[Not really] the American Life on Mars
Amid the discussion of the US remake (and yes, I agree with the moderators that such discussion should be gently shifted over to lom_usa now), it occasionally drifts through my head that the remake isn't really necessary. Because the US has already had Deadwood.
I don't know how many people will have seen Deadwood, as I'm not sure how widespread HBO coverage is in the US, and though it was shown on cable/satellite TV here I'm doubtful about whether it will ever reach terrestrial, because the first thing anyone mentions about it is that every other word is an obscenity (and then they get on to the graphic violence and sex). Despite which I'd argue that the glory of Deadwood is the soaring eloquence of the script, which at times feels like Shakespearean blank verse.
Anyway, my case for Deadwood as Life on Mars. OK, Deadwood was set 97 years earlier in a gold-rush town in Dakota, and there wasn't any time travel (well, not in the three series we saw; maybe it was going to be a surprise twist in the fourth season which the bastards cancelled).
But consider.
Seth Bullock, an upright ex-sheriff, arrives in the town of Deadwood (usually referred to as "the camp", which is what it was before they started building houses). He discovers that the camp is mostly controlled by the foul-mouthed Al Swearengen, whose principal henchmen are Dan Dority (at first sight a thug, though he turns out to be a rather interesting thug, and totally devoted to Al), and Johnny (an amiable type who generally appears rather dim but occasionally comes up trumps).
Al initially appears to be an out-and-out villain, who has no scruples about bumping off people who get in his way. But it gradually becomes apparent that in his own peculiar, single-minded, alarmingly violent way, he's looking out for the community as maybe no one else is. "A thing of this order you'd as soon not see ruined or in cinders," a sort-of friend says to him, and Al almost admits it's true.
By the end of the first season, Al's worked out that Seth's the only man up to the job of sheriff, "cause you're one of those pains in the balls who think the law can be honest". The moral compass in a dodgy Deadwood? Though they continue to fight, figuratively and literally - there's a big mud-wrestling session in the street early in season two - they gradually form an unofficial alliance against forces threatening the camp.
One of Al's chief rivals is Cy Tolliver, who runs a swankier saloon than he does. I'm thinking Litton and the Regional Crime Squad. It's trickier to map the other characters on to each other; most of the Deadwood women are whores working for Al or Cy, apart from Calamity Jane and Seth's love interest, a rich widow (well, she's a widow once her husband got in Al's way). But Seth does have a wife back home (who eventually joins him), which causes him to agonise a lot about having a new love interest. Phyllis is hard to place; I could argue that she's related both to Trixie, a whore who knows her own mind and eventually develops a romance with Seth's sidekick, Sol Star, and to Jewel, the lame woman who cleans the floor at Al's saloon but isn't nearly as down-trodden as she first seems.
And despite the number of bartenders around, there isn't an obvious Nelson, unless maybe it's Sol, as he helps to keep Seth grounded and is seen as a racial outsider because he's Jewish. There are black (and Chinese) characters, but they're not at all like Nelson.
I could try to argue that Frank Morgan, as the emerging villain of the second season of Life on Mars, has some similarities to the increasingly sinister George Hearst, who attempts to bend all of Deadwood to his will in its third season.
But I'm not suggesting that every character has a parallel, only that there are enough similarities for Deadwood and Life on Mars to be classified as cousins - above all for the tensions of the central male relationship, where means may vary but the end, that of keeping the community going, is ultimately the same.
Oh, I forgot! At one point, Al remarks that "Sometimes I imagine in my declining years runnin' a small joint in Manchester, England..."
I don't know how many people will have seen Deadwood, as I'm not sure how widespread HBO coverage is in the US, and though it was shown on cable/satellite TV here I'm doubtful about whether it will ever reach terrestrial, because the first thing anyone mentions about it is that every other word is an obscenity (and then they get on to the graphic violence and sex). Despite which I'd argue that the glory of Deadwood is the soaring eloquence of the script, which at times feels like Shakespearean blank verse.
Anyway, my case for Deadwood as Life on Mars. OK, Deadwood was set 97 years earlier in a gold-rush town in Dakota, and there wasn't any time travel (well, not in the three series we saw; maybe it was going to be a surprise twist in the fourth season which the bastards cancelled).
But consider.
Seth Bullock, an upright ex-sheriff, arrives in the town of Deadwood (usually referred to as "the camp", which is what it was before they started building houses). He discovers that the camp is mostly controlled by the foul-mouthed Al Swearengen, whose principal henchmen are Dan Dority (at first sight a thug, though he turns out to be a rather interesting thug, and totally devoted to Al), and Johnny (an amiable type who generally appears rather dim but occasionally comes up trumps).
Al initially appears to be an out-and-out villain, who has no scruples about bumping off people who get in his way. But it gradually becomes apparent that in his own peculiar, single-minded, alarmingly violent way, he's looking out for the community as maybe no one else is. "A thing of this order you'd as soon not see ruined or in cinders," a sort-of friend says to him, and Al almost admits it's true.
By the end of the first season, Al's worked out that Seth's the only man up to the job of sheriff, "cause you're one of those pains in the balls who think the law can be honest". The moral compass in a dodgy Deadwood? Though they continue to fight, figuratively and literally - there's a big mud-wrestling session in the street early in season two - they gradually form an unofficial alliance against forces threatening the camp.
One of Al's chief rivals is Cy Tolliver, who runs a swankier saloon than he does. I'm thinking Litton and the Regional Crime Squad. It's trickier to map the other characters on to each other; most of the Deadwood women are whores working for Al or Cy, apart from Calamity Jane and Seth's love interest, a rich widow (well, she's a widow once her husband got in Al's way). But Seth does have a wife back home (who eventually joins him), which causes him to agonise a lot about having a new love interest. Phyllis is hard to place; I could argue that she's related both to Trixie, a whore who knows her own mind and eventually develops a romance with Seth's sidekick, Sol Star, and to Jewel, the lame woman who cleans the floor at Al's saloon but isn't nearly as down-trodden as she first seems.
And despite the number of bartenders around, there isn't an obvious Nelson, unless maybe it's Sol, as he helps to keep Seth grounded and is seen as a racial outsider because he's Jewish. There are black (and Chinese) characters, but they're not at all like Nelson.
I could try to argue that Frank Morgan, as the emerging villain of the second season of Life on Mars, has some similarities to the increasingly sinister George Hearst, who attempts to bend all of Deadwood to his will in its third season.
But I'm not suggesting that every character has a parallel, only that there are enough similarities for Deadwood and Life on Mars to be classified as cousins - above all for the tensions of the central male relationship, where means may vary but the end, that of keeping the community going, is ultimately the same.
Oh, I forgot! At one point, Al remarks that "Sometimes I imagine in my declining years runnin' a small joint in Manchester, England..."