Pilot Inspektor: ABC's "Life on Mars"

ABC had very little to announce for next season at this year's upfronts; most of its pilots have yet to have been shot and won't film a single frame until later this summer. And the few things that ABC did end up ordering were either picked up from another network (Scrubs) or had been shot last year (Life on Mars).

What's my point? I finally sat down last night to watch the pilot for Life on Mars with bated breath. After all, longtime readers know how bloody much I love the UK original series of Life on Mars--starring John Simm, Liz White, and Philip Glenister--and I had pretty low expectations for this David E. Kelley-created US remake, which keeps the basic plot intact (detective Sam Tyler gets hit by a car whilst investigating a serial killer and wakes up in 1972... or does he?), along with much of the dialogue, shot compositions, and graphics. (Kelley, for his part, won't be involved with the series; ABC has hired Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Scott Rosenberg, the executive producers/creators of the recently axed October Road, to come on board as showrunners.)

I wasn't sure how the action would really transport from 1970s Manchester with its Northern accents, creepy Test Card girl, and satirical humor intact (not to mention a rocking soundtrack from David Bowie et al). It's an odd juxtaposition with Los Angeles, which lacks the same essential temperament as Manchester and was undergoing a very different transition of its own in the 1970s. The essential look of the show, with its sunshine and palm trees, seems very much at odds with the sort of haunting, slow burn atmosphere of the plot. The fact that Sam Tyler is quite possibly laying in a coma in a present day hospital seems to lend itself better to the wet, damp, grey atmosphere of Northern England than sunny Southern California.

Jason O'Mara (Men in Trees) plays Sam Tyler who, like his predecessor, is on the hunt for a serial killer in the present day when his colleague/girlfriend Maya (BSG: Razor's Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen) is kidnapped by the madman; distraught, Sam pulls over onto the side of the road (or in this case a median on a completely deserted road by the Disney Concert Hall) and, while listening to Bowie's "Life on Mars" in unexpectedly hit by a car. While the shots are almost perfectly lifted from the original, that version shocked and disturbed me when Sam was struck out of nowhere; here, it's laughably bad and telegraphed a mile away. O'Mara isn't bad as Sam Tyler but he lacks the intensity and rapid-fire thought of Simm's interpretation; he's more brawn than brains here.

Sam wakes up in 1972 Los Angeles and wanders the streets in a dazed, bewildered state before ending up at the police station where he (A) discovers that he is still a detective and has been transferred (from where?) to this precinct and (B) meets the adorable Annie (What About Brian's Rachelle Lefevre) and gruff boss Gene Hunt (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Colm Meaney).

While Lefevre is absolutely charming as sweet-as-pie Annie (though doesn't quite match the kewpie doll innocence of the original's Liz White), Meaney is a pale imitation of Glenister's Gene Hunt; while Hunt is an amoral psychopath in his own right, he manages to still be sympathetic and fascinating at the same time, no small testament to the acting prowess of Philip Glenister. Meaney plays Hunt as an aggressive thug but with little of the charisma that has made the character so memorable on not one but two series (including Life on Mars spinoff Ashes to Ashes). When Hunt slams his fist into Sam's stomach as a way of introducing himself it just didn't ring as true, especially as O'Mara towers over Meaney physically and isn't as slight or wiry as Simm was in the role.

Overall, I was deeply disappointed by Life on Mars' pilot episode. The original had such spark, creativity, and vision--from the overarching plot to the set design, costumes, and visual look of every shot--while the US version seems fairly... generic. It's dully colored puddle of an episode that looks to have been shot on a soundstage and has none of the nail-biting tension, subtle satire (of British cop series like The Sweeney, among other things), or the psychological drama of the brilliant original.

No, Life on Mars seems more like mass-produced, microwavable fare; it's boxed macaroni and cheese: loaded with calories and fat but no soul.

Life on Mars launches this fall on Thursday nights at 10 pm on ABC.