This past saturday I was at Target and came across the U.S. version of Life On Mars for $14.99. I had only seen a few scenes of it, namely the intro to the penultimate episode which plays Lou Reed’s awesome “Satellite Of Love” during it and the beginning of the final episode, and nothing else.
I made a big mistake. Watching the series it turned out to be quite the interesting little show. Jason O’Mara plays a cop in 2008 New York who gets hit by a car, and inexplicably ends up in 1973 New York. Right at the beginning of the first episode while Bowie’s “Life On Mars plays, O’Mara sees the Twin Towers and knows that he is no longer in 2008.
He spends the rest of the show taking on criminals and seeing things like a guy wearing a Nirvana shirt that messes with his mind on whether he really is from 2008, or he’s just crazy. (The nickname that he has is Spaceman) Harvey Keitel is the real scene stealer as the Lieutenantof the precinct. He beats up criminals, suggests planting evidence, and does other things that shocks O’Mara’s character. Plus Kietel wears some rockin’ white slip on shoes. The one episode where he actually plays by the book because the media is hounding him ups the hilarious factor.
Michael Imperioli can’t be forgotten as his character spews out great line after great line “I’ve got a French Bulldog named Ollie. He drools just like your Grandfather!”
Since the series was cancelled, There were only 17 episodes. However the series’ creators knew far ahead enough in time to give it a proper send off. The last episode really irked a lot of people. It made sense to me. Especially with the last shot which made it ambiguous as to whether the end could have been a dream or not. With all respect to the series, they really couldn’t string it out for a long time. People would have been getting restless over whether O’Mara was really from 2008 or was just hallucinating it, and was really from 1973.
Overall, the show is highly recommended for anyone who likes 70’s inspired flicks, or sci-fi. I enjoyed it a lot.
Rene’s song of the day: The Rolling Stones: “Tell Me”.
Thanks for reading my blog and see you next time!