MARS ATTACKS: Bashing ABC�s version of Life On Mars, the hit BBC time-travel police drama, is getting to be like self-abuse for me � I know it�s probably wrong and definitely far from productive, but it�s a nice stress release and I probably can�t stop myself now, can I?
And right on cue comes a story on the U.K. Guardian�s film and TV blog judging the show by its apparently-scrapped pilot � the one they made before original producer and showrunner David E. Kelley dropped out and the setting was changed from Los Angeles to New York in the �70s. James Donaghy, the paper�s TV writer, calls it �pretty damn bad.� Particular disapproval is reserved for Jason O�Mara, the Irish actor who took the role of Sam Tyler -- played by John Simm in the BBC original.
Donaghy calls O�Mara �an identikit beefcake of no notable ability,� whose initial response to discovering that a car accident has rewound him back to 1972 is �as cliched as his blandly rugged mug. He shouts, he barges, his eyes pop. It's all quite tiresome.�
Neither does he have much in the way of praise for Rachel Lefevre, who plays the love interest role of Annie Cartwright� a fellow police detective in the U.S. reworking who is based on a lowly Women�s Police Constable played memorably by Liz White in the original. She�s a �swimwear model with a police badge who appears to have wandered into the building by mistake,� and she and O�Mara share a �flatlining sexual chemistry.� So far, so not good.
Apparently, the only good choice made by the show�s original producers was casting Colm Meaney as Gene Hunt, a role made memorable � frankly, it was the best thing about the show � by Philip Glenister in the BBC original. Any actor would relish the bombastic leeway Glenister carved out for Gene Hunt, and Meaney is certainly up for the challenge, but according to Donaghy, the Hunt role in the ABC version is �criminally underwritten ... he feels like an afterthought. He needs to be rewritten with the understanding that he, not Sam, is the most important character in the show and that it lives or dies on his success. It is remarkable that the producers don't seem to have grasped this.� At this point, if this thing makes it to air, I�ll perform all of ABBA�s Arrival album in a jumpsuit and blonde wig.
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