds her cheek. (He did save her, from his Dad, which was...)
ETA2: I just found out that people write Gene/Sam. I think something in my soul just died.