The many dimensions of Life On Mars
Dec. 3rd, 2007 12:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meteordustThe thing about Life On Mars is that it works on so many levels.
There's old meets new as Sam tries to bring modern investigative techniques to 1970s policing. There's culture clash as Sam and Gene go head to head over their methods and their ethics and run around being alpha at each other. There's classic police drama - you have the undercover episode, the siege episode, the internal investigation episode - all staples of the genre for a reason. There's Sam's personal journey, which I don't want to give away too much about, but which is deeply moving. And like all time travel stories, there are lots of moments of foreknowledge woven in - some that are fun, and some that are haunting.
The one thing I don't get is all the intense fascination with whether Sam is in a coma or back in time. Because to me, it's clearly both. 1973 is real, and so are Sam's visions of the coma. (I've only seen Series One, so I know my theory has most likely been totally Jossed. No spoilers please...)
This is a show that stands up to a great deal of rewatching. John Simm acts his socks off, and the rest of the cast does an excellent job of keeping up with him. No remake could possibly do it justice, because everything about it is just so perfectly put together. You don't get magic like this very often.
There's old meets new as Sam tries to bring modern investigative techniques to 1970s policing. There's culture clash as Sam and Gene go head to head over their methods and their ethics and run around being alpha at each other. There's classic police drama - you have the undercover episode, the siege episode, the internal investigation episode - all staples of the genre for a reason. There's Sam's personal journey, which I don't want to give away too much about, but which is deeply moving. And like all time travel stories, there are lots of moments of foreknowledge woven in - some that are fun, and some that are haunting.
The one thing I don't get is all the intense fascination with whether Sam is in a coma or back in time. Because to me, it's clearly both. 1973 is real, and so are Sam's visions of the coma. (I've only seen Series One, so I know my theory has most likely been totally Jossed. No spoilers please...)
This is a show that stands up to a great deal of rewatching. John Simm acts his socks off, and the rest of the cast does an excellent job of keeping up with him. No remake could possibly do it justice, because everything about it is just so perfectly put together. You don't get magic like this very often.
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Date: 2007-12-06 02:05 pm (UTC)Well, I have to admit I don't understand how it being both would actually *work* in practical terms, unless there's some kind of astral projection involved. But it's like waves and particles - I'm not sure I get it, but in the circumstances I'm willing to go with it.
many of the decisions he's forced to make in 1975 appear to have a different "right" choice depending on which explanation is the correct one
Oh, now that's a really interesting point. And that other possibility sounds intriguing...