'Life on Mars' - A BBC series
This series is too damn funny.
Either I've lost my bloody mind and am hysterical with exhaustion, or this show is a rip-roaring hoot.
I think it's a hoot! I've laughed till I nearly cried - and I don't often laugh out loud or laugh this long at television programs, even when my funny bone is tickled. There is something special and magical about this particular program.
Life on Mars tells the story of Sam Tyler (John Simm) who is a DCI investigating a serial murderer in 2006. When he has a terrible accident, he wakes up in 1973. I watched the first episode over the weekend, and two more tonight, and I've laughed myself silly. The show is touching as Sam comes to terms with being trapped in a world that is rather foreign to him - no mobile phones, little faith in forensic science, crude strongarm police tactics, rampant sexism, oh, and the clothes. The shoes. The cars. Sam is convinced that he's in a coma and is hallucinating this visit to 1973 (he has auditory hallucinations of being in a hospital), but he can't seem to snap out of it, and so he fights through his frustration and bewilderment to solve cases and do his job as a detective in 1973 England (his time travel has busted him back down to DI, so he isn't the boss anymore). To top it off he has bizarre nightmares of the little girl and her clown from the children's show who is trying to convince him to let it all go, and just fade away. Sam fights hard to resist the temptation, and remains convinced that if he can just keep going, eventually he'll wake up, back in 2006.
His boss is Gene Hunt (Phil Glenister; both Glenister & Simm were in the BBC hit State of Play), a rough-mannered sort who never plays by the rules, and aims to get his man, regardless of the cost. The two men instantly clash as Sam's more modern and reasoned police techniques face off against Gene's more Wild Wild West police style. Their chemistry is incredible! They scream at each other, hit each other, and verbally assault one another, but with such wit! I find them SO funny - they're vicious with each other, but a strange sort of grudging camaraderie develops and they're amazingly entertaining.
It's smart, witty, funny, touching, and suspenseful. The seventies music is fantastic (and quite funny sometimes)! I can't wait to see the rest of this eight-part series! Because I have nothing intelligent left to say, here's the picspam:
John Simms as DI Sam Tyler
DI Sam Tyler (left) and DCI Gene Hunt (right)
Sam Tyler and WPC Annie Cartright
DCI Gene Hunt
WPS Annie Cartright
DC Chris Skelton
DS Ray Carling
ginger001 made some gorgeous Life on Mars icons here.
Either I've lost my bloody mind and am hysterical with exhaustion, or this show is a rip-roaring hoot.
I think it's a hoot! I've laughed till I nearly cried - and I don't often laugh out loud or laugh this long at television programs, even when my funny bone is tickled. There is something special and magical about this particular program.
Life on Mars tells the story of Sam Tyler (John Simm) who is a DCI investigating a serial murderer in 2006. When he has a terrible accident, he wakes up in 1973. I watched the first episode over the weekend, and two more tonight, and I've laughed myself silly. The show is touching as Sam comes to terms with being trapped in a world that is rather foreign to him - no mobile phones, little faith in forensic science, crude strongarm police tactics, rampant sexism, oh, and the clothes. The shoes. The cars. Sam is convinced that he's in a coma and is hallucinating this visit to 1973 (he has auditory hallucinations of being in a hospital), but he can't seem to snap out of it, and so he fights through his frustration and bewilderment to solve cases and do his job as a detective in 1973 England (his time travel has busted him back down to DI, so he isn't the boss anymore). To top it off he has bizarre nightmares of the little girl and her clown from the children's show who is trying to convince him to let it all go, and just fade away. Sam fights hard to resist the temptation, and remains convinced that if he can just keep going, eventually he'll wake up, back in 2006.
His boss is Gene Hunt (Phil Glenister; both Glenister & Simm were in the BBC hit State of Play), a rough-mannered sort who never plays by the rules, and aims to get his man, regardless of the cost. The two men instantly clash as Sam's more modern and reasoned police techniques face off against Gene's more Wild Wild West police style. Their chemistry is incredible! They scream at each other, hit each other, and verbally assault one another, but with such wit! I find them SO funny - they're vicious with each other, but a strange sort of grudging camaraderie develops and they're amazingly entertaining.
It's smart, witty, funny, touching, and suspenseful. The seventies music is fantastic (and quite funny sometimes)! I can't wait to see the rest of this eight-part series! Because I have nothing intelligent left to say, here's the picspam:
John Simms as DI Sam Tyler
DI Sam Tyler (left) and DCI Gene Hunt (right)
Sam Tyler and WPC Annie Cartright
DCI Gene Hunt
WPS Annie Cartright
DC Chris Skelton
DS Ray Carling
ginger001 made some gorgeous Life on Mars icons here.