Cool News
ABC Exterminates LIFE ON MARS!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
I am – Hercules!!
ABC has announced that its generally crappy and ratings-challenged sci-fi cop series “Life On Mars” won’t get a second season.
The good news for fans is the network is letting the show’s producers end with an episode explaining how the lead character, a 2008 cop, wound up in 1973.
(SPOILER!! In the British version of “Life On Mars,” the cop wakes up from a coma in the final episode, but discovers he liked it better in 1973 and decides to commit suicide – which somehow returns him to the past.)
“Mars” producers Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Scott Rosenberg, who were also behind ABC’s horrible “October Road,” will turn their attention to the ABC pilot “Happy Town.”
Find all of Variety’s story on the matter here.
The New Prequel About The People
Who Thought Cylons Were A Good Idea!!
Kirk!! Spock!! Blu-ray!!
The New Prequel About The People
Who Thought Cylons Were A Good Idea!!
Kirk!! Spock!! Blu-ray!!
-
+ Expand All
-
I liked the first few episodes of this show but didn't really follow it after. I guess all those ads for the show during lost didn't help its ratings.
-
I want an episode to wrap up Journeyman dagnabbit!
-
Is that the show that comes on after Lost?
-
Let's face it, this was but the palest of imitations of the original show. I remember getting the FIRST pilot for this one and it was nearly unwatchable. So, while I'll miss it just a little more than my last kidney stone, I say farewell Life On Mars.
-
...in a retro cop-ette uniform. too bad. never watched it myself, but i noticed that much.
-
Mar 02, 2009 10:44:44 PM CST
How about we just do a cop show with Keitel and Imperitolli
by cookylamoo
and forget the time travel business.
-
show was fucking awful.
-
and then it kind of fell off quickly.
-
didn't feel the same the British one was superior. too bad.. bring back journeyman!
-
But it just seemed bland as hell, main character always about to cry about something. Oh well.
-
Whatever.
-
We need less crappy TV and more of the good stuff. Couldn't stand this show from episode one.
-
Hell, it worked for Jericho.
-
I caught a "trying too hard but not hard enough" vibe from it.
-
in the brit show, there was a mixture of 70s cop show with the main characters perceptions of what life was like during the 70s...you didnt get that vibe with the american show...and since the brits make less shows per season, they were able to focus on the shows they did make, which made them stronger never mind that the acting was stronger in the brit show too
-
Fuckin bastards that cancelled that show. FUCK THEM.
-
Never understood why you guys always insist on buying the rights to good British shows and turning them into shit American ones.Why not simply watch the original? We do with your stuff. You don't see us Brits remaking Lost, Daisies or Dexter, do you? No, because our programme controllers know we are capable of relating to American characters and American locations and can generally be trusted to understand your accents and local cultural references. Ok, so occasionally the name of a baseball star or something slips past us, but generally we cope and enjoy American shows as much as you do.Do all your TV head honchos really think you're all so stupid that you can't do the same?
-
doomed to Quantuam Leap into failed shows every season until broadcast TV finally dies.
-
would cancel Saving Grace
-
TNT, despite their problems actually makes a commitment to their series. I personally don't like the show ( Saving Grace ), and I initially liked "the closer", though once the formula started showing in every episode, I got bored with it. BUT you've got to respect that they're seeing it through. And all in all, it's not a bad snow... just not my cup of tea.Why hasn't american dad, or according to jim been canceled?
-
Lame.
-
I honestly believe that yes people here in America at this moment in time would not watch British originals. I don't like to say that American's are generally stupid, but I do think they they are ignorant toward entertainment. Of course there are Americans who do watch the British version. The Office, and Extras on HBO were hits, but people who watch HBO are not the people who watch the regular networks. To get a big audience on network TV you need the average person, and that person thinks British shows are weird. I know tons of people who are confused by British Humor and anything a little different than themselves. I don't understand these people, but the majority of the US thinks like this. I guarantee if they took the time to check the shows out they might enjoy them, but you know how people are. They are the same people who refuse to play a modern video game because they insist the controls are too confusing and yet they will play with the Wii which is just as confusing, they refuse to watch Battlestar Galactica because its sci-fi, and a whole host of other things.
-
This show was disappointing on many levels. It failed as compelling science fiction / fantasy; its strangest moments were its best, but they were only teases. It had a likable lead character who nevertheless failed to probe into the nature of his world, and brought his "future" expertise to bear upon cases only occasionally. "Lost On Mars" also (perhaps most importantly) failed as a police drama, with hackneyed and uninteresting plots. Its big-name stars were underwritten. With all the money and talent involved, it's a shame it didn't work out, but ABC made the right choice.
-
Hardly. Sure, it doesn't approach the greatness of the original. Not even close, hell, even the much (and unfairly) maligned ASHES TO ASHES is better. But I've grown accustomed to Keitel and Imperioli and Mol in their roles, and I don't mind the new Sam Tyler as much as I did when the series began.
ABC's LIFE ON MARS is like the new KNIGHT RIDER: started out bad but with decent ratings, then improved but couldn't recover ratings-wise. Neither show deserves to win any awards, but both are rather entertaining and still superior to whatever reality crap or generic procedural is on elsewhere.
That said, neither this nor the inevitable cancellation of KNIGHT RIDER bother me much. I was far more angry and saddened when PUSHING DAISIES and ELI STONE were cancelled, and more recently KYLE XY (which was excellent for what it was). -
And the tunes. I was never bored watching it.
-
not sure how Saving Grace relates - that may have been the oddest reference I've ever seen on this site. And it's not a bad show.
-
ABC keeps killing the only shows I watch on their network that aren't Lost. Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone, now this. I'm going to try to Castle, but only because it's Nathan Fillion. Anyway, I'm a sucker for 70s shows (loved Swingtown, too) and actually really liked this show and always loved how it ended an episode with the signature backwards dates. But yeah, I don't necessarily have a problem with it being a 'limited series' if they give it a decent ending.
-
Harvey Keitel turned out to be the wrong actor for this show. While at first blush, the idea of having him play the bad lieutenant in a 70s cop show sounded like a great idea, the man looks like he's 80 years old. And about five feet tall.
In the original, Gene Hunt towered over Sam Tyler in both stature and volume. I think the producers quickly realized how old and tired Keitel had become and pushed him more into the background for this version. Nothing was more pathetic than the scenes of Keitel sitting in his office late at night in his wifebeater, drinking scotch. He looked more like a retired plumber than a world-worn detective.
Overshadowed by Keitel's impish overacting were the other great casting choices: Imperioli was doing a great job of owning the Ray Carling role, Gretchen Mol was a great Annie, and seeing Fred Thompson as Frank Morgan was a really nice touch.
If comments above haven't convinced you, and you haven't done so yet, seek out the UK version for the true joy behind this show - even though Herc has already ruined the ending by casually tossing out the ending there SPOILER!!! faster than ABC tossed the original pilot. Kind of dickish, don't you think, Herc? Maybe some invisotext would have been helpful, or at least a freaking paragraph break. -
This is disappointing. I thought it was pretty good, even though the whoopi goldberg character was kinda stupid.
-
It had it's good moments, decent acting too. I'm getting tired of anything that goes even a tiny bit outside of the crime drama box getting canned. There just aren't many original shows left of TV here in the states. At least I recently discovered Black Books.
-
What happened to the Heroes TB? lol.
-
The lead was horrible, completely antithetical to the character originated by the great John Simm, and Keitel and Imperioli were caricatures. I HATE it when stupid US producers try to turn great British shows into dumbed-down American versions (and yes, that includes the US version of The Office, which was good in its first season but now just drags and is pointless, and has made me hate Steve Carell).
-
as much as I didn't mind the UK version, it was still for the most part just a regular garden variety police procedural drama - for the most part - with the "unique twist" thrown in at the beginning and end of most episodes, just like what Life has turned into, this season...
...as for the US version, well the writers were given free will and effectively enough license to make their version BETTER - but ultimately failed
good riddance -
We have to remake british shows with American actors because the sight of British teeth makes us all physically ill.
-
They never wanted the show in the first place.
-
The British show was endlessly superior, even the shoddier sequel works. Now perhaps they can find something suitable for the star, whose name I can't remember but has promise when not miscast.
-
this is why I dont bother till the 2nd season any more
-
Because we can't understand what the actors are saying. Most of us speak english over here, and don't get that cockney shit.
-
You're not funny so fuck off
-
It's a goofy premise. Maybe if he was like a timecop, I would care, but he wasn't.
-
I suppose this puts a kibosh on any chance of there being a Region 1 release of the original, too. Crap.
-
Zardoz. If the American remake of Life On Mars sucked, it's because the original material wasn't that great or original to begin with. I watched a few episodes of the U.K. version and could barely keep my eyes open. People always want to say Brit shows are better because they speak with accents and no one wants to be the one to say U.K. shows suck as much as ours. Well they do, so get the F over it.
-
I liked this show, so I'm really sad to see it go. When the hell is the UK version gonna hit DVD so I don't have to watch the cut to shreds version on BBCAmerica? Though that won't stop me from watching Ashes to Ashes on Saturday. Go go 80s!
-
...and make the last few episode outstanding, finish off the series, and get picked up again when the ratings improve, only to have no decent stories to carry on with.
-
I think it depends on how well the producer is adept at translating the original British program for an American audience. For example, I'm scared to see the Americanized versions of AbFab and Peep Show. I could see Peep Show being Americanized along the same careful way that The Office was. But, generally, most producers are creatively incompetent but even if they can manage to pull off an Americanization well, the American audience might still not be into the resulting show.
-
I don't watch many shows but this was one of the better ones. Knock it all you want but it was better than most of the garbage you guys give talkbacks to.
-
Mar 03, 2009 3:53:03 AM CST
No more Sam Tyler singing "Ice, Ice, Baby" to some Black Panther
by pollaxt
Aww nertz.
-
The UK is more open to a less PC type of show right now. You can set the show based in the 70's, and have all the racism, sexism and police brutality that was a part of those times.
And the public will buy it.
With the American version, you simply can't. Network standards wouldn't allow it. The PC-gone-mad public won't buy it. So the American version of the 70's was still a sanitised PC version. And that's why it failed. -
This from someone who just wrote "I don’t like sitcoms, especially sitcoms with laughtracks, but boy do I love 1987’s “My Two Dads,” "
-
Herc kneels down whenever Whedon/Abrams has a new show. Everything else has to stand in the back, waiting for the saluting.
-
They can air it in between movies about killer bees and monsters.
-
Of course not as great as the british original, but by far the best new network drama of the season.
-
Four Words that will make you weep: Law and Order: UK!
Trying to remake something as great as Life on Mars makes sense because it had only 16 (or so) episodes, but why remake generic crap like Law and Order or ripoff CSI? -
...but what do I know.
-
is the longer season lengths
What stopped the UK life on Mars being just a regular police procedural is the fairly short number of episodes. they did just enough to cover all the big changes between the 70s and now. Homophobia, racism, football violence, sexism etc and mostly the potential for injustice when there was less regulation of the police (I know enough coppers to know that back in the "good old days" there was massive abuse of power, hell there still is!). every episode had a theme, a purpose. when you get 20 odd episodes a season you can't keep that up.
Oh and in the UK version they essentially never explain what happened. best way! -
It said Bad cop, like his Bad Lt movie so long ago. I wanted this show to last dam it!
-
Because Lost is the world's worst lead-in show. It's such a complex and engaging show that after it's over the next 15-20 minutes are spent discussing what was just seen. By then, who gives a shit what was on afterwards? Some friends told me Mars was pretty decent, but I just don't have the stamina or the willpower to watch Lost and not immediately start analyzing the content of the episode. Or, in last week's case, being pissed about the *lack* of content to analyze.
-
You really can't put anything on after it aside from the news. I definitely don't want Lost moved back to 10pm though, that sucked. Honestly, the promos for Life on Mars were lame... like someone else said, it seemed like they were trying too hard but not hard enough.Everything on ABC aside from Lost looks like crap. It sucks having to sit through the promos for ABC's shitty shows while Lost is on...
-
I've not watched the Yank version, but the Brit one rules. And the final episode where he kills himself... well he doesn't actually as he basically never wakes up from his coma and accepts the fact by letting go of what has been keeping him alive - in a Jacobs Ladder kind of way. But whatever the series that followed it Ashes to Ashes is plain pants and is vomit in the face material.
-
I liked "Life on Mars". The 70s setting was great, and I liked seeing a little bit of police procedural intertwined with the sci-fi/mystery aspect of why he is in 1973. It's a lot better than CSIs and Law & Orders. They just pull a "Crime of the Week" from the headlines and write a script around that. If we already saw something in the news, why would I want to see a show about it?
At least they are letting them finish the season, and give us a proper ending. -
i wondered about that one. saw commercials. it did look like crap. it's life on mars with a woman in the 80's. is it by the same people?
-
As much as I love the UK version I hated the conclusion, it totally undermined the whole point of the series for me.
As for the US version, it wasn't anywhere near as good, primarily thanks to a lack of a Gene Hunt that is anywhere near as good as Philip Glenister's tour de force. Still, recently LoM-US has really started to find its own voice and I've been enjoying it more. I think if they'd found their feet sooner they might not have been cancelled. Oh well. -
No, the US version isn't as good as the original, but it was still better than most of the crap on right now. The problem was casting Keitel, who is too fucking old to play Gene Hunt effectively. Ah, well...At least ASHES TO ASHES starts up on Saturday and thanks to BBC America On Demand and my trusty DVD recorder, I won't have to worry about not having an uncut Region 1 set available.
-
Mar 03, 2009 8:52:36 AM CST
And they wonder why cable is kicking their network ass?
by mr incredible
At least ABC is letting them finish it and we can watch the ending. But shuffling shows around, shitty timeslots, and not letting them develop an audience, no wonder it got canceled. Ashes to Ashes sounds pretty good, what I've heard about it.
-
Gretchen Mol is one hot piece of ass, though!
-
the main character was a giant bag of douche. "Waahh! We can't do that. We're cops!" Stop being such a pussy. I watched through the fall finale, and seeing his Dad shoot him put such a huge smile on my face. "High Five!" AHAHAHAHA
-
Loved Pushing Daisies.
-
Too bad the cop brother is being abused in Dollhouse.
-
Herc's a bit of a douchebag that way.
-
You're absolutely correct. As an American, I found the whole attempt an insult to those who were fans of the original show. You can't possibly hope to "invent" the chemistry between John Simm and Philip Glenister with American actors. Their performances were brilliant (not to mention those of the rest of the cast.) Worse yet, attempting to emulate Manchester by utilizing New York was out-and-out foolish. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Why not the southside of Chicago? The closing steel mills and the stockyards? That's far closer to the environment of urban decay that Manchester was experiencing in the 1970's anyhow. And I'm not even touching on the parallels of perception of Midwesterners and Manchester Northerners to East Coasters and Londoners. I know they started in L.A.--which was awful. But still, New York would've been better for a remake of "Ashes to Ashes", which again, doesn't need to happen at all. Hopefully this'll at least free up DVD sales of BBC's "Life on Mars."
-
I really do think the failing of this show was casting 'name' actors instead of people who could really act. As it turns out, Rachel Lefervre from "Twilight" was supposed to be Annie, but she got tossed for Gretchen Mol. Hmm, someone behind that production must've been kicking themselves.
-
Mar 03, 2009 9:46:23 AM CST
lovecraftian, ev!ldead, Cartman86 and yes, Yomomma too...
by biggusdickus
Thanks for your considered replies. From what you chaps are saying it seems like your TV programmers are labouring under the misapprehension that your collective IQs are as low as theirs. I know America is more than capable of tolerating our quirky 'Englishness' (there are more Python fans left in the US than over here) and it's annoying that US TV execs are constantly throwing money at re-inventing the wheel when there's no need.By the same token, when we Brits try to copy something inherently American in design, such as CSI or X-Files, the result is always cringe-worthy. Look out for our Spooks and Primal. Or rather, don't, as they're dreadful. And finally Yomomma, fair point, but not everyone over here is an Austin Powers lookalike. It's just that we tend to like our teeth to be ivory coloured, rather than have them glow in ultraviolet light...Peace. Biggus out.
-
Gotta agree here. This show really hasn't been that good. It seems like it doesn't know where it wants to go. And can "Sam" really know what the 70s were like? Wasn't he born in 1979?
-
It's not possible that as soon as the Lost episode is over EVERYBODY comes here to talk about it leaving millions of TV sets unwatched? Is it?
-
Okay, I haven't seen the British version (yet), but I lived through the 70s in England and it was a magical and colorful time for me. Maybe the 70s were a drab and depressing time in New York, but the thing that instantly put me off the US version of this show is its drab appearance. They seemed to think that all you have to do to create a 70s feel is stick the characters in wide ties, long hair, and shoot everything through a green filter. The show just LOOKED offputting, and I think that contributed in part to its failure.
-
Yeah, maybe. But also there's the contrast of watching Lost's lovely Hawaii scenery, immediately followed by the depressing, green-tinged world of Life on Mars on ABC!
-
Apparently John Simm and Philip Glenister had been approached to reprise their roles for the US remake. I almost wished they'd said yes just to see how on Earth that was supposed to have worked.
-
because of all of the good things I heard about the original British version but I just couldn't. If a show doesn't have my attention after 4 or 5 episodes it never will.
-
Maybe they don't come here after Lost, but I know anytime I watch with anyone else in the room, there is a hearty discussion afterwards. And lots of questions, seeing as how I'm the resident Lost guru and I got all my friends into it anyway. I pick up the pieces and explain the eastereggs, we talk about where the show is going, etc. In the past 5 years, I don't think I've ever watched any program that was on at 10pm on Wednesdays, aside from South Park. And even that gets overrun by conversation most of the time.
-
... think us yanks are stupid? Yes Biggus... they do, and yeas Biggus... we are!
-
...eh, no, that would be Evan Almighty that caused that to happen. For me, anyway.
-
there isn't much call for shows filmed in shades of orange. Guess thats a lot of gels that will go in the trash bin.
-
The show now seems to be going off Brit track with its own unique mythology, different from the AWFUL Brit paradigm (Coma World is the same as Dead World. Really? Really?) With Sam running into bizarre nanobots AND others who have been stolen from 2008 and set into the 70's there indeed seemed to be an intelligent purpose behind his time travel. Some unknown telephone voice is talking to him specifically about being brought to 1973 (as opposed to the Brit bait and switch "secret" voice that was really only talking about his investigating Gene Hunt's police corruption.) I was becoming more and more intrigued as the series went on. I liked that Annie was beginning to truly believe him. And Jason O'Mara's Sam Tyler is nowhere near as humorless as John Simm's. Plus Jason O'Mara is UBER hot. But I digress. I also like the way the story is told at times. There was a recent cold opening choreographed to the great Sweet glamrock classic "Ballroom Blitz". It was terrific. I'm gonna miss this show (and I never thought I would).
-
Keitel was miscast and the lead guy was a blank slate non entity.
The ugly sepia tone also hurt this series. -
Yes, They do think that we are that stupid. And some of us (sadly) are. This is what happens when you cut out all arts and culture in public schools.
-
Cast is terrific--each actor is spot on and at the top of their game. I will miss it, but it really always should have been a one-season series in any case. Spoonfeeding clues for several seasons would have become frustrating with no payoff for the viewers. Getting this news in time to shoot a Conclusion episode is the silver lining here.
-
characters.And the subtle interplay with Annie starting to believe Sam, and noticing that he respected her, didn't treat her with the same "nothingness" that the others did, was really cool.though I did laugh a bit whenever they called her NoNuts.
-
ABC didn't help by airing the wrong episode when they came back from hiatus. Sam gets shot, then sneaks out of the hospital to find the cabin in the woods where he gets a phone call telling him to go to the basement. End of episode. Next episode ABC airs is about a rivalry between precincts. Next episode after that deals directly with the events of what Sam found in the cabin and dealing with having been shot.I love how people are so deluded in thinking that a show that didn't live up to their expectations being cancelled means it will be replaced with something better. Sorry to burst your bubble boys but all you will see is extended episodes of The Bachelor and Dancing with the Stars. This year ABC has dumped Life on Mars, Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone, and Dirty Sexy Money. Does anyone truly believe that the demise of these shows will bring forth anything similar? No, we'll most likely get another Grey's Anatomy spinoff, or possibly a DH one. Or most likely, a show about doctors who solve crimes, or cops who work in a lab.
-
There's just too darn many of them. Any sane person with cable TIVO's the first twenty minutes and then watches it straight through from the beginning ending briskly at 10 PM.
-
This was actually one of those new cop shows with a twist that I really enjoyed. I loved the Vanilla Ice episode...DAMMIT...
-
If Ashes To Ashes is canon, then it's pretty certain that Sam does kill himself. The woman in A2A reads Sam's report about Gene Hunt etc - which he wrote after coming out of his coma. As mentioned above, Sam killing himself to go back to his imagined 1970s completely undermines the notion of the first series which was driven by his desperate desire to get home to the people he loved. I would absolutely adore Life On Mars if it had been one series with Sam getting home at the end, because the first series was so compelling. But the conclusion dents my affection a lot - and we don't even get a real explanation or hint of why/how Sam had been sent back to the 70s in the first place.
-
Just speaking for myself, I'm not opposed to giving the British originals a go, but my wife and I tried with the British Office and we just couldn't follow the dialog through the accents. We couldn't catch what they were saying half the time so we turned on subtitles ... but even then they seemed to use so many British expressions or terms that we STILL couldn't just sit back and enjoy it. I'd say that has probably prevented us from going back to the British originals on other shows. I'm sure they are great and probably better than the remakes in most cases, but if I have to struggle to understand them it's not very relaxing or entertaining.
Take care -
just doing my fair share.
-
Too bad, but not unexpected.
As much as I loved the UK version, I was enjoying this one.
In fact, I wish they had just done away with the time travel thing and done a police procedural with Imperioli as a 70s cop.
Much of the "hook" to the UK one was the drastic, and I mean drastic, change in policing from the 70s till now. There just hasn't been that much change in the US. We haven't elevated criminals rights above those of the police. Where in Britain, they have. -
LoM (US) was 1,000 times better than Ashes to Ashes.
The lead actress in that was horribly written and more wooden than old (pre-2000s) Al Gore.
A2A was a God awful show that should have never happened. It makes the US Life On Mars look like Shakespeare.
-
There are two types of people in the US:
Those that can remember what life was like under the Carter administration, and
those that are about to find out. -
They could have opened it up a bit: you never really see the whole streetscape, but I understand how expensive that would be. I could never figure out whether the show was an excuse to do "Starsky and Hutch" type cop stuff or metaphysical sci-fi. Not that some 70's action would hurt TV. Never saw the orig., but am sympathetic to it being superior. Never thought they had planned to do a second year anyway, seems like the story has big limitations. Good lead and acting in the show too.
-
That's a fair point. It has always baffled me that America is so huge but that, generally, the American accent varies little (apart from the odd twang) from place to place - to my untrained ear at least.The regional dialects in England are crazy. London is a mere 150 miles from Birmingham (our second city), yet the difference between the Cockney and Brummie accents is so pronounced, it could almost be another country. Go a few hundred miles further north and there's Scotland, which is another country and they all talk like Billy Connolly.By far our most baffling dialect is Geordie; the Newcastle accent. Newcastle is a city in the north of England and the accents is so thick you could paint walls with it. If you think The Office (UK) was hard to follow, Google for a clip of 'Auf Weidersehen, Pet'...
-
Ah, I was wondering what was up with that cabin issue. I was expecting that to be resolved when they came back from hiatus, and they didn't even mention it. I missed the next week's episode where I guess they resolved it. But can you tell me what happened when he was supposed to go into the basement?
-
Mar 03, 2009 12:51:45 PM CST
Oh, thank god! Now we can have more "What would you do?"
by darth_nader
Fuck you ABC. I'm probably not even going to watch Cupid now, because I don't want to get to like it, only to have you fucktards decide that Dancing with the Stars is good TV.
-
UK shows remade in USAAbFab became CybilPrime Suspect became The ClosureUSA shows remade in the UKCSI and Cold Case were combined to become Waking The DeadFriends became CouplingThe Agency became SpooksLaw and Order became Inspector Lynley (post series 3)Too bad about "Life On Mars." it had potential.-----later-----m
-
Many shows don't get that chance. Always believed that if a show got cancelled that it should be allowed to wrap things up. Too many good shows just disappear. One of my favorites was Now and Again. Ended on a season cliffhanger. CBS decided not to renew. Hate that.
-
and then every episode after that just seem to be a 70's cop show with been there done that plots. Each episode had a very tiny sci fi element that really only teased. Great concept poorly executed. I blame the writers. Also the washed out photography sucked.
-
It's the only new show I got into this year. The premise was weird. I thought so about the British version first. I simply never understood why it needed to be about time travel at all. But anyway, in the American version I thought the cast was STRONG and the scripts were great so it held my attention every episode. I'll miss it.
-
It's so hard to focus on the bad acting.
-
Unless I'm thinking of the wrong show on BBC America.
-
I was really liking this show. First they do it to Journeyman and now to Life on Mars. I'm getting really fed up on getting invested with these shows.
-
Here's a bit of interesting timing...
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Life-Mars-Series-1/11423
If you'll note, Series 2 doesn't arrive until 2010. It looks like they've decided to milk this by releasing separate series/season sets instead of releasing one complete series set. Depending on the extras, I may end up hanging onto my bootlegs...errrr, archival copies.
-
Did the wonderful Father Ted ever cross the Atlantic and if so, how was it received in the US?I know you guys are less tolarant of having a dig at Christianity than us Brits, but speaking as a Catholic, I thought it was hilarious! Any comments?
-
Mar 03, 2009 2:51:41 PM CST
Well, they're promoting the hell out of that funny cop show
by lockesbrokenleg
starring Mal. I bet that bombs.
-
I thought this sho was pretty good. Better than Life, which I also like, but is not as interesting.
Was his girlfriend dead in the UK show or was he in a coma so long she had left him? Because that would be the only reason I could see for wanting to off himself. -
Or anything else with Odette Yustman in it.
-
You may be watching Ashes to Ashes, which is a sequel of sorts to the original two series and I believe the protagonist in that one is female.
-
I think we can all agree that the last 8 years were the worst. The Carter years were heaven compared to the Bush II years. Of course, the Reagan years kind of sucked hard as well.
-
I never had a problem, although there may have been a line here or there that I missed. I did have a problem my first time though Lock, Stock... but I was able to follow it much better the second time I viewed it.
-
Nothing has happened yet.----later-----m
-
Mar 03, 2009 3:34:40 PM CST
Set my DVR to record all episodes before the first one aired
by haggardatbest
Cancelled it afterwards.
-
I hate the woke up from a coma bullshit. What a copout.
-
Not even in jest, sweetheart.
-
Way to spoil the entire (and excellent) original, and you're talking total shit as well.
Jeez, no wonder people are jumping ship from this site and going elsewhere, eh? -
I am waiting to see if the producers of this show will attempt a batserdized version of the sequel of this show (Ashes to Ashes). Its amazing that their hasnt been an Americanized version of Doctor Who yet.
-
I was pissed off anyway.
-
So much promise wasted. It went way downhill when it came back from hiatus. Did they air the comeback episodes out of order?
-
Come on, you know the fleet is going to be killed, only to realize that the way to the reach the Promised Land has been through death and downloading there all along. In fact, Billy, Zack, Dee and all the rest are going to all be there waiting for them when they arrive.
-
Mar 03, 2009 4:46:44 PM CST
The cop in the british sequel "ashes to ashes" is female
by larry of arabia
the cop in the original is a bloke.
-
*spoiler* Somehow the coma issue in the original wasn't a cop-out at all. It made perfect sense and was true to the story. The exception that proves the rule, I suppose.
-
I LOVE this show! Balls!!!!!
-
Who is really Jacob.
-
Why am I not surprised.
Oh and Herc, I figured he didn't *spoiler* commit suicide, but mearly put himself back in a coma. ie. Life in a coma (on Mars) was better to him than life here and now. Everyone say awwwww. -
...it's a freakin' cop show. Even a sci-fi fan like me can't get over that fact. Same goes for doctor and lawyer shows.
-
so I bypassed. GH has more sci fi B.S. than Mars did.
-
Seriously, it's not worth it. I loved the original LoM, kind of like the US version in its own way, but Ashes to Ashes is a horrible mess. Keeley hawes is absolutely awful in it. Gene Hunt (UK version) is a great character but he just doesn't work in the sequel.
-
SPOILERS..... In Ashes they imply that he did commit suicide however his dying moments took him back to 1973 and lasted another 7 years.
-
because I was too busy discussing LOST online to remember to change the channel. They should realize that about anything that follows LOST. They should put something that's not for the same fanbase. Because the LOST people aren't paying attention to TV once it's over. We're on the internets going "WAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLTTTTTTTT!!!!"
-
Bad day for NYC film/TV folks
-
I started watching the brit show first than lost interest. Love the abc version, tried to watch the brit show again and now it seems cheap and the lead guy The Master from Doctor Who seems like a little kid compared to the guy on the abc show. Plus Gretchen Mol is absolutely lickable and I love that Mars Rover. I'm just glad they are ending it unlike Journeyman. The reason why the US doesn't just show the brit shows, because there is no money to be made. If i pay you for your idea thats already a success overseas than its an easy sell to the suits, if it goes into syndication like the office than thats hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue for the so called creators of the US incarnation. Money is good. Gretchen Mol is even better.
-
I liked the show. And bring back Journeyman!
-
they could have saved a boatload of money and just bought the rights to the British show and aired that instead.
-
start putting major spoilers like that in invisitext. It wasn't like the spoiler was buried 2 or 3 paragraphs down.
-
I'm probably in the minority here, but I really liked Life On Mars. I watched the original UK series when it first aired in the US on BBC America and was surprised to find that I enjoyed the US version even more. To me, it's just a great all-around show -- memorable characters (Michael Imperioli is the man), good weekly episodic storylines, and an overall compelling sci-fi arc to glue it all together.
It's a total bummer to me that US audiences seem to have a hard time grasping series with a time travel aspect to them. Luckily, Lost waited 4 seasons before really bringing that part to the forefront. Had it been around earlier on, I suspect they would have struggled to keep an audience. Thankfully people are too invested to abandon ship now. -
Shit like Dollhouse is what's "generally crappy".
God forbid there's a network tv show that isn't mind-numbingly stupid.
Hercules wouldn't know good tv if it bit him on the ass. Fucking amateur. -
Great soundtrack AND Gretchen Mol. Would have liked another season.
-
I really dug the hell out of that show. It was a lot of fun, granted it was a one good one meh kind of show. But it was a lot better and a hell of a lot more fun then that mentally challenged show Heroes. Which somehow keeps hanging on, granted at least its getting a lot better, but its ratings are getting a lot worse.
-
I mean I watch more TV then anyone I know, and I don't really care about going online and talking about it. Shit I usually can't talk to any actual person about it unless they are right next to me watching it, because everyone I know waits for the fucking DVDs of shit. Well except for Greys, all Greys fans watch that shit the minute its on. Maybe I just don't care enough about talking about online the second I just saw it.
-
One last thing, I noticed that in the Book Store on the magazine rack there is a fucking Lost Magazine? Really for what?
-
You all catch the Terminator references in Monday's episode?
-
I guess McG is not going to be suddle about it. OOps music at the end Terminator sounding.
-
But The Unusuals is coming out and it looks very similar?
-
I can watch an entire season in a week. I love that. Special shows I watch week to week on DVDR are 24, Lost, and BSG.
-
I'm a big fan of the UK Life On Mars (and Ashes to Ashes for that matter), and like many others the original US pilot for LoM only confirmed for me that the idea of a remake was a bad bad idea. But I have to admit, the US version has come to grow on me.... I don't think it ever quite got as good, but it ended up being much better than I thought it would be, and I think it did sort of start to find its own voice. And Gretchen Mol in a lady cop uniform doesn't hurt either.
-
I can't believe I wrote that. My wife and her family all LOVE Father Ted. She's got the complete DVD series. She caught it on Canadian TV when she lived in Northern Michigan and got hooked. (I don't know if it ever played in the US). We're not Catholic, but the show is pretty outrageous. Too bad the lead actor died.
-
I mean, better than a lot of other stuff on TV. You know what I mean? But, anyway, I'm glad they get to explain what's going on with Sam? I wonder if they will do it exactly like the Brit series? I kinda hope they try another ending, though it'd only be right for them to mirror the original until the end. I'm curious about the sequel to "Life on Mars," the one in the '80s? I need to check that out. Ah well. When the US one got moved, I thought it was on its way out. ABC can say they tried, *shrugs*.
-
I loved Father Ted. Especially Dougal. It's a shame what happened. Of course I only read about it way after it happened. But I wanted more show and had no idea I had been watching a show where the lead guy died. When I looked it up on the internet I was shocked. They show most of those shows on the public broadcasting stations. That's how I also watched the Vicar of Dibley.
-
i think the producers were onto something, when they cast the show with archetypes from 70s cop shows, just like what was done on the bbc show prob is, they didnt go far enough they shoulda played it to the hilt, but they toned it down and made it a bit too pc i like keitel, but he too was miscast and the writers were lazy, for you could tell that once they had run out of the ideas handed to them from the bbc show, they had no idea where to go
-
shows...but they were adapted to american audiences from day one what was the point of just rewriting the scripts? it was lazy
-
Seriously, if it was having terrible ratings as LOST's remora, the show deserved to get canceled.
-
No one can top the original Philip Glenister's Gene Hunt. But I love how Harvey didn't try to imitate Glenister. DCI Gene Hunt was a piss and vinegar, put up your dukes kind of guy, very in touch with his working class roots. Harvey made Hunt into a more sophisticated New Yorker, a man who could deal with high society while keeping his feet on the streets. I think it was a necessary stretch in order to move the show from Manchester to New York. I'm glad Harvey didn't try to make him into Mr. White with a badge. I also like how the show dealt with the politics of the time, although it should have tried harder to make "back then" a mirror of "right now". Jason O'Meara did a great job with the lead.
I watched every single episode of both this and the original. This was a show that was true to its source material but took risks and went off in its own directions. It had a good run and had the potential to be great. However, the original started to run out of steam by the end. That's why they ended it on kind of an ambiguous note.
It sucks that the networks are geting so flaky but, in this new age of digital media, everyone's struggling to figure out how to make money from digital downloads. You can either jump on the bandwagon and download your share of free shit. Or you can ride high on your morality horse. I don't really care, as long as it makes it easier to get porn. -
I don't think they can ("do it exactly like the Brit series"). In the episode with the second man-from-the-future, I think they included some 2009 knowledge that Sam couldn't possibly know about (like Obama's inaugural) if he was really in a coma.
Well, unless there was a television set in his hospital room... -
... to the original UK show. The original Life On Mars was an event that people anticipated every week. It's almost impossible to catch lightning in a bottle like that twice (Ashes to Ashes being another lackluster example of too little, too late).
-
i watched it on Veoh a few weeks ago. the rooftop scene still gets to me.
-
Doing a cop show in NYC set in 1973 WITHOUT dealing with the rampant heroin trouble caused by Frank Lucas just misses the point. Finding out WHO was bringing in uncut heroin and selling it for half of what the mob was selling it for, undercutting both the mob AND the crooked cops who were selling of the remaining French Connection heroin was THE crime story of that time.
-
"We have to remake british shows with American actors because the sight of British teeth makes us all physically ill."
US waistlines have the same effect on the British. :)
-
I couldn't watch past the pilot of the US version. Detective wakes up. Wow - what's this? A car with an eight-track player! Cigarette advertising! John Travolta dancing down the street to `Burn Baby Burn!'. Viewers - just in case you're complete idiots, could he possibly be ... in the 1970s?
-
...and I eat all kinds of candy bars.
-
I just checked out the BBC Life on Mars on the youtube's...is that the Master from DW as the main character?? That's pretty sweet.
-
...can't we come up with an original show idea in the States? Except for 'Lost'.
-
Just saying, they didn't use her enough in the show. And Sam's nudist neighbour subplot went nowhere fast.
Now if they had put Annie in situations where she wore sexy outfits more, or revealed a bit of flesh, I think it would have helped the ratings somewhat. :) -
Mar 04, 2009 7:32:26 AM CST
Cap'n Jack: LOST is original...except when it lifts from THE PR
by spyguy
Smoke Monster = Rover 2.0
-
Though Life on Mars came first, and he's a very well known actor in the UK, he'll probably get saddled with references to the Master now for as long as he lives.
-
Stupid cutoff. Bah!
-
All series are by default 'generally crappy' without the involvement of the one true writing/directing/blogging triple-threat messiah, Joss Whedon.
-
so he could dig up a headless corpse in the yard. For a better and more detailed recap that I could do, you can find one here: http://tinyurl.com/aqp7jb
-
Last weeks episode was great! To much better then Lost its unbelievable. First and foremost the show actually has good acting, and its funny and dramatic, there is no sense of humor in Lost or Heroes. OH Well at least Breaking Bad starts up this week, again another show with a dark sense of Humor....unlike fucking Mad Boring Men.
-
There was an Americanized Doctor Who, The Doctor Who TV movie was supposed to be a pilot for a Fox TV series. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_(1996_film)
-
In the UK version it ends up being a Coma? what a waste of time. What a dumb premise. That's why i think i stopped watching it ... i had a feeling it would just lead to some dissapointing conclusion. Coma ending is not only dissapointing, its cliche and pointless.
-
Bummer. Old ass Harvey still chews it up properly as well. Kudos to the entire cast, it's a good show. Probably just a little bit much after an hour of LOST
-
What happend to the sexy hippie chick?The Chief's daughter was poo.
-
The reasons for the time travel were never really covered. He lobs himself off the building and dies then goes back to help Gene and co and carries on living in the past. It's deliberately left open.
Me, i like that, some people prefer to have a resolution.
Ashes to ashes started badly, but I thought got better through the series. -
Great cast and last nights ep was really good. Oh well. Maybe it aint for some people.
Readers Talkback
User Login
Top Talkbacks
- AVENGERS enemy revealed as pink boardgame pieces... You might suffer some form of elation... SPOILERS!!! -- 151 total posts 140 posts
- There's a STAR TREK video game that is going to lead into JJ's STAR TREK 2 apparently... -- 128 total posts 94 posts
- Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012 -- 92 total posts 91 posts
- To Commemorate The 3D Release Of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, George Lucas Wants You To Know...Greedo Shoots First!! -- 474 total posts 70 posts
- Here's The Red Band Trailer For Drafthouse Films' THE FP! -- 64 total posts 64 posts
- New JUDGE DREDD post production footage pops up -- 51 total posts 51 posts
- Friday Brings SWEEPS DAY NINE!! Gab Here About Tonight’s FRINGE!! Plus Einstein on TIM, Wiig On PORTLANDIA, MAHER, CLONE, GIFTED, GRIMM, SPARTACUS, SUPERNATURAL, GOLD RUSH And More!! -- 116 total posts 41 posts
- Wanna smell like the Hulk? What about Cap? Consider yourself a Thunder God or a unisex God of Mischief? -- 71 total posts 40 posts
- HANNA's Saoirse Ronan to boss around seven little people -- 35 total posts 35 posts
- Does ‘SNL’ Rhyme With ‘Deschanel’?? Learn Which SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Vet Hosts After Sexy Zooey!! -- 35 total posts 34 posts