Jack Yan on Vox

Last pre-broadcast reviews for US Life on Mars

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:58:18 +1300

The Los Angeles Times has both a video and a written review of tonight’s US Life on Mars première. Mary McNamara finds it largely positive; Robert Lloyd has a few minor reservations. Hop over to the site to see a few more clips; by (my) morning we’ll all know how it went for the new crew behind the show.

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US Life on Mars: another review emerges

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:09:48 +1300

Jace at Televisionary has seen the US Life on Mars and says it still falls short of the original (especially Jason O’Mara versus John Simm in the role of Sam Tyler), but his comments are largely positive. He does have a complaint that the final scene from the first episode of the UK one is not in here—so I wonder if it will creep up elsewhere, since it did impact on the finalé. Meanwhile, on his site was the following two-minute-plus promotional trailer for the première episode:

Life on Mars US 2'22'' TVC

Quite a few familiar scenes here and I don’t think there will be surprises to anyone who has seen the original series, right down to some of the lines (e.g. the ‘king of the jungle’ quotation from Gene). I’m still looking forward to this.

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Third actor cast in Spanish Life on Mars

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 21:15:27 +1300

Manuela Velasco

The Spanish have signed a third actor to join the cast of Vida en Marte, the remake of Life on Mars. Actress Manuela Velasco, niece of Concha Velasco, will join Ernesto Alterio and Antonio Garrido (Spanish Sam and Gene respectively) and play the Spanish version of Annie Cartwright.
   The new series will be set in 1977, and if my Spanish is correct (which it is unlikely to be!), Gene Hunt will be called Gallardo in the remake.
   The David Bowie song will not be used.
   Look forward to the new intro: ‘Me llamo Sam Tyler. Tuve un accidente y me desperté en 1973 ¿Estoy loco, en coma o he viajado en el tiempo? Pasara lo que pasara es como si hubiera aterrizado en otro planeta.’ Maybe it won’t be so literal.

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US Life on Mars: ‘You are surrounded by angry bastards!’

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:45:21 +1300

ABC has made a ‘Starter Kit’ to introduce people to Life on Mars, beginning this Thursday. The clip below shows many scenes familiar to fans of the original, and compared with the Kelley effort, it looks very good. Gene Hunt’s most (in)famous line gets changed by one word, but Appelbaum and Nemec, the new producers, seem to have hit the formula correctly. Importantly, there appears to be social commentary hidden within the show, which the Kelley pilot lacked.
British fans may take this to be an equivalent to the old BBC site, which is still up. Just that broadband has moved on a bit since the original series’ début in 2006.

Life on Mars US starter kit

A second clip has emerged, this time of Sam’s arrival at the 125th Precinct. Again, it is very familiar, and it is established early on that he has transferred from ‘Hyde’. By Chris’s discussion with Sam, it is Hyde Park in New York, as I had guessed. Harvey Keitel has the personality to carry Gene Hunt’s character, and Jason O’Mara is finally less beefcake compared with his first outing.

Life on Mars US episode 1 Sam arrives

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First review of US Life on Mars online

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 13:15:02 +1300

Someone has seen American Life on Mars already: Kelly West at Cinema Blend, who gives it 3½ stars. A lot more photographs on the page as well. Ms West makes no comparisons with the UK original and gives away nothing we don’t know already, but for American viewers, she does evaluate how suitable the show is airing after Grey’s Anatomy. There is, interestingly, one comparison to Journeyman, my favourite American show last year.

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Year of the ﬁst

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 22:51:28 +1200

These ads are not new, and American viewers will have already seen them. They are interesting to me because it shows this new première has taken on a lot more of the original version than David E. Kelley’s rejected pilot for Life on Mars. The new American lines are actually quite funny, with references to Sam’s ‘cell’ and Gene’s ‘year of the ﬁst’. According to Chris, Sam has transferred to the 125th Precinct from ‘Hyde’—presumably Hyde Park, New York, near Poughkeepsie (which is where the new Nelson is from). We also see a scene with Lisa Bonet as Maya in one of the spots.

Life on Mars premieres October 9th promo 1

Life on Mars premieres October 9th promo 2

Life on Mars premieres October 9th promo 3

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Other people

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:58:55 +1200

Not many surprises when I read at IO9 this morning on US Life on Mars about a casting call:

Fletcher Bellow (28–30 yrs old) In 1973 he is one of the first African-American detectives in the NYPD. Bellow manages to use his brains and sense of humor to navigate the system, and climb the ladder. He even manages to make peace with his bigoted colleagues on the force. In 2008 he will become Sam Tyler’s mentor on the force. Looking for an actor with a lot of personality, charm and humor …

It looks like a British story will be used in the US series.
However, a bit more disturbing was this change to proceedings, according to the ABC website:

At home in Sam’s apartment building in the East Village, there’s Windy, a free-spirited, post-hippie chick who can teach Sam a thing or two about the cultural revolution taking place in front of his unbelieving eyes.

Not sure who this is based on. Nelson the barman is still there (albeit played by a Caucasian-American actor) so I guess Windy is the Life on Mars equivalent of Arthur Fonzarelli, Cosmo Kramer or Steve Urkel. Note how they, too, are typically referred to by one-word names.
Maybe the character is based on Windy Miller from Camberwick Green?

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US Life on Mars publicity shots revealed from ﬁrst episode

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 01:41:03 +1200

Spoiler TV has some more publicity shots from the US Life on Mars, and here we can see some of the effort that has gone in to making the American version reasonably faithful to the British one. I have only chosen five for commentary; Spoiler TV has far more.

Lisa Bonet as Maya

Haven’t seen Denise Huxtable for a while. Lisa Bonet has a recurring, guest-starring role as Maya Daniels, Sam Tyler’s present-day girlfriend. In this respect you can see the potential for the storylines relating to African–Americans and mixed relationships, in the same way as the original covered the topic in relation to Ugandan Asians (Archie Panjabi was the original Maya Roy).

Sam in the 125th

Sam (Jason O’Mara) doesn’t ask for a ‘PC terminal’ but the ad did show he had similar, albeit Americanized, dialogue as he arrives at the 125th Precinct of the NYPD. The set is far more 1973 than the original remake’s attempt.

Michael Imperioli as Det Ray Carling

Michael Imperioli’s portrayal of Ray Carling is more in line with Dean Andrews’: cheeky and an opponent to Sam’s arrival in the precinct.

Melissa Silver as Suzie Tripper

Melissa Silver has a guest-starring role in the pilot as Suzie Tripper, and like her British counterpart (Jane Riley as Dora Keens), has to spend time in the lost-and-found to help Gene and Sam with their enquiries.

Annie has a psychology degree

And despite Gretchen Mol’s character Annie Norris having a different surname to Liz White’s, the briefing scene where Sam gets into the psyche of the killer appears to be far more faithful to the original than David E. Kelley’s attempt, which seemed more like Jason O’Mara trying to seduce Rachelle Lefèvre (the second Annie Cartwright) in front of the department.
So, no real surprises in the storyline of the première episode in October, but it will be very interesting to see how the episode hangs together with the action transferred from Manchester to New York (by way of Los Angeles).

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More US Life on Mars footage, in the new ad

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:19:17 +1200

It’s the new US Life on Mars commercial! (FDA warning: contains 90 per cent new ingredients.) There’s new footage of Sam being hit by a car, this time in New York, and the look certainly is closer to the original, albeit Americanized. I am actually more encouraged by this than the first trailer with the David E. Kelley-produced clips.

Life on Mars new spot

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First US Life on Mars scene revealed: the American Gene Genie!

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:45:56 +1200

Is it just me or is this still inferior to the original British scene despite the addition of Harvey Keitel as Gene Hunt?
This is the first scene shown to the public from the US remake of the US remake of Life on Mars. This scene, where Sam goes to the bar, was eliminated from the David E. Kelley version, but it appears in the original BBC first episode. The conversation where Sam and Gene confront one another was originally at another location.
The look is right and a massive improvement on the Kelley pilot’s, and Keitel pulls off tough-guy well without copying Philip Glenister, which is a plus. I still wonder about Jason O’Mara as Sam Tyler, who seems too beefcake and lacks John Simm’s appearance of frustration, though thanks to better direction O’Mara is far better here than in his first attempt. I realize my misgivings come from knowing the UK series well and making comparisons between O’Mara and John Simm and that we should still only judge the American remake after we see it fully.

Life on Mars US episode 1 bar scene

PS.: And Nelson’s white?!

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