Life on Mars Review

Life on Mars is a BAFTA award winning drama starring John Simm and Philip Glenister as detectives in 1973 (or possibly 2006 in Simm's case). The drama spans two seasons which I have decided to review in one review.

I was expecting to hate Life on Mars before I began to watch it; this was mainly due to the fact that I don't generally enjoy serialised dramas, and partly due to the BBC's inability to create dramas which aren't aimed at upper middle class morons with a love of us simple country folk and our jolly music (I'm lower middle class or at the high end of the working class scale).

But everyone should admit it when they're wrong, and I was horribly wrong, because Life on Mars is the best drama that I have ever seen, and to explain why I'm going to have to spoil a small amount of the plot for you good people.

Simm plays Sam Tyler, a detective working in 2006, until his life is turned upside down when gets hit by a car and wakes up in 1973. The audience are led to believe that Sam is in a coma throughout his period in 1973 by the use of voices which Sam can hear in his head and other strange occurrences which no-one but Sam picks up on. This is an extraordinarily clever device which never confirms that Sam is in a coma but merely hints at it.

Whilst in 1973 Sam works as a DI (Detective Inspector) under DCI hunt (played by Glenister). Hunt is the most complex and interesting character ever written into a serialized TV drama and Glenister performs the part perfectly. In fact, all of the acting on displayed in Life on Mars is brilliant, with absolutely outstanding performances from Simm and Glenister who are undeniably the leads.

Life on Mars' real strength lies in its ability to hold a viewer's interest until the very end and beyond that. The finale of the programme is spectacular; not only is it a more-than-satisfactory ending to an excellent series, it manages to single itself out as one of the best pieces television (get that television, not just drama) ever shot; it's thought provoking, meaningful, and gripping. Best of all the last episode challenges everything you know about Life on Mars, and leaves you still challenging it.

Okay so I was horribly wrong about this drama, but I refuse to accept the majority of dramas as acceptable. Life on Mars is a rare jewel, a diamond in the rough and something that is now sacred to me. Which is why I shan't be following up this review with a review of the Life on Mars spin off, Ashes to Ashes, as I previously intended.

9/10