Comments | draegonhawke: "If this ever-changing world in which we live in makes you break down and cry" is just bad grammar.

draegonhawke

"If this ever-changing world in which we live in makes you break down and cry" is just bad grammar.

Sep 13, 2009 16:39

I have this theory that Sam Tyler (Life on Mars) relies on physical input a lot more than he's comfortable admitting.

It's very strange, because he seems to want to be a completely cerebral person. The things he seems to idolize are logic and evidence, deductive reasoning, facts and pattern-matching, an let's not forget his extended love affair ( Read more... )

metafic: dissection, metafic: canon, entry: rantramble, topic: metafic, *samuel lawrence tyler needs a hug, *well that was random, show: life on mars, metafic: characterization, fic: damaged people

Comments 8

guardsintheory September 13 2009, 23:39:53 UTC

MIND NOT THE JOURNAL.

I'd just like to say that... it makes sense. Because otherwise SAM doesn't make sense. There's way too much tactile communication and investigation that he does for him to actually be non-touchy.

GO YOU. You're brilliant. ^^

draegonhawke September 14 2009, 00:01:47 UTC

WELL, MAT WOULD KNOW.

Much like Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, I think Sam is kinda a contradiction wrapped in a really rigid self-definition wrapped in a hell of a lot of social camouflage. Rewatching LoM, it's kinda staggering how often the ways in which Sam acts fly in the face of the rules and values Sam himself propounds. Like how he takes Gene to task every time Gene has a hunch about something, and then ignores all evidence in front of his face if he intuitively grasps something. Or, you know, this. One really does get the feeling that Sam's decided certain things about himself - that he's rational, that he's aloof, that he's well-adjusted - that just aren't borne out by reality. And then he just resists any attempt to demonstrate that these things are not true.

...if I had the "That's not logic, that's a pistol" icon uploaded to this account, this comment would be getting it.

squeemu September 14 2009, 02:36:11 UTC

I love it when a show/whatever gives you enough consistency and material to actually really analyze it. That's awesome.

draegonhawke September 14 2009, 03:21:00 UTC

I know! It's awesome. And I really do get the feeling that the LoM crew knows what they're doing, and is aware of the complexities they're layering into the show. There's not a lot of shows I can say that about.

squeemu September 14 2009, 03:35:51 UTC

Honestly, it's the one thing right now that makes me regret not watching the rest of the show. There really is so much behind almost of the actions. I vaguely remember reading some commentary and/or an interview with the producers in which they basically said once they noticed fans were reading a lot in every episode they started putting more symbolism in.

Possibly I'm mistaken.

I think the only other show I can think of, honestly, is Utena.

draegonhawke September 14 2009, 03:49:29 UTC

Utena definitely has the thematic density, but I don't think it coalesces quite as well as LoM. (Fair enough; it's several times as long, and rather random at times.) I think the only show I can think of which compares to LoM just in the skill with which it's put together is Eleventh Hour, which has a Connie Willis-esque interlacing of plot events. (I swear, no gesture in that show is wasted. I wish it were more than a four-episode miniseries.)

Life on Mars is just... well, it's a very smart show. And it's smart enough to have you gunning for a team of people when none of them is properly a hero. I think the closest you come to sterling moral reputation actually might be Annie Cartwright (who's perhaps actually the hero of it all) and DC Chris Skelton (who's kinda an idiot); Gene is slightly crooked, has a boatload of prejudices, and kinda dips into a "victory at all costs" mindset, Ray is a bully who seems to be more into policing for the power trip than justice some days, and Sam is half-convinced that the entire decade is a ( ... )

rionaleonhart September 14 2009, 08:03:53 UTC

This is such an interesting entry! I'm afraid I haven't watched Life on Mars recently enough to make any sort of intelligent contribution, but this entry is fascinating and I really enjoyed reading it. Thank you for making it!

draegonhawke September 14 2009, 14:36:10 UTC

Thank you! I'm trying to re-teach myself the art of making intelligent journal entries, and Sam is such a good subject for analysis. Because the boy's more than a little completely insane. *scritches him*

...after I wrote this, while I was finishing up watching an ep or two, there must have been about five times when I stopped and went "Wow, yeah." Like, in the overdose ep, after he has his minicoma locked-in-the-locker-room time, right when he wakes up? The first thing he does, with no preamble whatsoever, is hug Annie. (And while he is locked in with a television, when Annie comes up on screen? Tries to touch her face. Even though she's, you know, on a television screen.) It's kinda adorable, in a really sad way.