Life on Mars: Ground Control to Major Tom

So in the end, Life on Mars was all just one big gene hunt? Or, better yet, it was an April Fools day joke with an elaborate six-month long setup. (You know the drill, spoilers to follow.)

Figures that the uncreative minds that brought you the horrible October Road would think a literal interpretation of the show's title would be clever. You see, this is all a mental simulation for an astronaut who's part of a search for life on mars, get it? Going on a gene hunt, get it? Groan. All season long, there was back and forth between hokey and inspired work, and I'd almost forgotten about the terrible OR, but with the last Oz reference ("I'm going to miss you most of all, Scarecrow,") the show jumped us to hokey town. Even the last minute literary reference of Gulliver's Travels turned out to be a red herring. I'm still steaming mad that I followed this the whole season, even after cancellation, to come to an ending so moronic. It's slap in the face. Fittingly enough, today comes news that the original series will finally get a region appropriate DVD release here in the US (July 28, available today for pre-order). Silver lining, small favors, blah blah blah.

One saving grace of the finale was the inspired scenes that used Elton John's "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters." It was pretty much the whole song running along the scenes, like a classic Cameron Crowe montage or something, where our protagonist contemplates and makes a decition, leading to our Sam and Annie moment ("And I thank the Lord for the people I have found"). But that was just the drive up to the scenic cliff, and what followed drove us off it, passing the finales for St. Elsewhere and Dallas on our descent. At least it was unforgettable, I'll give them that much

Life on Mars - 1.17
1. "Life is a Rock" - Reunion - intro
2. "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" - Elton John

Previously: There's No Place Like Home (Episode 1.16)

LIfe on Mars: There's No Place Like Home

There's only one episode left now, and plenty more questions have been raised about how the US version of Life on Mars will explain Sam's jump to 1973. I understand they've come up with a different explanation than the original BBC version, but if it really involves miniature robots that crawl into your head, I'm going to metaphorically jump off that roof in place of Sam.

"Everyone Knows it's Windy" started out promising enough, revisiting last week's surprise ending that left Chris and Ray seemingly left for dead, fresh with bullet holes left by McManus (Peter "Dokey" or "Zed" Greene). Lou Reed's "Satellite of Love" plays in the background, giving the scene a tripped-out sort of levity, mixing the potential death of Chris with more "Spaceman" references. "Satellite's gone, way up to Mars..." goes Reed, which doesn't really click until later, when we get to Aries toy company party (backed by The Raspberries "Go All the Way,") and see the Red Rover toys that have been haunting Sam all along. Here they're both big (product) and miniaturized (in the drinks being served -- by Scott Adsit, Pete from 30 Rock, no less). More hallucinations, like Windy? Or is she a hallucination? Here, I thought the whole 1973 world that Sam inhabits was a hallucination, which makes it all the more frustrating, right?

The Wire's Peter Gerety plays Agent Frank Morgan, a name that's significan in that it's the name of the actor who played the Wizard on The Wizard Of Oz (again). So when Morgan tells Tyler, "You weren't supposed to peek behind the curtain," we're getting another reminder of that fact. Morgan is also the name of the character in the original BBC series who is the catalyst for Sam returning to the present in the second season (again meant to be a Wizard reference. So when Morgan has Tyler on the roof beckoning him to jump, "It's time to go home, Sam," it's meant as a nod to the BBC's ending, which I won't spoil for you. Needless to say, here we get a bit of a switcheroo, with Annie talking down Sam, and Morgan being carted off for murder and a myriad of other offenses.

How much of it that was real of what Morgan told Sam is questionable, but with his obsession with Angie Dickenson in Police Woman paired with the fact that the show didn't start airing until a year later makes me think that Morgan knows more than what he read in Sam's psyche file. Between that and the 1979 Cheap Trick reference ("We're The Dream Police, we live inside your head," Morgan could be from Sam's world as well... like the Wizard to Dorothy. Come to think of it, Ray is like the cowardly lion (scared of the changing times,) Chris is the dimwitted scarecrow and Gene is the Tin Man, just looking for his heart. Of course, the Wizard is a sham, when all we need is to do is click our heels, dim the lights and put on some Dark Side of the Moon. There's no place like home, there's no place like home...

Playlist: Life on Mars - Episode 1.16
1. "Satellite of Love" - Lou Reed
2. "Go All the Way" - The Raspberries
3. "Windy" - The Association

Life on Mars: Swingtown

When a cancelled series suddenly morphs into another previously cancelled series, do their cancellations cancel each other out?

I'm wondering if "Coffee, Tea or Annie" was the episode that broke the back of ABC executives, leading to the series cancellation. It was truly uninspired, and as bad as Swingtown could be at times, this episode of mustachioed airline pilots who are swingers made that CBS series look like Mad Men in comparison.

Even the quotable Ray (Michael Imperioli and his amazing mustache) was a bit off his game this week: "He's a nookie bookie... pulls out one of theses and takes herman to the circus. You know torture the tentacle? Choke kojak? Play tug-of-war with the cyclops?

1. "Fakin' It" - Simon & Garfunkel - Annie goes undercover
2. "I Think I Love You" - The Partridge Family - Sam references song title from David Cassidy obsession
3. "Venus" - Shocking Blue - Annie walks in with the stewardesses
4. "Point Me In The Direction Of Albuquerque" - The Partridge Family - ending

Previously: There's No (Time and) Place Like Home (Episode 1.11)

Life on Mars - There's No (Time and) Place Like Home

Aside from overplaying all the Wizard of Oz references, this is the Life on Mars I signed on for. While there is still things to pick apart here (ease off WoO,) but with this episode, the series picked up a recognizable balance between the Tyler's predicament, the case at hand, and the generational differences. And we now have a more concrete conflict between Ray the Mustache and No Nuts Norris, giving Michael Imperioli and Gretchen Mol a bit more to work with in future episodes, especially now that Hunt (Harvey Keitel) and Tyler (Jason O'Mara,) are come simpatico.

We also get a hint of how dark the series could be if it wanted, not in what actually happens on screen, but in the contrast given between 2009 and 1973 given by fellow coma-induced time traveler, Councilmen Bobby Prince. "There's actual hope," he says of 2009, referencing the new President*, but here in 1973 "there is no hope," describing his frustration of the politics in 1973's New York. Annie would disagree. And so does my bank account... maybe Prince is coming back from late 2009, and the economy has turned around (please?). Truth be told, in 1973, you still need guys like Hunt who embody the trio of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Is it just me, or did that reference, while an apt description of Hunt, seem awfully extraneous?)

And the girl in the corner said boy I want to warn you...

While there was only one song this week (I'm still trying to get past The Wizard of Oz problems here, so I'm trying to ignore "Over the Rainbow,") they sure picked a doozy in Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz." I'm going to date myself here, and confess that it was the first single I ever owned, lucking into it Trick or Treating one Halloween when I was 7 (1975). One of my neighbor's was a disc jockey, and he gave me the DJ version 45 of it. (My little sister received Donny Osmond's "Puppy Love"... guess who got the better treat?) With that began an obsession for music that still goes on to this day. So while LoM has done well sticking to lesser known songs of the day, this chart topper (went to #5 in the US in '75) worked well for me. Of course, folks can split hairs and say that it wasn't released in the US until 1974, but that's neither here nor there since it's not being used in a diegetic manner. Anyway, as much as the lyrics to "Ballroom Blitz" can appear nonsensical (it was originally about the band being driven offstage at a show by a barrage of bottles,) the hooker here certainly seems like "the girl in the corner" giving Tyler a warning of sorts.

And what a warning it was...

Playlist: Life on Mars - Episode 1.11
1. "Ballroom Blitz" - Sweet
2. "Over the Rainbow" - Judy Garland

Previously: Almost Famous (Episode 1.10)

Life on Mars - Almost Famous

"Don't eat the brown acid!" - Ray (Michael Imperioli)

Oh Life on Mars, what are we to do with you? Week to week you show occasional flashes of brilliance, and then this week you deliver UFO's and Sebastian Grace and The Electric Insects. I'll admit, though, there were a lot of great 70's rock cues, like Max's Kansas City and the great Crawdaddy magazine. The rest felt like it was cribbed from Almost Famous, right down to the Penny Lane-like super groupie Rocket Girl. And there was even a throwaway reference to Bad Company's "Shooting Star," when Rocket Girl's father says "'Love me Do', I think it was," describing the moment he really lost his daughter. So there's that.

Besides Sebastian, Rocket Girl had apparently shacked up with Frank Zappa, David Crosby, Keith Richards, Rod Stewart and members of Black Sabbath, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Steppenwolf. And with Led Zeppelin coming to town next, she was about to open her own Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

This week's song choices were inspired, as LoM continues to avoid the obvious choices. Take for example the bands The Action and Traffic Sound, both bands who never quite made it here in the U.S. The short-lived Mod band The Action, were precursors to power pop, fusing the Byrds and The Beatles, anticipating the likes of Badfinger, The Raspberries and Big Star.

Meanwhile, Traffic Sound were Peru's answer to Os Mutantes, part of the surprising South American psychedelic rock scenes. The 'go to' compilation of their stuff is Yellow Sea Years 68-71, from Light in the Attic records, the best label for reissues of this sort. The other two songs were a lot less obscure, to say the least, but no less inspired. The Kinks' "Supersonic Rocket Ship" and David Bowie's "Starman" are both great songs, and fit the 'paranormal' subject matter, obviously. I expected to hear a lot more Bowie in the series, given it's title and subject matter, but the music supervisors haven't disappointed otherwise.

There's good and bad news on the ratings front, based on last night's numbers. The numbers are way down in total viewers, but LoM excelled in the coveted 18-34 male category. In fact, ABC had it's best Men 18-34 number in the time period with regular programming since October 2007. That was in the first half-hour, though, boosted by the Lost lead. The second half-hour saw the numbers plunge again.

Playlist: Life on Mars - Episode 1.10
1. "Look At The View" - The Action
2. "Yesterday's Game" - Traffic Sound
3. "Supersonic Rocket Ship" - The Kinks
4. "Starman" - David Bowie
5. "The Last Planet I Kissed" - Sebastian Grace and The Electric Insects



Previously: Out of Order (Episode 1.08)

Life on Mars: Out of order

If Life on Mars wanted to draw fans from their Lost lead, I think they might have done themselves a disservice by airing this episode out of order. Where is Tyler's gunshot wound? What happened after he answered that phone in the mysterious house, telling him to go in the basement? "Take a Look at the Lawmen" was apparently chosen to lead their time slot because it does a better job of introducing characters, leaving "The Dark Side Of The Mook" and it's continuation of the story from the mid-season finale for next week.

As nice as it was seeing familiar faces in Mad Men's Maggie Siff (Rachel Menken) and The Sopranos' Vince Curatola (Johnny Sac), I just couldn't get excited about an episode that pretty much ignored the two month wait in the story line. I really only raised an eyebrow once, and that was hearing the Al Green-like voice of Darondo laying it down while Tyler was going all Don Draper on Rachel...er... I mean Maria. It was only a few seconds of bliss, but the funk of "Legs" made the most of it. Darondo, AKA William Daron "Get That Dough" Pulliam, was an underground legend in the Bay Area, driving around in his white Rolls Royce with a personalized DARONDO license plate, but the range of his fame was pretty much limited.

Playlist: Life on Mars - Episode 1.08
1. "No Time" by The Guess Who
2. "Whiskey in the Jar" by Thin Lizzy
3. "Legs" by Darondo
4. "My Maria" by B.W. Stevenson

Life on Mars: Holding us all hostage

Didn't find a lot to say about this one. LoM is moving to Wednesdays in the new year, following Lost which is both good and bad. It's bad only in that there will be less viewers leading it, but good in that those viewers will be more in line with LoM's underlying sci-fi angle.

Life on Mars - Episode 1.06
1. "Sweet Lucy" - The Propositions
2. "We're An American Band" - Grand Funk
3. "Going to Make a Time Machine" - The Majestic Arrows
4. "Tuesday's Dead" - Cat Stevens

Life on Mars: White, Black, Puerto Rican, everybody just a-freakin'

While overshadowed by the stunt casting of Whoopi Goldberg, and several actors from The Wire, the real story in this episode was the music. As we've opined before, the year 1973 is a gold mine for cultural references, and Life on Mars has done a good job of digging through that treasure trove. I just wish these episodes lived up to the riches it unveils. Take for example the use of the Garland Jeffreys song "Wild in the Streets."

A Puerto Rican superintendent appears to have thrown a nine-year old black girl off a roof, causing a race riot led by the Black Liberation Army. As Captain Hunt opines "it's like my sister eating a cheesecake -- it's gonna get real ugly, real fast." This all sets up "Wild in the Streets" to be the perfect song. As Garland Jeffreys writes in his blog, he was "inspired to write the song that summer after reading about a murder in the Bronx--two boys, twelve and thirteen, threw a girl off a roof." That this lines up perfectly with this week's murder investigation is one thing, but when you also throw in the fact that Jeffreys himself is half Puerto Rican, half African-American, you have the perfect song choice -- possibly ever.

Of course, there's still plenty of other music in this episode, and so much of it is beautifully obscure, like the pure funk of Marion Black's "Come on and Gettit" or the bottom-heavy grooves of Boscoe's "He Keeps You", just the kind of raw sound you'd expect from an underground DJ (played by a gender-bending Whoopi Goldberg). Meanwhile, to signal that there is a truce in the race war, we get the interracial sounds of Sly & the Family Stone ("Everybody is a Star") and Three Dog Night ("Black and White"). Finally, only in 1973 would laying down the rhymes of Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" be considered cool.

I don't know about you, but I was so happy to see all The Wire cameos, first Frank Sobotka (Chris Bauer) as a priest, then Cutty (Chad Coleman) as the leader of the BLA, and finally, Lester (Clarke Peters) as Clams, who we haven't really seen since the first episode (and sadly, in all likelihood, we won't see again).

Life on Mars - Episode 1.05
1. "Wild in the Streets" - Garland Jeffreys
2. "Ice Ice Baby" - Vanilla Ice
3. "I'm Gonna Keep on Loving You" - Cool Blues
4. "Come on and Gettit" - Marion Black
5. "He Keeps You" - Boscoe
6. "Anywhere in Glory" - The Mighty Indiana Travelers
7. "Everybody is a Star" - Sly & the Family Stone
8. "Black and White" - Three Dog Night

Previously: Mother and Child Reunion (Episode 1.04)

Weekly Roundup: Mother and Child Reunion

Life on Mars is quite frustrating. The template it works off of is so rich, and much of the cultural references are right on (without being too 'right on,' if you know what I mean,) but they just can't seem to nail the tone that they're shooting for. Last week delved a bit into camp, which is where there's more potential, but last night's episode criminally wasted the comedic talents of Robert Klein and Lenny Venito (who killed on The Knights of Prosperity).

The cultural references were many, including a little BBC nod of naming Sam's mother Rose Tyler, the name of the Billie Piper played character from Doctor Who. Musically, Paul Simon's "Mother and Child Reunion" was an easy call, and The Beach Boys' "Long Promised Road" was an inspiring choice, but the winner of the evening goes to the combo of T Rex and Jim Croce. In the BBC version, Sam runs into T Rex's Marc Bolan and warns him to stay away from Mini Coopers (Bolan died behind the wheel of one). Here Sam runs into Jim Croce an warns him about tiny airplanes (he would die later that year in a small commercial plane crash,) but more importantly, T Rex's "Bang a Gong" is playing in the background, as a callback to the original. Very nice. Other musical references include Deep Purple on The Dating Game (yes, it happened in 1968,) Sam flashing on a Nirvana Nevermind t-shirt, Gene being called "The Jean Genie," and while it was great hearing the final strains of a Lou Reed-led Velvet Underground ("Rock n' Roll," Reed left in 1970,) here they play the full version which didn't get released until much later. Maybe the nightclub owner has a connection to Reed, who knows?

One final reference of note is No Nuts going to see Woody Allen's Sleeper, which is appropos in that it finds our hero woken up from a 200-year coma to a future that he's clearly out of place in. It would be nice if even a smidge of the anachronistic slapstick of that film rubbed off on LoM.

Life on Mars - Episode 1.04 (playlist)
1. "Mother and Child Reunion" - Paul Simon
2. "Rock n' Roll" - The Velvet Underground
3. "Bang a Gong (Get it On)" - T Rex
4. "Lucky Lady" - Jones Brothers
5. "20th Century Man" - The Kinks
6. "Long Cool Woman" - The Hollies
7. "Long Promised Road" - The Beach Boys

Chuck - Episode 2.05 (playlist)
Chuck turns the nerd appeal up to 11 here with Missile Command, Rush, Transformers (the original, nerdier, animated version of course,) the recent video game documentary King of Kong, and Arrested Development's Tony Hale. Nerdgasm!
More thoughts and tracklisting

Skins - Episode 2.03 (playlist)
Might be my favorite moment of anguish captured in television all year, Sid breaking down to the caucophony of Crystal Castles "Alice Practice". They cut out two Sigur Ros tracks and Ryan Adam's "Come Pick Me Up" in the American version, though. Tsk, tsk.
More thoughts and tracklisting

90210 - Episode 1.08
This reboot is getting picked up overseas by E4, home of Skins -- boy are they in for a let down. Hard to believe Nic Harcourt is still slumming as music supervisor here.
Tracklisting

Gossip Girl - Episode 2.07
Jenny quits her stupid internship and ends up with Nate, while three little words trip up Chuck and Blair. Ok, so I skimmed through it. The real news this week is the release of the soundtrack, which wins for cleverest title of the year (OMFGG).
Tracklisting

More: Mad Men's season finale drops hints at the coming British invasion, Michael and Holly hear way too much of Tom Cochrane's "Life is a Highway", and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia go crazy with references: Steve Winwood's "Higher Love", "Oh Yeah" by Yello, in turn referencing The Secret of My Success and finally, Danny Devito revisiting his turn in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Previously: Osama (Been a lot of) [Last Week's Roundup]

Weekly Roundup: Osama (Been a lot of)

Two shows this week try to have some fun with the events of 9/11, almost begging us to ask the question of 'is it too soon?' To be fair, the comedy sketch series Human Giant already broached the subject with their Shutterbugs feature "Lil' 9/11" (see video,) but this week both The Sarah Silverman Program and British import Skins featured intentionally amateurish plays depicting the Twin Towers coming down. Each took it to the edge and each were, I have to say, funny. So I pose the same question: Is it too soon to laugh?

Silverman's take was a lot more surreal, first by running down anyone with a beard (including SNL's Fred Armisen,) assuming they're Osama bin Laden, then somehow even thematically tying Osama bin Laden's hairy beard to her sister's out-of-control pubic hair. Sister Laura, who deserves some sort of award for how good a sport she's had to be this season, resists 'trimming the bush' because it reminds her of her mother, mirroring Sarah's need for everyone to remember 9/11 (yes, the connection is tennuous). In the end, she gives in and tackles the jungle to gentle sounds of She & Him's "Sentimental Heart". Reaction from the boyfriend is the line of the night: "Oh Larry! You Moe'd Your Curly!"

Skins - Episode 2.02 (playlist)
Meanwhile, the students on Skins put on a play called Osama: The Musical, featuring some laugh-out-loud lyrics and some odd attempts at an American accent. There's a lot of other good music here as well from the likes of Cat Power, LCD Soundsystem and the like, but it's the chorus from a song in the musical that you'll find yourself singing: "Then came the day Osama blew us away." (Download).
More thoughts, tracklisting and video

Life on Mars - Episode 1.03 (playlist)
More remarkable than the songs this time is a dialogue-driven call back to a song from last week, and the new use of Mike Post-inspired score, reinforcing the 70's cop show feel.
More thoughts and tracklisting

Chuck - Episode 2.04 (playlist)
We get a glimpse at Sarah's past with a trip to her 10-year high school reunion. A soundtrack from 1998 is the perfect excuse to use The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up" for a very wet cat fight -- but it also means we get Hanson's "Mmmbop."
More thoughts and tracklisting

True Blood - Episode 1.07 (playlist)
The music theme this week was Americana bands doing covers of great established classics. Featuring The Watson Twins doing "Just Like Heaven" (The Cure,) Cowboy Junkies' great take on "Sweet Jane" (The Velvet Underground,) and The Knitters tackle this week's episode title track, "Burning House of Love" (X). Speaking of a burning house, there's no way our hero Bill is part of that southern fried vampire rubble. Right?
Tracklisting

Life - Episode 2.05 (playlist)
A need to be back in the spotlight leads to a murder, and to the use of Clem Snide's great "Moment in the Sun". Throw in Elliott Smith, Spoon and Guster and the music outshines the paltry mystery here. The series isn't doing a lot right now to move it off the bubble.
Tracklisting

Gossip Girl - Episode 2.07 (playlist)
Serena is a precious snowflake (White Apple Tree's "Snowflakes") that shouldn't have to be subjected to family rules, whatsoever. Sigh.
Tracklisting

More: Mad Men reference the Ibsen Play Peer Gynt both in title and song ("In the Hall of the Mountain King") and end with some great George Jones. Meanwhile, on The Office episode "Crime Aid," Michael revealed his favorite Bruce Springsteen songs, which included "The Heart of Rock and Roll" (Huey Lewis,) "Fast Car" (Tracy Chapman) and "Short People" (Randy Newman)... wha?

Previously: Weekly Roundup (last week)

Life on Mars: Find Yourself

This was the weakest of the episodes for the stateside version of Life on Mars so far, even though the storyline had great potential, with the theme of 'finding yourself,' and interweaving the troubles of returning Vietnam Vets and similar troubles of gays coming out of the closet. The season's plot has Sam searching to find himself as a boy, while the sixties' version of 'finding yourself' is still prevalent in 1973, shown here through guru-led peaceniks. By choosing the most innocuous tracks from the late sixties (Tommy James & the Shondells, The Turtles, Marmalade) to back the 'hippie freaks,' as Ray so fondly calls them, we're being reminded that the sixties doesn't have much in the way of teeth by this point.

Meanwhile, their leader Sticker (sp?) sees Sam and says he "looks like a star, but is really out on parole," lyrics from Mott the Hoople's "All the Way From Memphis", which appeared in last week's episode, reinforcing the song's parallels to Sam's situation.

Another fine pop cultural reference with parallels is the reference to the film Soylent Green, which famously follows to cops from the future (played by Charleton Heston and Edward G. Robinson) who find that there's a lot more to the murder their investigating. Whereas Soylent Green uses the future to comment on the environment, the Life on Mars goes back in time to do the same with gay rights and hate crimes (Gene: "As opposed to what? An 'I like you' crime?").

Also of note this week is the new use of a Mike Post-inspired score to emphasize the explicit setting of a 70's cop show, versus this just being a period specific drama. "Book 'em Dan-O" indeed.

Ray's quote of the week: "Saddle up no-nuts... we're going to need that dewey-eyed doo-doo that you do"

Life on Mars - Episode 1.03
1. "Sweet Cherry Wine" - Tommy James & The Shondells"
2. "I'm Chief Kamanawanalea (We're The Royal Macadamia Nuts)" - The Turtles
3. "Just a Little Lovin'" - Dusty Springfield
4. "Reflections of my Life" - Marmalade

Previously: You look like a star but you're still on the dole (Episode 1.02)