Life on Mars (2006) s01e08

It’s the season finale, which one would think means some questions are getting answered. It takes about a half hour until everything starts tying together—and it turns out all the season’s recurring “vision” sequences were pointless considering how quickly they get explained (sorry, I’m going to try not to be overly negative but the episode makes a big swing and misses, especially when you consider how it’s playing to anyone but John Simm’s character).

Matthew Graham is back as the solo writer, John Alexander is directing. I was happy to see both the credits.

By the end of the episode, well… it’s not Alexander’s fault the thing’s plotted and paced so poorly. The problems are clearly on Graham’s end, though also the casting director. Lee Ingleby has the most important part in the season and he’s really nowhere near good enough for it. Even taking the script into account.

Ingleby plays Simm’s dad, who he finally comes across randomly while investigating a gang war, and the episode is the cops (including Simm) turning up incriminating evidence against Ingleby and Simm trying to protect him. Joanne Froggatt comes back for a bit of a crap part (sorry, mum, the boys are talking; including a Field of Dreams “wanna have a catch”). Because it’s all about daddy issues for Simm, who hasn’t grown as a human being since he was four years old in 1973. Turns out “Life on Mars” has so many daddy issues it’d might even make Christopher Nolan tell them to be less obvious about it.

And they weren’t here before, not to this level. It’s inexplicable why the show wouldn’t have included a plot about Simm trying to find his dad in 1973 or whatever. Because it’s the whole thing. It’s the Atlas holding the world and Ingleby and Simm are nowhere near good enough to pull it off. It’s far more interesting, in the end, to try to imagine the whole thing from Ingleby’s perspective, which is a big problem since it’s all in Simm’s head.

Also it turns out Liz White would’ve made a far better protagonist since eventually she decides Simm’s actually got brain damage and maybe he should go to a doctor….

Something they maybe should’ve done a lot earlier in the show. Before she almost started dating him or whatever. And stopped him from committing suicide to break the coma spell so maybe she should’ve had an actual concern subplot.

Good acting, at times, from Simm. There are things he can sell, things he can’t. Sadly the important things he can’t. They’re just too thin.

Similarly, it doesn’t end up being a good show for Philip Glenister because his character’s got to act absurdly to allow the Simm plot line with Ingleby.

The episode even manages to miss with its big use of Life on Mars.

However, they are at least able to get it to a decent setup for another season, a very impressive feat given all the problems, because through it all… “Life on Mars” has a great regular cast and is exquisitely produced.

I am going to be terrified of any Graham solo scripts going forward though. Just the laziest writing, scene after scene. The show usually uses its sixty minutes well; this episode it plods through them, with about thirty minutes of story if they’re lucky.

Episode’s a bummer.

But not so much “Mars” isn’t still a good show.

Life on Mars (2006) s01e04

Different writer than the first three episodes—Ashley Pharoah here—and a somewhat different vibe. It’s centered somewhat differently on John Simm, whose time traveller status doesn’t factor into the main plot here, which has him butting heads against local crime boss Tom Mannion. Everyone else in the department is on Mannion’s payroll to some degree or another—except the ladies, because they’re, you know, ladies and not worth bribing—and Simm finds himself unable to take the bribe to fit in.

Especially not after he tracks down his mum (Joanne Froggatt), who’s probably visiting him in the hospital in the present and talking to him. Simm’s dad is away on business (as usual) and his younger self is upstairs with the mumps, but he’s able to bond with Froggatt even after he weirds her out offering her his payola from Mannion to cover her debt to… Mannion.

In addition to the subplot with Froggatt, Simm and Liz White are seemingly moving forward on their tentative romance—they’re trying to decide whether or not to go see Mean Streets or one of the Carry On movies—but it all gets screwed up after Simm agrees to help out one of Mannion’s nightclub dancers, Kelly Wenham. Wenham wants to get out of town but Mannion won’t let her leave, can’t Simm protect her. Turns out his protecting goes a little wrong—and initially raises the question of whether or not the drugs Simm is on in his comatose state in the future can affect his brain chemistry enough to screw up the lives of the people he’s imagining around him (before being almost immediately discarded).

What makes the episode so interesting—and some of what makes it so good—is how Simm’s moral dilemma about taking the bribes–or helping Mannion keep his staff under control—doesn’t have anything to do with him being from the future. Yes, technically, he might not have been in the same position to take bribes in his experience versus Philip Glenister (who’s got a fantastic scene recounting when he first became a bent copper), but the conflict is about doing the right thing. Especially after it turns out mum Froggatt doesn’t have the “seventies” view of morality everyone else around him exhibits.

After the initial setup, which has Simm running afoul of Mannion and meeting Wenham (which kicks off White’s reasonable but thin jealousy subplot), Glenister and the other cops go into major support mode. There’s some really good quick bits for Dean Andrews throughout the episode; seeds of character development, entirely in how Andrews behaves around Simm. Glenister comes back in the last act to sidekick. Otherwise, it’s Simm’s show.

There is a Back to the Future-esque subplot about sports in pubs, The Shining, and a horse race. It’s sort of aside to all the main activity, but layered in throughout. Writer Pharoah is continuing the show’s strong plotting.

And solid direction from John McKay, who seems more comfortable integrating actual dream sequences versus hints from the future sequences.

Strong performances, obviously, from Simm and Glenister, very nice guest spots from Froggatt and Wenham. Mannion maybe could make more of an impression, but it’s fine. “Mars” is good enough performances can just be fine, though most of the performances are much better than fine. It’s a very good episode.