Life On Mars: My Maharishi’s Bigger Than Your Maharishi
By fred | October 24, 2008
(S01E03) The pilot episode was a really good one, a great episode that did a wonderful job at creating a very entertaining hour of television and getting us excited about this new show — at least it did for me, who never watched a single second of the original UK series. Now after that really good pilot came the time of the rest of the life of the series, and all the episodes that would follow.
My fear was that it would turn into nothing but a traditional procedural cop-drama, only set in the 1970’s, of course. Not that this automatically means something bad, or is synonym of bad television or that this couldn’t happen and still be a good show, but the thing is, that’s not a show I would be really interested in. Because the thing that got me excited and draw me to this show in the first place, wasn’t really the seventies.
It was more the going there, and back. It was the time-traveling aspect of the show, or whatever is actually happening to Sam. And while last week the episode did a pretty good job at playing with the different possibilities of what could be happening to Sam and everything, the episode was for the most part not about time travel.
This week things got even more obvious. Sure, we had a picture here and a tattoo there, but the real meat of the show, what filled 40 of the 42 minutes of this episode, was not about any of that, but just another crime. A crime that needed to be investigated, was investigated, and the bad guy was caught in the end. And because it was 1973 we had the Vietnam war a lot more present in people’s minds, gay-bashing was very much ‘in’ and it is possible that Sam “invented” the term of gaydar.
But all in all, it was just that, cops investigating a murder, the case of the week. And while Sam got a little better, he still doesn’t seem to fully realize that gays were treated differently back then, or at least it was done openly and accepted by the majority, or that back then female police officers weren’t really considered much, same goes for their opinion. But all of that, or seeing suspects getting chair thrown into their faces, that’s just not enough to get me interested, not even with a good soundtrack.
There’s obviously a good quality behind the show, but I’m not sure I like it. All we got this week on the time-travel side of things was a couple of things :
- Sam finally thought of what we all thought of during the pilot episode, and tried to see himself, his other self, his 4-year-old self. He eventually did, as we all knew he would once the game was mentioned, and so that’s it, though I’m not sure that means anything really as to what’s going on. Sure, right before he told Wendy that he was starting to think 1973 was real and 2008 was the illusion, but I don’t think he really meant that anyway, he was just saying that he’s accepting more the idea that he might be stuck here a while.
- About Wendy, at this point I think that one of two possible “twists” will happen. Either she’s Wendy, the girl next door, and she’ll soon be found dead and Sam will investigate the crime. Or, more likely, she’s actually Wendy, a figment of Sam’s imagination. I hadn’t thought of this until then, but she never really interacted with anyone else but Sam, did she?
And when she said to him, out of the blue, “maybe 2008 is the illusion and 1973 is the reality“, I wondered. It’s not just the way she said it, but also that she said that. Why would she say that ? Why now ? Why like that ? Did it feel more like something coming out of Sam’s brain ? One of his thought as he’s trying to understand what’s going on ?
Anyways, all in all it’s not a bad show, but to me this is turning out to be just a procedural cop-drama set in 1973, and that’s simply not really something I feel like watching every week. I might give it one more episode or two, but unless I suddenly get really interested by it – which would mean the whole “time-traveling” aspect of the show would have to become a lot more prominent – I will probably stop watching.
One last thing though : Seems this week, Sam was very much adoption a Zen attitude, insisting that “everything is connected”. Reminded me so much of one Charlie Crews… Finally, one line I really loved, was when Sam mentions it was a hate-crime after all : “As opposed to an I-really-really-like-you crime.”
What about you : do you like the show as it is now ? Or do you wish it would be more about “time-travel” and less about the weekly murder ? Are you going to keep watching even if every episode resemble this one more than the pilot ?
Posted in Reviews
Shows: Life On Mars
I totally hear you on the time travel thing, but I still dont get why they cancelled the best “time travel” show in a longgg time – Journeyman.
It just boggles my mind that such a well made and acted show could get dropped, yet slop like Worst Week makes it to the air.
The american version isn’t bad but it lacks the suspense of the british version. His hallucinations/visions were damn disturbing. When you have watched all of season one, check out the british version, I would be interested in your opinion.
Yeah, Journeyman was a good show, but you really can’t except anything from NBC these days…
(And I’m pretty sure Worst Week is still on the air only because it has a strong lead-in, and that’s why it looks like it’s doing fine. Because really, the show isn’t good… Same goes for Lie To Me, not really a good show (though better than WW), but a strong lead-in…)
@Tim: Yeah, I am planning on watching the original version, but I don’t want to spoil anything (in case the writers go a similar direction, even though I have no idea if they will/are/still can). But I’m not sure if I’ll do after the first season is over, or if I should rather wait longer (unless it’s become obvious they’re not going the same direction)… ?