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

[draegonhawke]

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

Comments

[draegonhawke]

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 fabrication and he's the only real person in it (and thus the only person who matters) and often acts accordingly.

And, you know, flawed main characters make me exceptionally squeeful.

And that's not even touching the crap they dare to do in, say, the series finale. 'cause damn.