Life on Mars : that lived reality where we aim for what we had and fight against what we have

Life on Mars is an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, wrapped in mystery.

                   And this a review with spoilers. Please beware.


Having just finished watching this show - and only having seen it once (so far) - there is a lot I don't understand about what "really" happened in the series.  While I may not have properly processed the meaning in full, there is one thing I know for sure: this is great TV.

I have decided that its main contribution to the world is in giving us -- in profoundly transporting fashion -- a lesson on the importance of living the life that is in front of us as opposed to longing for what we think we're supposed to have. This is a universal human struggle. When things change, we spend our time wishing for what we had, ...trying to create what we had, trying to get back to it, instead of making the best of what we have.  This is true when someone dies, or breaks up with us; when one of our children grows up and moves away... and especially when we are hit by a car and wake up in 1973.

That the makers of Life on Mars are genius with selling this message is evidenced by my own reactions to the show - in the beginning and by the end. I'll explain in a minute.


First a bit of back story.

I knew this series existed. For years it was on my "to watch" list. But I got swept up in other things and never got around to looking for it back during a time when it actually might have been more available to me. By the time I sought it out to watch, I couldn't find it anywhere. I lived with the disappointment for a time and then watched the American version on accident thinking it was the British one. (That's actually kind of a funny story. . . .

You see, I learned that my library "finally" had  this title on dvd and ran to check it out one day. I didn't really know much about the series, so was unconcerned with the cover, brought it home, popped it in the dvd player and started enjoying it. It seemed strange to me that it was set in New York. . . and that none of the actors had English accents . . ., but I got into it quickly and just kind of let it slide. Finally I googled and realized I was watching the American remake! haha. But, it was good and I was already hooked, so I watched that whole series. Another time I may blog about it in comparison to the British one. Truly, they are both very well made).

But, back to the main narrative . . . I mean my main digression. I realized later that the only way I was going to get to see the BBC original series was by just biting the bullet and buying the dvds. I figured that there was almost no chance I'd hate the series and a very good one I'd want to own it, so that's what I did.

I already knew the main characters, the storyline, the clever premise. What I was not expecting was how INSANELY transporting the UK Version of this show was going to be!

Truth is, in the first several episodes I was disturbed by 1973. The clutter of papers on all the desks, the staticky signal on the patchy police radio, the forms and the typing, the small boxy tv, the dusty dark earth tones everywhere. The total isolation and banality of small square spaces with no cell phones or internet to aid in the escape.

But this was hardly the half of it. The open sexism, homophobia, lack of respect for civil rights. I'm not kidding. I felt horrified by this place that our modern hero had landed in. I couldn't wait to watch his progress and hoped along with Sam that he'd get home quickly.

By the way, and I'd don't say this lightly, Life on Mars is one of the most impressive things I've ever watched for providing complete and utter immersion in another time period. While I was in the thick of watching, I had to stop myself many times from starting to describe to friends where I'd been (i.e. like, on vacation). I kept forgetting that I hadn't actually gone anywhere. It only felt like it.

My response to 1973 was powerful, visceral, and very real. It was also very negative. In the beginning I found 1973 as repugnant as Sam Tyler did.

Part of my reaction should be seen as praise for the incredible production values of this show and part for the astonishing acting chops of John Simm. I think that, through his talent, I was able to time travel to this weird distant place and completely immerse myself in it, as a stunned, but sarcastically willing bystander.

Then slowly it happened. Bit by bit. The time frame started to assert its own weird beauty. Though it had initially seemed so depressing to see Sam sitting in a dull empty apartment with pretty much nothing to do, the clock dully ticking the endless minutes by . . . slowly, over many episodes, the lack of phones, computers, communications began to feel normal and the slower pace of life desirable. The more personal, direct connections were refreshing: people talking to each other face to face in a way that has almost ceased to feel possible in this modern "connected" cyberworld.

What's more, I began to gain the ability to look below the surface of the offensive and chaotic police work, and find complex people with understandable motivations who meant well and acted within the constraints of their time. In particular, Gene Hunt, the "Gov." The relationship between Sam and Gene is unforgettable.

There is a great top-dog tension that plays out between these two, with Gene Hunt ostensibly -- and by any traditional, masculine measure -- being the one in charge, but Sam Tyler blowing in like a crazy wizard with so much charisma, naïveté and intelligence, that he simply cannot be ignored. Gene beautifully adapts to this strange presence and the two become one of the best male-bonding pairs I know.

As 1973 normalized for me, the slow pace and the working class/simpler life, seemed to matter so much. By the last few episodes, I absolutely related to this time frame as the real one. The one that felt legitimate and correct. To hell with the shiny, fancy and technological 2000s! Talk about dulling and blurring your sense! 

And, fascinatingly, never once did I suspect that this is what they had in mind for me all along.


Yes, I admit. By the end I was putty in their hands. As the drama began to resolve and it became clear that Sam would/could go back home, I dreaded it horribly. I did not want this for him at all. I tried to feel resigned to where things naturally must lead. ... To do otherwise would be like not wanting Dorothy to wake up in her bed at the end. When that's what has to happen. You can't just stay in Oz!


Or can you?  Well, I said there would be spoilers, so there's no need to be coy.  Of course Sam does get to stay in Oz. 1973 IS our reality. And that horrifying bright, fast, metal world he'd left behind? It is not his truth. Now, I'm not going to attempt to describe what this all means. Because I hardly know myself-- thus my tag line about the enigma wrapped in the riddle and possibly some bacon. But I was never happier than when I saw Sam Tyler running off the roof and rejoining his friends. This is the way great TV should end.

I saw later, on the dvd special features, (and, by the way, clearly, I did not regret my decision to purchase this television show, lol) that in fact, my reaction was the exact desired one the creative team was going for. They wanted people to say "no!" when he actually managed to get back to the present.

We may fight what we have. Sometimes for a long time... maybe, say, 16 episodes, but it is so good when you can accept that what you have right in front of you is really all you need.

Though now, maybe, I'm a bit at odds with my own message ... in that the impact of this show was to make me yearn for exactly what I cannot have: this simpler scaled back life of 1973! I mean, for the music alone!


But before I digress myself into another post, let me just wrap up here.  To say that this series lived up to my expectations and up to the ratings and the hype is an understatement.