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)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Terminator is one of the classic sci-fi movies, and it propelled a certain Austrian body-builder to national prominence (and governorship of California.) In one of its latest incarnations, it's also a TV show that I've been watching carefully. (Spoilers follow.)

In the movies, James Cameron and others made a pretty compelling universe where the machines, led by the computer program Skynet, destroyed human civilization with nuclear fire and then waged war against the remnants of humanity with its Terminators, machines made to look like humans. And when it was about to lose the war, it sent its Terminators back in time to kill the Human Resistance leader, John Connor, before he is even born.

"It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead. " -- Kyle Reese, Terminator (1984)

The Terminator is, of course, the Frankenstein myth writ large. Humans try to create artificial life, and our creations turn against us. It's a powerful image, and it's a staple of apocalyptic sci-fi. Its sheer unstoppable nature, along with it slowly losing its camouflage of human flesh, makes it a terrifying monster in the movie. We later learn that Skynet's attack was prompted by humans attempting to pull its plug once it became self-aware, so it was acting in self-defense, which makes the morality of it all decidedly murky.

It was followed by two sequels, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, which added the concept of a reprogrammed Terminator acting as a guardian for John Connor, and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines... the less said about, the better, really, but it did introduce a female "Terminatrix."

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles combines the best of the movie mythology (and excises T3 entirely through the judicious use of time travel technology) with a great cast. It follows the lives of Sarah and John Connor (now a teenager) as they struggle to survive the attacks of Skynet's Terminators while trying to prevent Judgement Day (when the nuclear missiles destroy almost everything.)

Lena Headly (of 300) stars as Sarah Connor, but it's Summer Glau (River Tam from Firefly) who really steals the show. She stars as Cameron, a Terminator sent back to guard John Connor. Glau is a very good actress and you would think that she would be wasted playing the emotionless killing machine... but there's more to Cameron than meets the eye. At the end of Season 2, she was in a car explosion that damaged her processor. She went back to her core programming and attempted to kill John Connor... and she was a terrifyingly unstoppable killing machine, just as much as Arnold ever managed. (Particularly gruesome was the scene where she used a staple gun to close a wound on her face.) It's also to watch Glau, who is nowhere near the body-builder that Arnold was when he originated the role, lifting grown men or doing other feats of strength.

She was repaired, of course, but we've been learning more and more about her past, and there are hints that she may not be what she claims to be. A recent episode showed that Cameron's appearance was taken from a human resistance fighter named Allison Young, and Cameron told the woman (also played by Glau) that she prepresented a faction of the Machines who wanted peace with humanity. This may have been a lie, however, for when Cameron later kills Allison when she doesn't give Cameron the information she needs to safely enter a Resistance camp.

"Did you kill her?!"
*A young woman whom Cameron choked takes a gasping breath*
"Apparently not."
--John Connor and Cameron, "Allison from Palmdale"

Thomas Dekker stars as John Connor, a boy about to become a man who is struggling with the weight of destiny, Brian Austin Green plays Derek Reese, John's uncle (John's father Kyle was a Resistance fighter sent back to guard Sarah Connor and sire John, though he did not know about that part), Richard T. Jones as FBI Agent James Ellison, who is hunting the Connors, Dean Winters as Charley Dixon, a former lover of Sarah, Garrett Dillahunt as Cromartie, a T-888 Terminator who is hunting John, and Shirley Manson as Catherine Weaver, a T-1001 polymimetic alloy Terminator (shape shifter, as in T2) who seems intent on insuring the creation of Skynet.

It's a large cast of regular and recurring characters, and the show also has many, many shout-outs to the mythology of the movies, rewarding fans of the series. I think it was pretty good last year, and it's only getting better. The story seems to be growing more complex the more we learn. Is Cameron really a "good" Terminator? What is Catherine Weaver trying to accomplish? One human character, FBI Agent James Ellison, has recently started working for Weaver, helping her accomplish her goals (though he doesn't realize she is a machine.)

It makes me sad when I hear it's not doing as well as it could be in the ratings. Sci-fi is always a tough sell on the network, and I hope that it continues. I suggest you go and watch it on Fox on Monday nights.

Reading: Anathem (still... it's HUGE)
Movie: Transformers, 2007, DVD (Autobots, Transform and Roll Out!)
TV: Iron Chef

Sanctuary

I just watched the Sci-Fi Channel's new show, Sanctuary. It's got some of the same creative team that's been behind Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis (which has been canceled so they can start making DVD movies for it, like they've been doing for SG-1.) It also stars Amanda Tapping, who of course was Samantha Carter on Stargate.

I want this show to do well for Sci-Fi, mainly because my reasons for watching them have been dwindling for some time. I remember when I used to watch Stargate, Farscape, and Lexx on Friday nights back in the day, and then, of course, there is Battlestar Galactica. But after seeing what happened to the Dresden Files TV show (which I really liked), I'm not sure that I can trust the Sci-Fi channel any more.

In any event, Sanctuary is about a mysterious woman named Dr. Helen Magnus (played by Tapping), her daughter Ashley (played by Emilie Ullerup), and Dr. Will Zimmerman (played by Robin Dunne) are, basically, monster hunters. They seek out "abnormals" and take them back to the Sanctuary for study and to either keep the monsters safe from humans... or humans safe from the monsters.

Sanctuary began as a series of webisodes, and despite the creators' original intentions to keep it soley on the web, they've moved to Sci-Fi because of the expense of making the show. Its gimmick lies in a great deal of green screen work, like the movies Sin City and 300. They use it to even "build" some of the major sets of the show and to create interesting looking "location" shots.

It's a nice idea, but I don't think the technology is quite there yet. At least on my TV, it's obvious when the green screen is being used, which can be a bit jarring. They've gone for a stylized look (probably to make the green screen work look better) but I can't help but feel that a more realistic setting might have served them better for this story. When you can create any fantastic location for your stories that you want with a computer, you sometimes stop thinking of what fits in your story and just throw things in for the heck of it.

That said, the technique does give them the freedom to add all sorts of interesting shots into the show that you'd normally never see on a cable channel. Also, Amanda Tapping is doing good work in her role, and Christopher Heyerdahl is a very menacing villain from her past that makes me want to see more of him. Ullerup and Dunne aren't as good, but Dunne definitely improved in the second episode, and Ullerup does very well in the fight scenes (she's played as the brawn to her mother's brains, in many ways.)

They've only shown two episodes, and they're doing a lot of teasing. The show and world has potential, but they need to show more of it. The premiere episode was slowed down by a lot of expository dialogue (a necessary evil of pilots, I'll admit), and the second episode threw in a lot of almost extraneous bits (an invisible "chameleon" like monster that is found and killed in one scene, an informant that eats bugs) that they are using to make us more interested in the world of Sanctuary, but they've only gotten a 13-episode order from Sci-Fi. I think they should step it up a notch, give us more solid story and less filler.

This show reminds me of the Dresden Files TV show a lot. Both shows had good premises, and they both are off to a kind of shaky start. Dresden got a LOT better toward the end, but obviously it was a little too late to save the show. I hope the same thing doesn't happen to Sanctuary. With Battlestar and Stargate Atlantis ending next year, Sci-Fi needs a solid block of real sci-fi shows, not third-rate horror movies and "reality" shows, to keep me watching.

Good luck, Sanctuary.

Sanctuary -- Show's Website

Now Reading: Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Last Movie: Iron Man DVD (in theaters, the Dark Knight)