Life on Mars

Yesterday, I finally got caught up on my DVR backlog, which included watching the first two episodes of ABC's Life on Mars.

Life on Mars is an American remake of the British series of the same name (which is taken from a David Bowie song), and they both deal with a police detective named Sam Tyler who finds himself mysteriously transported back to 1973 following a car accident.

To make things even stranger, he seems to have a complete life waiting for him in 1973. He's still a police detective, still working in the same precinct, has an apartment and a car (complete with an 8-track playing the same song that his iPod was playing in 2008: Life on Mars.) He first denies that he's in 1973, but the World Trade Center Towers dominating the skyline make that almost impossible. (In the second episode, he makes a long list of all the possible reasons for his predicament, including coma dreams, drug trip, and aliens as well as time travel.)

Actually going to Mars could not have created a stranger or more alien landscape for Sam than New York City in 1973. Most of the things he took for granted (like cell phones, iPods, computers) are gone. Nixon is in the White House, American troops are in Vietnam, and there's free love and drugs all around. And don't even get me started on the clothes and hairstyles!

The stuff he has the most trouble with is the era's views on racism and sexism. For example, he meets Anne Norris, a policewoman in 1973 who has a degree in psychology. Despite her intelligence, the white male detectives refer to her as "No Nuts Norris" and "a twirl, a broad..." She's not even considered a "real" policeman, as she is in the NYPD's Bureau of Policewomen, who were in no way considered equals of the male police officers. To Sam's (and our) sensibilities, the people of 1973 are unforgivably non-politically correct, perhaps no one more so than Lieutenant Gene Hunt, played exceptionally well by Harvey Keitel.

To make things even stranger, the show sometimes has weird moments that seem to suggest that Sam is NOT in 1973. In the first episode, a man on his television begins to talk about Sam being in a coma, like Sam was hearing a doctor from 2008 speaking about him after the car accident. In episode 2, he sees a robotic probe, very much like the Mars Rovers that NASA has rolling on the surface on Mars in 2008, that scans him with a light that lets him see flashes of his life in 2008. Later, when he busts a heroin smuggling operation, he finds the heroin hidden beneath toys that resemble the probe.

Life on Mars is perhaps the best new "sci-fi" show on prime-time TV. It's not what most people call science fiction, closer to speculative fiction. It takes an ordinary man and places him in a most extraordinary situation. Jason O'Meara, as Sam Tyler, does a good job of portraying Sam's struggle to deal with his new life in 1973. He oscillates between angry denial and resigned acceptance, as a real person might (if they didn't just go catatonic from the shock). Sometimes he's convinced that 1973 New York is all in his mind, and other times he worries that 2008 might be a figment of his imagination.

Harvey Keitel is excellent as Lt. Gene Hunt, a good man and a bad cop. Lt. Hunt has no problem beating up suspects or planting evidence to get crooks off the street. He wants, as he puts it, for the city to say "He was here" when he's done, that he made the city better, but he doesn't seem to realize how hypocritical his methods are. He's also bigoted and sexist, and seems baffled when Sam points this out.

The show's unapologetic look at the world of 1973 is, to my mind, the most refreshing part of it. I'm sure that they've toned down a lot of things in order to show it, but it's nice to see them put it in there, to say "This is the way we were," rather than sweep it under the rug of reconstructionist history.

I'm going to keep watching this show. I hope it does well.

Reading: Anathem by Neal Stephenson (still! It's a monster book, but good!)
Watching (Movie): Excalibur (DVD)