Life on Mars the US version premiere ep.
Oct. 10th, 2008 12:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sg_lab2 It was basically a copy of the first episode of the British version with an American spin on it. There were a couple of differences beyond where it was set.
A lot of the scenes that were copied from the original were shorter versions given that an American show that’s an hour long is actually about forty-five minutes long.
It was set in New York and when Sam found himself in 1973 he at one point turns around and sees the Twin Towers standing before him. I hadn’t actually thought about that until it happened. I forgot when the World Trade Center had been built.
Michael Imperioli from the Sapranos plays Ray. His mustache looks fake. The character Chris didn’t make much of an impression. In fact when Sam enters the police station in 1973 and we see the other characters this is what comes to mind.
The sexist comments from the men directed toward Annie didn’t feel real. The comments felt like they were coming from more enlightened men who were just playing a part. It’s funny though, I was reading an article in TV Guide recently about the show and it listed off some of the issues of the 1970’s and sexism and racism were two of the issues I can recall off the top of my head. But these issues it talked about still exist today. Sexism and racism just aren’t that obvious today due to litigious fears being put on people.
So far I’m not too impressed with Harvey Keitel’s Gene Hunt. He’s rather bland as a character so far. And given the shortened scenes he hasn’t been given as much.
And in the scene in the British version when Gene is plying the old lady with tea and biscuits, in the US version it was coffee and it wasn’t much of a scene. They had Gene and Sam leaping over the desks too. And it paled in comparison to the original Gene and Sam jumping over the desks and out the door.
At the end however instead of the killer having psych evaluation that he was mentally incompetent to stand trial, the original suspect in 2008 had a twin brother. Sam concludes the twin brother became a copy cat killer of the original from 1973. So he went to the kid’s apartment building and found the kid on his stoop where he contemplated killing the kid until he heard his girlfriend’s voice telling him she was all right.
If I had never seen the British version of Life on Mars I probably would like this version. It felt familiar to me in terms of culture and I understood some things better even though the show is set on the east coast and it’s two years before I was even born.
I’m going to watch some more and see how it goes.
A lot of the scenes that were copied from the original were shorter versions given that an American show that’s an hour long is actually about forty-five minutes long.
It was set in New York and when Sam found himself in 1973 he at one point turns around and sees the Twin Towers standing before him. I hadn’t actually thought about that until it happened. I forgot when the World Trade Center had been built.
Michael Imperioli from the Sapranos plays Ray. His mustache looks fake. The character Chris didn’t make much of an impression. In fact when Sam enters the police station in 1973 and we see the other characters this is what comes to mind.
The sexist comments from the men directed toward Annie didn’t feel real. The comments felt like they were coming from more enlightened men who were just playing a part. It’s funny though, I was reading an article in TV Guide recently about the show and it listed off some of the issues of the 1970’s and sexism and racism were two of the issues I can recall off the top of my head. But these issues it talked about still exist today. Sexism and racism just aren’t that obvious today due to litigious fears being put on people.
So far I’m not too impressed with Harvey Keitel’s Gene Hunt. He’s rather bland as a character so far. And given the shortened scenes he hasn’t been given as much.
And in the scene in the British version when Gene is plying the old lady with tea and biscuits, in the US version it was coffee and it wasn’t much of a scene. They had Gene and Sam leaping over the desks too. And it paled in comparison to the original Gene and Sam jumping over the desks and out the door.
At the end however instead of the killer having psych evaluation that he was mentally incompetent to stand trial, the original suspect in 2008 had a twin brother. Sam concludes the twin brother became a copy cat killer of the original from 1973. So he went to the kid’s apartment building and found the kid on his stoop where he contemplated killing the kid until he heard his girlfriend’s voice telling him she was all right.
If I had never seen the British version of Life on Mars I probably would like this version. It felt familiar to me in terms of culture and I understood some things better even though the show is set on the east coast and it’s two years before I was even born.
I’m going to watch some more and see how it goes.
