Life On Mars

I Love

“My name is Sam Tyler. I had an accident, and I woke up in 1973. Am I mad, in a coma, or back in time? Whatever’s happened, it’s like I’ve landed on a different planet. Now maybe if I can work out the reason, I can get home.”

I missed this series when it first came out and only caught snippets of it here and there. I was hoping for a repeat and so didn’t watch series 2 when it came out either. Now thanks to Virgin, I can watch it every Wednesday night as they are repeating the entire series. Maybe if I’m lucky they’ll repeat series 2 as well.

Peter Martin summed it up very nicely on the Twitch blog in 2006:

“The set-up is intriguing, but what initially pulls you into Life on Mars is its setting: a police precinct in working-class Manchester, England, circa 1973. Detective Inspector Sam Tyler (John Simm) is slapped in the face by his new ‘reality’. Suddenly he has to deal with a squad full of smoking, drinking, brawling, sexist, racist, homophobic cops who’d rather solve crimes with their fists than their brains. Tyler is tough, sure, but his harder edges have been softened by education, training, and 21st Century sensitivities. His new squadmates might as well be Neanderthals.”

I’ve only seen the first 2 episodes so far and I’m loving it.