The fifth season of LOST
was very much wrapped up in the 70s, one of my favorite decades. When I
realized how important that era would be to the season, I couldn't help
but wonder whether LOST and Life on Mars, the trippy, campy throwback crime drama that aired in the next time slot, were in cahoots. Life on Mars
was a remake of the British show that ran for two seasons. Each
contained eight episodes, making it almost exactly the length of the U.
S. edition, which ran for 17 episodes, though series creators were
hoping to go longer than one season. At least there was sufficient
notice to give the show some resolution, though I wonder whether the
series got the intended ending; it's hard to tell when a series is
cancelled at the last minute like that, though I would hope they had the
conclusion in mind from the outset.
Ironically enough, Life on Mars
is a British import starring an Irishman acting the part of an American
(who, in one episode, has to go undercover as an Irishman). Jason
O'Mara is Sam Tyler, the detective who is utterly bewildered to find
himself zapped to 1973 after a car accident. The show actually began
airing in the fall, and previews led me to believe that Lisa Bonet ("in
her first television appearance since The Cosby Show!") would
play a major role in the series, but her part was much smaller than I
expected. However, other characters, along with the terrific setting and
the mysterious premise, were enough to keep me watching.
Sam
is a pretty ordinary modern guy. A decent fellow who loves his mother,
who raised him almost single-handedly, and cares deeply about justice,
he is startled by some of the methods employed by the police force of
the 70s and troubled by revelations he receives about his own family in
the course of his work. Although the show is billed as a drama, I was
never entirely able to take it seriously because it spends so much time
consciously parodying the 70s, and in particular cop shows of the 70s.
There are many sly winks at the audience that are a lot funnier if you
are familiar with the pop culture of that decade. Of course, some of the
references are hard to miss, like Sam's use of the pseudonym Skywalker
when he first meets his mother (Jennifer Ferrin) in the past.
The show is mostly episodic, with a new case to solve every week, but at
the same time, Sam is collecting clues about his past and trying to
piece together just what happened to land him in this strange place. Sam
finds himself in a department run by Lieutenant Gene Hunt (the superb Harvey Keitel),
who is a tough guy who doesn't mind throwing his weight around, though
underneath all that intimidation is a heart of gold. His most
antagonistic coworker is Ray (Michael Imperioli), a crude, seemingly
misogynistic man with a mustache half the size of his head. Balancing
him out is ambitious Annie Norris (Gretchen Mol), who longs to gain
detective status and who is the only one in the department who thinks
there might be something to Sam's insistence that he comes from the
future. There's also Chris (Jonathan Murphy), a sweet, Jimmy Olsen-ish
sort of character who is the young buck on the force, and at Sam's
apartment building is an eccentric, free-spirited woman named Windy
(Tanya Fischer) who flits in and out of his life. Fischer and Bonet
appear in the same number of episodes, but Fischer makes a much bigger
impression.
Every episode is filled with little jokes making
the most of the time frame, but the best evocation of the era comes in
the form of the music. My jaw dropped when I watched the conclusion of
the second episode, which has Sam and Windy dancing together to Simon and Garfunkel's I Am a Rock on the record player. Just two episodes later, Sam recognizes his mother to the tune of Simon's Mother and Child Reunion. Finally, toward the end of the season, it was back to the duo with Fakin' It for a scene in which Annie goes undercover. I spent most of LOST's
fifth season waiting for Simon and Garfunkel to turn up on the Dharma
record player, and while I was never satisfied on that score, it was
nice to know that I was likely to have more luck with Life on Mars, which also featured music by Elton John, Ringo Starr, the Partridge Family, Cat Stevens, Three Dog Night and the Turtles, among many others. Not only is Jim Croce's Bad, Bad Leroy Brown
the backdrop to a raucous bar fight, but Sam actually rubs elbows with
the tragically short-lived troubadour in one scene and warns him to stay
away from small airplanes.
That's one of the few instances in which Sam does something in a conscious effort to change the future. Like season five of LOST, Life on Mars
is very preoccupied with issues of meddling with the established
space-time continuum. On both shows, one especially difficult decision
involves the question of whether it is morally permissible to kill a
child, knowing he will otherwise grow up to be a reprobate. While one
character on LOST sees himself as an infant, Sam is actually able
to interact with his pint-sized self, though he resists the opportunity
for a long time, fearing the consequences. Ultimately, Sam's situation
doesn't resonate quite as strongly with LOST as I had suspected,
but I enjoyed contemplating parallels from week to week, especially when
both shows explored similar issues on the same night.
I missed a few episodes of Life on Mars in the fall, when I often worked the evenings it aired and didn't have LOST
as a lead-in. I understand that one of those episodes was especially
well done and gave the tantalizing impression of a complex mythology
underpinning the plot. However, as I mentioned before, I was never able
to invest myself in the show fully. The gap between LOST and Life on Mars is comparable to the way I experienced Harry Potter and A Series of Unfortunate Events.
While I found the latter very entertaining, those characters never
became real to me as J. K. Rowling's did. They were more like
caricatures, and even during the most perilous moments, I couldn't
muster up very passionate feelings of concern. So even before I realized
that Life on Mars was getting just one season, I didn't expect
the ending to move me much or make a lot of sense. From that viewpoint, I
found the conclusion strange but mostly satisfying, and certainly less
depressing than some I had envisioned. I didn't love it, but I didn't
hate it either. However, some of my friends despised it, and that seems
to be a common opinion, so that may be something to consider before you
commit to all those viewing hours.
If you don't mind a bit of the nonsensical, check out Life on Mars
for the outstanding soundtrack, the amusing homages to the 70s and the
great performances, especially by Keitel, whose character is much more
complicated than he at first appears. It's a shame the show got cut
short; I was hoping for another team-up with LOST. But as a
stand-alone season, it's a fun, retro romp, so if you think you'd like
to get to know Sam Tyler and his pals, hitch a ride with the Rocket Man and get ready for Life on Mars.
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