You may recall me not being overly thrilled with the Americanized version of Life on Mars or more specifically, the way it ended. Well, as a few commenters on that post pointed out, there was a British version - the original if you will - that went for two seasons. What planet have I been on?
It isn't uncommon that my wife and I come to these TV shows late. For instance, we still have never seen a single episode of "24", and we had to go back and rent DVDs of The Sopranos to catch up on three or four seasons so we could watch the last episode along with the rest of the country. There is simply too much TV to try to find all of the good shows and stay up with them unless you are one of those people who walk in the door, glue your ass to the couch and don't move until the alarm goes off signaling it is time for work. The answer is A) getting recommendations from friends as to which shows are good and 2) not feeling bad if they give you bad info and simply moving on.
So, if I may be so bold as to implore you to go forth, get hit by a speeding car and wake-up in 2006, back when the British version of Life on Mars came out, and watch it.
A few caveats: First, based purely on production values (Americans tend to spend a lot of money in TV production, special effects, soundtrack and such), I totally preferred the American production of Life on Mars. Keep in mind, they had two things going for them. There was already an established story that worked, and secondly, Lost! is a huge hit and now, people seem to be a little more accepting of suspending reality an hour at a time.
In the American version of LOM, they really sold the fact that it was 1973 and thanks to Michael Imperioli as Det Ray Carling going all out with the 70's porn star look, you couldn't help but feel like you were watching Starsky & Hutch from time to time. And the music helped. The American version was all over the music in most scenes and if only for comedic value, there was a lot more references by Det. Sam Tyler to modern day. And finally, like most American shows filmed in NYC, they seem to have lots of extras walking around to make it appear real.
From the production stand point, the Brit version appeared to be filmed on a closed studio lot. I can only assume the BBC does not pay for huge productions where every scene is filled with 200 hundred extras wandering around, nor can they round up a fleet of 1970's vintage cars so as to allow a car chase scene to involve more than two vehicles - the one being chased and the one doing the chasing. For me, that was the most frustrating thing about watching the Bloke version; the fact that it did not share the same scenery, the same rich soundtrack and all those little extra things in the background that may or may not catch your eye the first time you see it, that really make you feel transformed to the era.
Okay, enough of the caveats. The Bloke version of LOM had a much more believable lead actor, John Simm as Sam Tyler. More importantly, the role of Sam's boss, Gene Hunt was played by a guy named Philip Glenister. Just looking at his bio, it would appear he has been playing copper roles on British Telly for quite some time, so the role of DCI Gene Hunt probably came natural. As much as I loved Harvey Keitel's Gene Hunt in the US version, you cannot help but immediately want to watch the Glenister version yell, cuss and scream at people, over and over.
A note of caution: My wife also liked DCI Gene Hunt on the Bloke version, and now, she is running around the house yelling things like, "Oi! Drop your weapons! You are surrounded by armed bastards!" or " You great... soft... sissy... girlie... nancy... French... bender... Man United supporting POOF!
" Yes, the dog especially loves that one. She now likes to use terms like Bollocks and is fond of telling people "You're nicked!" So keep that in mind if you decide to go back and watch the British version, you may find yourself with an entirely new vocabulary.
A final note: Again, being way out of touch, we found that there is a follow-up to the Brit version of LOM called Ashes to Ashes. Sam Tyler seems to be gone, but now some lady detective has gone back to 1983 to join DCI Gene Hunt. I can't wait to see it!
I don't mean to waste anyones time here but we have an important situation that has arisen. Specifically, the Monday night TV shows we watch have all apparently come to a season end.
Don't get me wrong; we are not consumed with TV shows. We aren't members of the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana fan club or anything, but we do record a certain group of shows and then watch them in commercial elimination fashion. The only night where we have an actual robust line-up we follow is Monday nights on CBS. But sure enough, tonight, the DVR refused to record the shows because it is smart enough to recognize re-runs. So instead, I will tell you about a handful of the shows we watch, and you can give me some suggestions for new ones.
Right off the bat, I do enjoy the Monday night CBS line-up of Big Bang Theory, How I met your Mom and Men, Men, Men. For several years we would watch CSI-Miami, but I have to be honest; I simply could not take Horatio Cane putting his hand on his hip and posing like each crime scene was a photo shoot for the ugly red head edition of Playgirl. Aside from the pure ickyness factor of Cane, I never could get over why the people all wore white pants and never got blood or anything on them.
It took my wife two full seasons to convince me to join the bandwagon, but on Tuesdays, I have to admit I like NCIS. Another one that just started this season is called The Mentalist, and although I do have some reservations about the main character always smiling, I have to admit we have enjoyed the episodes so far.
I was only a casual fan of Seinfeld (never even saw the final episode), but The New Adventures of Old Christine on Wednesdays is just so wrong that it is funny. Of course we like CSI-NY but we usually record several CSI's and CSI-NY's and save them up to watch in sort of a marathon session. I think it is going to be very interesting to see how Laurence Fishburne comes in and takes over for the guy who is the star of the show.
On Thursday's, we dig Grey's Anatomy, but seriously, if it goes the route of routinely having dead people on, I'll probably lose interest. I get my fill of dead folk from Ghost Whisperer on Friday's. And we've been finding that show to be more and more predictable, so ol' awkwardly dressed, big-headed girl may find herself on my list of ex-TV shows.
We don't bother with any reality shows. We watched the very first season of Survivor when they had the fat nekkid gay guy and his best friend, the retired Navy SEAL. What a hoot. How could you ever follow-up that mess?
Of course, We are huge fans of LOST! and can't wait. But we also have several shows on the cable channels that we love.
We joined the Sopranos bandwagon late and had to hold a marathon session of going to Block Buster so we could catch up on the first two or three seasons, and of course were saddened to see it end. But it was a great ending!
We also did the Block Buster catch-up deal on Deadwood and just hated to see that show come to a premature ending. Ditto for Carnivale.
So our new favorites from cable include Rescue Me and the just recently completed first season of The Sons of Anarchy. We did the Block Buster marathon session on Rescue Me and now, we just can't wait for the new season to start. We just happened to see the promos for SOA while watching the little mini-episodes of Rescue Me, and decided to give it a shot. Ron Peralman reminds me of the Beauty and The Beast, but somehow he works as a bad motorcycle club dude. And of course, Peg Bundy as his biker chick wife somehow works as well.
Okay, upon review I guess we do see a lot of TV shows but in actual ass-on-the-couch time, it isn't that bad. We DVR everything to the point that we will actually wait 10 minutes to watch a live TV show, just so we can skip through the commercials and catch-up to real time at the end.
I know there are numerous gems out there that we have just never made for. I'd love to hear your suggestions. We have every channel ever invented (UVerse U400 Package), so there is bound to be something we could be watching but haven't stumbled upon. Tell me what I have to see!
