Life on Mars:S01E02

*Groan*

It's not going well. There's no way I cannot sound like a fanboy of the BBC version, so I'll just plunge in. You'll have to forgive me and I'll have to hope that I can conjure up some analysis that goes beyond "it's not as good as the British version," which can pretty much be said about life in general, no?

First, what's going well. I liked that Sam's flashbacks when in the vicinity of the robot echoed conversations and experiences he had had in 1973. They add a hallucinatory layer to the flashes that is nice. Maybe Sam is on a really bad acid trip after all.

I like how Imperioli is playing Ray. BBC Ray was all quiet, gruff, and clearly resentful of the new man in a bullish, dullard's way. The value he brought to the team, and to DCI Hunt, was purely loyalty combined with brute force. ABC Ray is smarter. He's not about brute force. He's about playing the angles. He's a smart-ass. Hopefully, this will develop and we will see qualities in ABC Ray that challenge Sam's place on the team. I think they took a stab with that last night, with Ray tricking Sam into betraying the 125th, but the set up had problems. I'm willing to give it time.

Unlike the AV Club, I didn't mind the hippie chick. As much. Sure she was silly and hopefully the show will give her a bit of a darker side, but she's necessary for the plot. Sam has to have some reason that to want to stay in 1973. Or at least not driving himself crazy trying to escape form 1973. In the BBC version, that's Annie. In the ABC version, they've decided to go the Jim and Pam route and have Annie already hooked up with another copper, so we'll have goo-goo eyes and "if only" looks for two seasons.

What didn't work. The fashion is not working. All of Sam's 1973 wear wouldn't look out-of-place today. Stripey shirt underneath medium length black leather jacket? Crazy! It certainly doesn't help that someone has decided that in dramatic scenes, the collar goes inside the jacket, rather than out. Small difference: BBC Sam wore a similar jacket, but also had a button or two undone and added a gold chain. Would a 2008 man who suddenly found himself in 1973 seek to fit in or feel comfortable? Let the debate rage.

For some godawful reason, ABC has decided to play the violence cartoonishly. The tension of the show is supposed to be found in the differences in policing between 1973 and 2008. Can our slightly dweebish 2008 copper hang with the lads in 1973? The police "brutality" in this episode centered on Lt. Hunt tweeking a bad guy's nose. Twice! The fight between Hunt and Sam was played for slapstick. I am at a loss here.

The whole point of the show, as far as the police aspects go, is that Sam is appalled by the methods used by the 1973 cops. They just want to crack some skulls and see what happens (or so it seems). Rights don't matter, warrants don't matter, justice means getting baddies off the streets. Sam is appalled, but he also comes off as a bit of a dweeb. It's always rights and warrants and patient interrogation and "we'll get 'em next time, boys." The 1973 squad is just as appalled by Sam as he is by them. The ABC version has none of this. So far, all we get are "WTF?" reaction shots from Sam when the 1973s do something (mildly) "bad." No back and forth.

Which leads to the other thing that makes the BBC version great: class tension. The boys of the BBC squad are all clearly working-class men. They were born in Manchester and became coppers. They are lads. They enjoy cracking skulls and pints in the pub. If the state wants to pay them for it, all the better. Sam may be working class by birth, but he's got a bit of education. He's a 21st century cop, up on scientific methods, psychology, and technology. He's a fancy pants. The boys resent him for it. But Hunt is smart enough to see that Sam's ideas have merit. He's smart enough to be able to take a peek over that horizon and catch a glimpse of the future. He's suspicious, but he sees enough that he's willing to follow Sam at times. And when Sam messes up, as ABC Sam did this week, Hunt lashes out for being made to look foolish, for being made to doubt himself, for letting the middle-class prick tell him what to do. When BBC Hunt slams Sam in the gut with a punch, he means it.

None of this tension exists, so far, on the ABC version. I know America is a classless society, but come on. Sam hasn't even gotten an schtick for being a pretty boy. So when ABC Sam's idea goes wrong, and Lt. Hunt sort of hits him and then they wrestle around in a comic manner, it's meaningless. And I want to hurl things at my tv.

Which brings us to the biggest flaw of the show. As Gabba predicted, Harvey Keitel is a major weak link on the show. He's way too old to be playing Gene Hunt. Or any cop in 1973. I can't get past it. He's at least 65 years-old. Coppers weren't that old back then. Not Lieutenants. Being a cop was a working-class job. A job you took after high school or the Army. Early twenties at the latest. You retire from being a cop with full pension after 30 years, unless you're climbing a ladder or exercising power. You are certainly not chasing down bad guys, going on stake outs, or tweeking noses in interrogations. Keitel's Hunt was born in the 1910s at the latest. He came on the force during the Depression. He was too old for WWII. He was a cop in New York in the '40s and '50s. He comes from a completely different generation than anyone else on the show, but you wouldn't know it. They are trying to throw him into a role suited for a 42 year-old. Imperioli would have been an interesting choice for Hunt. I love Harvey Keitel, but every time he's on the screen, I can't help but thinking how wrong, wrong, wrong he is for the role.

I'm still hoping this gets better. Still remembering that the first few episodes of The Office bit balls. Started downloading Series 2 of the BBC Life of Mars.