Category: Directed by Andrew Gunn

Life on Mars (2006) s02e06

It says a little bit too much about “Life on Mars” series two the writer tasked with resolving the “boyfriend in a coma, it’s really serious” arc presumably going on in future with Archie Panjabi, Simm’s girlfriend in the pilot episode who was kidnapped and apparently rescued; it’s been a season and a half and it’s time for Panjabi to move back.

I wanted to give “Mars” the benefit of the doubt and think Panjabi was just busy with her career but not so much looking at her filmography for those years. If they just waited to do this episode, without having a single Panjabi reappearance between… the show’s got such a distressing overall arc and so many missed narrative opportunities.

Panjabi’s back this episode in the present to dump Simm in his coma and move on with her life. In the past, he’s working a case where a recent Ugandan Asian immigrant ends up dead in his record shop and everyone thinks it’s drug related except Simm. Simm’s got to solve the case without any help from Philip Glenister, who’s too racist to actually work the case and instead wants to let respectable drug kingpin Ian Puleston-Davies kill the competition and keep drugs away from kids. It’s amazing Glenister is able to keep the character as sympathetic as he manages.

The mystery itself is rather compelling, definitely the best one of the season. There’s a stoner dealer, Tim Plester, the missing brother of the victim and Glenister’s number one suspect, Phaldut Sharma, and then Alex Reid as the victim’s girlfriend. Simm and Reid bond because they’re both dating East Asians and experience racism. There are some big, obvious differences, but suffice to say, when Simm is grandstanding to everyone about how he was a thoughtful boyfriend to Panjabi, it’s hard to believe.

There’s a cringe-y scene in the conclusion with Reid and Simm—mostly about Simm’s intent—and the episode’s way too easy on Glenister, completely copping out of dealing with the racism.

Good direction from Andrew Gunn, who scales to the various places the episode wanders; except with the opening Panjabi stuff, which seems like they’re using old footage repurposed and it immediately feels desperate. There are a number of desperate moves in the episode, which end up mostly fine thanks to the acting.

Reid’s never quite singular enough, especially given the desperate moves in her arc, but she’s good. It’s clear early on the show’s not delivering on the character front, rather the mystery.

It’s nice for the episode not to have any glaring problems though. Even if it’s unclear Jenkin’s aware he’s recycling plot points from first season episode, not to mention White doing her obviously unwarranted jealousy gag again.

Okay, so, a couple bumpy points. But overall, it’s the more successful episode in a while.

Life on Mars (2006) s02e05

It’s a Matthew Graham episode, where he definitely goes far in showing I was right to dread Matthew Graham episodes.

After a delightful claymation opening, John Simm wakes to a phone call from the station. They need him there ASAP. He’s been out a day sick, which we’ll later find out is closer to two days. Why’s he been sick? They gave him speed in the future. He gets messages from his doctors who address him directly, except there’s no continuity between the doctors. The O.D. manifests in coma-land like a common cold, though there’s eventually an explanation for it, which also has Simm gaining the superpower of being able to flashback into a character’s story if they touch him.

But only for the stuff he’s missed since being out sick because I’m pretty sure he touches the killer and we don’t get a flashback to the crime.

The superpower goes away when Simm gets better, but it’s interesting to think what they could’ve done with Simm getting level ups in the Matrix and having it matter to the story instead of it just being a way to fill time and dump exposition.

The emergency is civilian Reece Dinsdale threatening to hang himself in the police station unless the cops release Adam Beresford from prison. One year before there was a murder case and the coppers had a fast, guaranteed result with Beresford. Only when Philip Glenister tells it to Simm as part of a narrated flashback exposition dump—not sure why Simm didn’t just touch him for a segue—it’s obvious Glenister banged the kid up and made him plea when he wasn’t guilty.

Only the show doesn’t ask the viewer to acknowledge it until much later in the episode, which doesn’t say a lot for Graham’s trust in his target audience.

There’s some funny flashbacks with Marshall Lancaster having a mustache. Glenister has an okay arc; he’s convinced Beresford’s guilty and resents Simm’s distrust in him. It’s a very simple kind of character development, but it’s something. Like, Glenister’s better than the script and makes it happen.

Liz White gets to do a bunch of the actual investigating—Simm spends a large portion of the episode unconscious but able to watch the goings on with his fellow coppers; so he’s in a coma imagining he’s unconscious in a false reality while then observing that false reality without interacting.

Did the better directors on the series just make it all seem less pedestrian in the gimmick, I wonder. Andrew Gunn does an all right job but it’s not anything special.

Nice use of Roxy Music, which figures into the subplot where Simm uses the information he mind-read from White to ask her on a date. It’s okay because he’s just imagining her.

Anyway. Good support from the suspects and victims this episode. There are more than usual—four or five fairly active ones—and they’re all quite good. “Mars” doesn’t often rely on a set of usual suspects, but it clearly could if it wanted.