Life on Mars“The Real Adventures of the Unreal Sam Tyler”
Original Air Date: Oct. 16, 2008
Tara – TwoCents Staff Writer
tara@thetwocentscorp.com
So, it turns out that they were actually able to fight crime back in the '70s—weird, I know. Of course, they did it by planting evidence, assaulting suspects, and randomly arresting people, but it worked for them—at least until Sam decides that they should follow 2008 rules. Then, the guy gets away and a girl gets hurt. Everyone blames Sam, who has to clean up her blood with his coat, but Sam doesn't blame himself. Then again, he's too busy trying to figure if any of this is real.
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[photo: ABC.com]
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Life on Mars
ReplyDelete“The Real Adventures of the Unreal Sam Tyler”
Original Air Date – Oct. 16, 2008
Tara – TwoCents Staff Writer
tara@thetwocentscorp.com
So, it turns out that they were actually able to fight crime back in the '70s—weird, I know. Of course, they did it by planting evidence, assaulting suspects, and randomly arresting people, but it worked for them—at least until Sam decides that they should follow 2008 rules. Then, the guy gets away and a girl gets hurt. Everyone blames Sam, who has to clean up her blood with his coat, but Sam doesn't blame himself. Then again, he's too busy trying to figure if any of this is real.
The episode opens with Sam listing all the things he can think of to explain his Twilight Zonish new life. For some reason, he chooses the police station blackboard for this exercise. I guess he was out of paper at home? Annie comes in and wonders what the crazy man is doing. He explains and she wisely suggests that he stop the insane talk. He agrees and decides to fight crime instead.
For most of the episode, Gene and Sam battle over which method of policing is the right one. Neither of them really wins, but they do hit each other a lot, drink, and, ultimately, reach an accord.
The team is investigating a series of armed robberies that resulted in 3 deaths. To solve the case, Gene arrests a likely suspect, Trent. The only problem? They don't have any evidence against Trent and Sam refuses to let Gene plant any. Gene is disappointed (he has a whole filing cabinet full of money and drugs just waiting for the right criminal), but Sam insists that they let Trent go and then follow him until they find actual evidence. Gene has his doubts, but he agrees, warning Sam that anything that goes wrong is Sam's fault, so you know that something will go wrong.
And it does. Sam asks Chris and Ray to watch Trent. When he and Gene arrive to pick up the stakeout duties, Chris and Ray are nowhere to be found. Unfortunately, Trent has wandered off and it busy robbing a check cashing store. Gene and Sam arrive just as he's leaving with the money, and there's a shoot out with really big guns. Seriously like Dirty Harry size guns. Gene shoots Trent, but June, who works at the station, is caught in the crossfire.
Gene blames Sam for June's injury, making Sam clean her blood up off the street. Sam blames Ray for leaving his stakeout. Ray claims that he received a call from headquarters that pulled them off the surveillance. He finds a police radio in June's car and figures that she heard the call and rushed to take over surveillance.
Sam finds a witness to the shooting who, between cigarettes, tells him that Trent was escorted into the store by cops. Sam starts thinking that there are corrupt cops involved, and you can't really blame him considering Gene's methods. Gene doesn't want to hear it though, and he and Sam fight, again. This time in June's hospital room.
Gene tells him to lay off the cop angle, which sends Sam right to Ray. Apparently Ray has been moonlighting as security for the check cashing company. Sam finds this suspicious, but Ray deflects him and suggests that Sam talk to the ADA, Crocker, if Gene is stonewalling him. Oh, Sam, so naïve.
Things go according to Ray's plan and Crocker rats Sam out to Gene and suddenly Sam's new nickname around the station is “rat”. On the upside, June is awake. It takes Sam all of 20 seconds to see through June's act and realize that she was in on the whole scam. She helped Trent with information and gave him the uniforms.
Sam bonds with June over their loneliness—June was in love with Trent—and she gives him two names and a location. They raid the location and find heroin. Gene tells Sam that he's doing a good job, which is a pretty quick turnaround.
Meanwhile, Sam is still seeing and hearing things. His bathroom mirror is cracked and on one side he sees himself circa 2008 and on the other circa 1973. He also has a moment when the reflection of the squad room turns into the squad room in 2008 with Maya. Weird little robots keep showing up and one of them makes him remember a time in 2008 with Maya.
Sam also meets his naked neighbor Windy. She's brings him homemade lasagna complete with fresh tomatoes, zucchini, and marijuana. She suggests that he send messages to loved ones through the clouds and receive replies from the stars. By the end of the episode a star that sounds a lot like Maya tells Sam that she misses him too. After talking to the stars, Windy and Sam dance and we see that Sam has written his list on his closet door.
Here's the list:
coma
drug trip
time travel
different planet
extraterrestrials
mind experiment
heaven/hell/purgatory
insanity
brain tumor
virtual reality
multi-dimensional travel
?
What do you think? Are any of these right? Which one would you pick if you were Sam? Let me know! Write your choice below.
I did some marketing for the show, but have no inside info LOL. I have to say i dont think it will be coma because that was the BBC version and I still think ABC will switch it up. My husband thinks coma for sure though... the sounds of the little robots last night sounded like a CATscan and a ventilator at another point to him. I am thinking it will be the "?". right? but what other options can be left??
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping they don't go the coma route again, either. I'm leaning towards heaven/hell/purgatory. Or maybe Sam Tyler's on an island that heals people and where people are killed by smoke monsters. Nah..who'd buy that as a storyline? ;-)
ReplyDeleteYou did the marketing? Really? No inside information...none? Darn. Did you at least get to meet the gorgeous Jason O'Mara?