Life on Mars (2006) s02e08

The “Life on Mars” season finale begs think pieces about its failures. Not the direction; S.J. Clarkson does a great job. Not the acting; everyone’s good, though not really great because it’s such a bad story.

To wrap up the mystery of whether series lead John Simm is living in 1973 and experiencing hallucinations he’s a modern-day police officer in a coma imagining he’s in 1973, is in a coma and imagining 1973, or has somehow travelled back in time.

Now, the show doesn’t resolve the couple times Simm’s past actions have had present day repercussions and there’s never any serious suggested of time travel. So either it’s very likely to be the coma thing. And this episode, written by—oh, of course it is—Matthew Graham, is going to walk everyone through these possibilities like we’re watching the second or third episode of a miniseries. Meaning everything after the first episode of the first season… not important. There’s a reason there hasn’t been any character development over the second season; because there’s no season arc. It’s just been some soft two-parters—like this one, which has Ralph Brown return and tell Simm a whole bunch of hard truths about Philip Glenister and company—but they’ve been done-in-ones.

And now, the finale, which quickly drags Simm through a subplot about actually he’s had head trauma and is imagining all the future stuff (meaning the viewer’s existing in the imagined future too because we’ve got shared pop culture references, including a very bad Robocop one this episode, which should’ve been fine but Graham ruined it because of course he did). Now, there are all sorts of sight gags referring to previous episodes, which all imply some or most of the show has been entirely imaginary and a complete waste of time.

Then it turns out that entire subplot is a waste of time.

What’s so impressive about Clarkson’s direction is the way she doesn’t let the obvious narrative inertia of the script slow things down too much. Simm’s got what should be a really difficult part—especially when he keeps trying to pressure Liz White into sleeping with him—but ends up being fairly simple and digestible. Graham’s solution for the series’s puzzles and riddles is to do a couple obvious things, one of them a little more craven than the other, and wrap things up.

Only… it’s not like they’ve been wasting time about Simm investigating the reality of his reality the whole series. He’s only done it the first episode and this episode; everything else in between has been too slight. So there’s no rewatch quality to the episode itself. It’s just trying to justify itself.

It’s a disappointing finish, of course. Still a great cast, still a great production. Still funny. Graham doesn’t write the best jokes, but they get great deliveries.

But it’s just a bigger finale letdown than I remember.

Also.

Recasting Simm’s mom is a major failure.

Not even Clarkson can make that one work. Nor Simm for that matter. He’s got some highs and lows this episode; Graham’s script gives him so very little.

But, you know, it could’ve been worse. There are some really bad moves and some okay enough ones. There’s some nice character interplay, with everyone getting a second off of sorts.

They really just needed a good show bible; they needed some character development; they needed Joanne Froggatt. But even without, “Life on Mars” is a good show, one with a mildly annoying finish to a middling second season. Great performances. Great production values.

Anyway. It’s not good but it’s a very terse fine. Clarkson does a great job. The actors do what they can with what they’ve got.

And you’re not left wanting any more “Life on Mars,” which seems to have been the goal of the second season.

Life on Mars (2006) s02e07

S.J. Clarkson directs this episode so it always looks good and moves well. The script’s from first “Mars”-timer Mark Greig, who turns in a fairly decent “is the guv a killer” episode. Philip Glenister’s been charged with murder and the evidence is against him; with replacement DCI Ralph Brown in to oversee the case, John Simm feels the pressure to put Glenister away.

Only if Glenister did it, there wouldn’t be an episode, so Simm is out to prove his innocence, even as the rest of the team falls away. It’s good though, because when there’s a lengthy chase sequence of Glenister and Simm outwitting Dean Andrews and Marshall Lancaster, the episode’s easily at its best. Having Glenister forced to spend an episode with Simm and rely upon him… there’s a lot of good bicker banter. Plus the investigation scenes make more senes when it’s Glenister and Simm; they’re actually able to talk it out, giving “Mars” its first crime scene investigation since the beginning of the season. Simm and Glenister are excellent actors and this episode gets to showcase their ability more than most have been lately.

The frame-up involves a fight promoter, Seamus O’Neill, who Glenister testifies against in court. Glenister gets blasted afterwards and goes harassing O’Neill, with Simm as a witness, including brandishing a firearm. So apparently Glenister checked out a pistol for court duty. Okay.

After leaving a drunken Glenister to roam the streets of Manchester, Simm goes home and passes out, leading to a dream sequence, in which he gets an ominous call about being asked for help and to provide it. So who’s calling for help when the phone wakes Simm up? Glenister over O’Neill’s dead body, his gun on the scene.

The coppers arrive and take Glenister in and then Simm meets Brown, who’s from the same police station (“Hyde”) where Simm is supposedly from but they don’t know each other. They do have some similar detecting techniques, which Lancaster in particular notices. This first act of the episode is about the only time there’s anything for Liz White to do, because once Simm teams up with Glenister, there’s no time for girls. Not when Simm has also got to keep Brown at bay.

The resolution requires Simm and Glenister to be particularly bad coppers—they did a silly bad job on the initial case with O’Neill, which we all discover together in one of the suspect interviews—but it’s mostly forgivable. There’s a solid ending, right up until we find out this episode answers a question brewing and usually forgotten since the first episode of the season—who’s calling Simm from a Hyde number?

Life on Mars (2006) s02e02

Thank goodness for S.J. Clarkson. There’s also a bunch of good acting in this episode, but Clarkson’s direction is what holds it all together because Chris Chibnall’s script certainly isn’t doing the trick.

Chibnall has two emphases this episode—first, lengthy exposition sequences with John Simm and Philip Glenister recapping information the viewer has seen play out on screen with Simm and sometimes even Glenister, but we have to hear it again to set up Glenister for a joke. It’s like a sitcom. Glenister can get through most of them, with a solid result in the joke section, but even he can’t maintain through the entire episode, getting very tired in the last few of expository dump sequences.

The other emphases is guest star Ray Emmet Brown, a Black copper in 1973 Manchester who’ll grow up to be Simm’s mentor in the apparently post-racial present. There are two to three scenes of Simm telling Brown not to be an Uncle Tom, though only one time literally calling him an Uncle Tom and telling him to stop it. Brown does get to tell Simm his feelings, but Simm ignores them and tells Brown how it’s got to be.

Not so Brown can make things better for other Black officers, but so he’s in a position to help white boy Simm twenty years in the future.

There seems to be a potential juxtaposition between Simm mentoring his own mentor with Glenister’s mentor Kevin McNally hanging around for the episode. McNally’s dying and wants to just his arch nemesis (Stephen Bent) before he goes, but he doesn’t want Glenister knowing he’s dying. The juxtapose doesn’t work because Chibnall’s not really good enough at it. Especially not with the twists and reveals, though the grand finale is pretty good and finally gives Brown a solid scene where he’s not scene fodder for Simm.

The episode’s got some decent set pieces, including an all-hands-on-deck undercover sequence—including Noreen Kershaw, who rarely gets to leave the station—and the sequence is well-executed until it turns out to be dramatically pointless and just something Chibnall’s got in there so not everything is talking heads exposition. Most of the episode is Simm talking to someone or someone talking to Simm about the main plot. All the action is in the first act, something composer Edmund Butt seems to understand more than anyone else because he’s got very dramatic, very ominous music in the rest of the episode even when it’s just people talking without there being any danger.

One of those scenes is Liz White, who should have a much bigger part this episode given it’s her first case as Detective Constable (DC). She gets some good material but once it turns into Glenister and Simm’s team-up—someone calls them “Laurel and Hardy” at one point and it’s way too clearly Chibnall’s take on the characters and show—she’s just vaguely around. She’s Simm’s sounding board for work ideas, which is probably better than being his emotional laborer regarding being trapped in the past.

At least he doesn’t tell her what it’s like to be a woman copper in 1973.

It’s an okay episode, but with some big whiffs in the Chibnall script; the production design, soundtrack, direction, and acting (like Dean Andrews finally getting to do some character development) all help compensate for most of the problem’s in Chibnall’s script.

Though nothing makes up for the pointless, single scene transphobic “gag,” or Brown getting the lectures.

“Mars” really needs to temper its ambitions and leverage its strengths more.

Life on Mars (2006) s02e01

Series two starts with S.J. Clarkson directing, which is good, and Matthew Graham writing, which is middling. Graham’s leaning in on the “present affects the past,” with a villain terrorizing comatose John Simm in the hospital and the only way Simm can save himself is confronting the bad guy in the past.

Marc Warren’s actually really good as the bad guy, he’s just not really in the episode very much. He has like three or four scenes—he’s a casino owner who comps the cops, so everyone but Simm loves him—and in the present it’s all voiceover and ominous imagery. Clarkson can make “Mars” work as it skips between locations and tones in the past, but making the ominous present-day imagery work? Nope. No one could.

Because even though Graham’s all-in on the Simm is in a coma in the present… the show itself isn’t, because then there’s no actual drama.

It plays out fairly well in the episode (there’s nothing more frustrating than a script with good scenes but bad, albeit occasionally inspired plotting), even if the whole episode does serve as a lengthy setup to the new series two ground situation.

For instance, there a couple promotions in store for the cast members, which finally brings the team together.

Simm’s got a rougher part than he should this episode, as he continuously harasses Warren’s girlfriend and future wife and victim Yasmin Bannerman, including telling her all about what’s going to happen to her unless she listens to him. Again, Graham’s really lazy about the other characters when Simm’s having one of his outbursts because having them actually address it would entirely change the show.

Though Liz White does warn Simm multiple times he’s on his way to being involuntarily committed this episode, something they must’ve decided one somewhere between series one and series two. Apparently Philip Glenister can get anyone committed at any time.

Again, it’s a solid but problematic (more than actually bumpy, as the procedural stuff is strong) episode in a good show. Even with an iffy arc, Simm’s good, Glenister’s great, and nice support from White, Dean Andrews, and Marshall Lancaster.

Maybe the most galling thing in the episode is Simm being pointlessly cruel to Noreen Kershaw because it’s socially acceptable for him to be pointlessly cruel to women.

The big setup finale, with Starman accompanying the end credits, promises the season’s going to be good. And have an actual season subplot—Simm gets a mysterious call saying he can go home once he finishes his “assignment”—instead of it being shoehorned in….

“Life on Mars” is the odd example of a really good show with a whole bunch of problems. Though maybe that situation’s just the case for any genre mashup.

Life on Mars (2006) s01e07

After a couple episodes not dealing too much with John Simm’s Sam Becket-esque attempts to get home, this episode brings that element in partway through an otherwise very straightforward whodunit about a dead prisoner.

The script’s from Chris Chibnall, who approaches it with quite a bit of gusto as far as giving the characters all something to do, though that something to do is because of the dead prisoner. There’s also some really nice direction from S.J. Clarkson, who doesn’t do it as a procedural. Simm is investigating—at the behest of Philip Glenister, who’d rather the whole thing went away but Simm’s making a stink—and running afoul of his fellow officers, including Liz White.

There’s a lot of character relationship building for Simm and the entire supporting cast this time, not just White or Glenister, but Marshall Lancaster, Noreen Kershaw, and finally some development with Dean Andrews. Until the whole thing becomes about Simm just wanting to get back home. Only White understands the reason for Simm’s question to destroy his colleagues, which ends up muddying the water more than anything else. If Simm’s trying to solve it because it’s the right thing to do versus what he’s got to do in order to wake up from his presumed coma….

Unfortunately Chibnall quadruples down on the latter, going so far as for Simm to explain to White he needs her to stick around to handle all of his emotional labor. Sinnerman over the end titles or not, it’s a rather wanting finish; somehow in the last twenty or so minutes of the episode, Chibnall identifies all the problems with the show’s conceit and drags them to the fore.

Really good acting from the entire cast, save maybe Simm, who’s good but nowhere near good enough to save it. On the other hand, it’s best in series acting for Andrews and Lancaster (partially because it’s the most they’ve ever gotten to do). Same goes for Kershaw, but in the extremis. She’s usually background. Here she’s essential.

And Glenister’s got some great moments. Especially when he and Simm have a working dinner, sort of precipitating the whole thing, but it’s all about Simm. When it’s about the investigation, it’s good. When it’s about Simm hoping it’ll be the leap home… it’s fine but rote.

The emotional labor demand scene is a particularly big strike against it, given White’s convinced Simm is gleefully willing to ruin her career.

Excellent performance from Lisa Millett as the victim’s sister; she disappears just when she ought to be coming back (corresponding to Simm trying to work the leap home angle). However, while Chibnall’s uneven overall, Clarkson’s direction is strong the entire time. She kind of saves the day.

Well, her and Nina Simone.

Life on Mars (2006) s01e05

Tony Jordan writes this episode, the last of the three creators to contribute a script (or get a solo credit), and it’s a very different take on the time travel motif. It deals—quietly—with father issues (as opposed to having mum guest star in an episode). John Simm and Philip Glenister catch a case involving a dead football fan; Glenister wants to round up the hooligans while Simm is convinced it’s not about the footie.

Simm goes so far to as to promise the victim’s son, Michael Lawrence, he’ll find the murderer. See, turns out Simm and his dad used to be football fans—at the exact time this case is happening—and it got ruined when Simm’s dad ran off. The father and son stuff continues subtly throughout, with no resolution. Even after Simms gets an interrogative visit from the girl (Rafaella Hutchinson) with the clown. Otherwise the episode doesn’t deal with Simms’s “real” condition very much; it takes a place a while after the previous episode, not just long enough for Simm to notice Liz White has been avoiding him but also long enough she feels comfortable talking to him about it.

It’s also been long enough they have to get comfortable flirting again, with too much of the seventies apparently rubbing off on Simm. Luckily the plot throws them together in a situation where they can work through it—Simm, Glenister, and White pose as the staff of a bar in order to snoop on the football fans. Glenister doesn’t agree with Simm’s take on the case, but he’s willing to run a bar to help out. At least there’s not a bet this time to get him to do his job.

There are a number of great sequences this episode—S.J. Clarkson does a fine directing job—starting right off with a car chase across a field, which gives Marshall Lancaster an actual and successful slapstick bit. There’s another one where Tony Marshall has to teach the heroes how to tend bar—it might be the best sequence as it’s the most fun, whereas the actual bartending sequence is a mix of awkwardly funny and somewhat dangerous. Before a very funny resolution to it. Jordan’s script and Clarkson’s direction emphasize the danger really well, especially given how things turn out in the resolution.

There’s also a big monologue from Simm about what’s gone wrong with football—him having future knowledge after all—and even if you’re not knowledgeable or interested, it’s a sufficiently impassioned diatribe.

Though I guess it does raise more questions about Simm than anything else; like does he spend his time in the present moping about the state of footie supporters.

Anyway.

It’s a particularly good episode with a nice subplot for Simm and the victim’s son, Lawrence, which is the biggest character development arc. Whatever’s going on with Simm and White is put off again to the future (the past’s future not the present future), but their scenes together here are still strong. Glenister ends up being mostly for laughs, which works fine. Along the way he’s got some fine dramatic material—during the bartending sequence—but it’s Simm’s show, Simm’s episode.

There’s a T. Rex song (Jeepster), which is cool, but the end titles have Nina Simone devastating. “Mars”’s soundtrack is so good.

The show is so good.

Whitechapel (2009) s01

Why can the British make better sensationalist telefilms than Hollywood can make non-sensationalist theatricals? Maybe because the acting is better. There isn’t a single not good performance–meaning, there aren’t any mediocre performances–in Whitechapel.

Amid its sensationalist, what if someone copycatted the Jack the Ripper murders in the modern day (oddly, after the first mention of advancements, the police are pretty much as clueless in modernity as they were historically), the real story is between Rupert Penry-Jones and Phil Davis. Penry-Jones is the younger, newly assigned, politically groomed inspector and Davis is his experienced sergeant (who can’t stand him).

There’s a lot of humor from Davis, since the idea of a Jack the Ripper copycat is funny for Whitechapel detectives, which helps the tension. The gruesome murders are described more than shown (Claire Rushbrook shows up as the pathologist in a too small part) and the investigation, which has lots of red herrings, is well-handled. The identity of the villain is a lot less important than the process and details of the crimes.

Clarkson’s a decent director–it doesn’t feel like television; HD is changing the telefilm medium.

There’s the potential for pitfall at the end, but Whitechapel nimbly hops over it. It actually only ever feels like serialized television (in the pejorative sense) at that moment, when it seems as though the filmmakers are going to go for something easy and related to the Ripper angle instead of concentrating on the characters.

Good stuff.

Whitechapel (2009) s01

Clarkson’s a decent director–it doesn’t feel like television; HD is changing the telefilm medium.

Good stuff.