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In modern-day London, detective Sam Tyler (John Simm) is chasing down a suspect when he's
suddenly hit
by a car and wakes up in 1971.
Now he has to be a detective in that time, solving crimes dealing with
partners that are well more by the gut and breaking the rules than he is
and he has to find out what happened to him, and
if he can even get home. This is an
odd concept for a TV show but
it works. This is really damn good
entertainment. Now first and foremost this series is a procedural drama it's an,
action series, it's a thriller series. It really does focus a great deal
on the police work. Each episode is a different case
that Tyler and his fellow police officers have to solve. We've got
hardcore robbers we've got bloodthirsty killers
and we have the ultimate seventies action guy cliche
DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) who heads up that division.
When you put all of this together this makes Life on Mars just
entertaining from that crime show point of view.
But this is no ordinary show. Our main character suffers
or maybe is experiencing visions odd things like
a character speaking through the television show with the voice of doctors in a
recovery room or an operating room,
voices that are coming through the radio or through other characters reminding
him of things in the 21st century; it's a bit confusing for him
but it's not confusing for us by how the show is put together.
All these little things could just trip us up, take us
out of that serious fun action and it doesn't. It adds to it,
adds to this story of our main character
either being a time traveler, or being stuck in his own brain,
or you just don't know what's happening to this guy, but you keep watching.
And that's what I did, I watched every episode and enjoyed
every single one of them. Now Life on Mars the BBC original which I'm talking about,
was so successful, so beloved it had a sequel series set in the eighties
and spawned a US version, a Spanish version,
and Russian version, but you know what stick with the original.
Get in on the ground floor with Life on Mars.
And trust me no matter how you think it might end- you know what? watching the
show you might think to yourself
"I know what happened to Sam". Regardless you are going to enjoy
solving this mystery right to the very end.