Quick Cuts

What if you woke up in 1973?
Let’s suppose you were hit by a car and knocked unconscious, and when you woke up it appeared that you’d gone back in time to 1973.
Down to the minutest detail — from the bad haircuts to the omnipresent cigarette smoke to the vinyl LPs in the store windows — everything and everyone you encountered provided seemingly concrete evidence that you somehow had gone back 33 years.
You might react as Sam Tyler does when that happens to him. “Either I’m a time traveler, or a lunatic, or I’m lying in a hospital in 2006 and none of this is real,” he tells a baffled acquaintance in the year of “Serpico” and “Live and Let Die”.
That’s the premise of “Life on Mars”, an inventive British cop series taking its name from the David Bowie song. It premieres on BBC America at 10 p.m. Eastern on Monday, July 24.
This is a police drama with a definite difference, sort of a British “Starsky and Hutch” (or “The Sweeney” for Brits) combined with “The Twilight Zone”.
The latest stylish, slickly produced series from Kudos Television and Film, the production company behind A&E’s "MI-5" and AMC’s "Hustle”, stars John Simm ("State of Play") as Tyler, a sharp, dedicated, intense and by-the-book Manchester detective whose girlfriend Maya (Archie Panjabi of "Bend It Like Beckham") appears to have been abducted by an elusive serial killer. While searching for her, Sam is hit by an oncoming car.
When he wakes, he finds himself in 1973, complete with spiky-collared shirt, leather sports jacket and flared trousers. It is a dream? Is he in a coma? Has he somehow traveled through time? Or is he mad? Disoriented and traumatized, Sam falls back on what he knows best — his job. In 1973, he’s apparently just transferred to the same Manchester squad where he worked in 2006. But it’s like an entirely different world from the one he knows. Police routinely physically abuse suspects and anyone else who gets in their way. It’s a time with no cellphones, no personal computers, no DNA profiling and fairly primitive forensics procedures. He feels completely lost.
Sam especially has a hard time dealing with his new boss, Chief Inspector Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), a hard-nosed, old-fashioned cop who often relies on brute force and gut instinct. The rest of the cops are cut from the same cloth.
The only person who reaches out to Sam is Annie Cartwright (Liz White), a young female officer who tries to understand his confusion over what has happened to him.
At one point on the verge of jumping off a building to try and jar himself back to “reality,” he is stopped by Annie, who points out he doesn’t really know what is real. “What can I do?” he asks desperately. “Stay,” she says.
So Sam tries to adjust to life in 1973, all the while looking for a way to reclaim his old life.
In the first episode of the eight-part series, which features classic '70s music from acts like David Bowie, Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy and Wings, it becomes clear to Sam that the killer who may be holding Maya in 2006 started his murderous spree in the early '70s. Could catching him be the key to Sam returning to his own time? Can perhaps going against his principles and breaking the rules back in 1973 prevent future tragedy? And what about those voices he keeps hearing on his TV that sound like his mother and doctors talking to and about him?
Sam really believes that he's asleep and he can't wake up. But he can’t escape the possibility that if he has somehow traveled back in time, he could be in a “Back to the Future” situation where his actions could have serious repercussions on the future. In Episode One, he has to seriously think about what he does, because it could affect whether his girlfriend in 2006 lives or dies.
Simm is totally convincing as bewildered Sam and Glenister manages to make Gene much more than a broadly comic bundle of ‘70s cop stereotypes — even if he does seem to think, as Sam notes, that there’s nothing a good punch can’t fix.
The series’ art design meticulously re-creates early 1970s Britain — think brown everywhere — and the continuing conflict between Sam and Gene’s methods of policing elevates the rather mundane cases into something much more interesting.
Don’t expect Sam’s nightmare to end by Episode 8, as a second BBC series of "Life on Mars" already has been commissioned. (David E. Kelley also is working on an Americanized version for an ABC pilot, but there’s no way a U.S. series is going to be done with the subtlety and wit the British original has).
If the premise intrigues you at all, give “Life on Mars” a try. And if you miss the first episode, don’t worry. The story’s not serialized and the concept is easy to pick up. Plus the first four episodes will repeat in a marathon beginning at 2 p.m. on Aug. 20.

FEEL THE BURN: Online movie seller CinemaNow has unveiled a new service that allows customers to legally download a movie from the Internet and copy it onto a DVD that can be kept and played on any standard player. At first, the service will only offer about a hundred older titles, but over the long term some industry watchers expect the download-to-burn business (with a similar service being offered by rival Movielink) to grow and maybe someday even replace retail sale and rental of factory-made DVDs.

I WANT MY: Many folks know that the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” was the first music video ever shown on MTV when it went on the air on Aug. 1, 1981. But do you recall what was the second video shown? If you get VH1 Classic (which, unfortunately, I don’t), you’ll be able to find out and relive the first 24 hours of Music Television starting at midnight on Monday, July 31, when the channel replays the first day of MTV programming. See such clips as “Brass in Pocket” by the Pretenders, .38 Special’s “Hold on Loosely”, Hall and Oates’ “Kiss on My List”, Elvis Costello’s “Oliver’s Army”, the Shoes’ “Too Late” and The Who’s “You Better You Bet”. See the original veejays, Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, J.J. Jackson and the completely adorable Martha Quinn (yes, I had a crush on her). Anyway, you don’t actually have to tune in to VH1 Classic to find out the second video aired. It was Pat Benatar’s “You Better Run”. But it sounds like it might at least be worth running the VCR for a few hours.

THINK YOU CAN LICK ’EM? So the U.S. Postal Service is issuing a series of stamps featuring comic book superheroes from DC Comics. Naturally, you’d figure Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman would head the cast, and they do. And most past or present comics readers won’t be surprised to hear that Aquaman, Supergirl and the Flash are included. Even Green Arrow isn’t that much of a stretch. But Hawkman? Over Green Lantern? Or Swamp Thing? Or Sgt. Rock? Hey, I’d even rather have Martian Manhunter. Actually, I’d rather have some of the classic DC villains like Lex Luthor, Brainiac, the Joker or Catwoman in place of Hawkman, Green Arrow and Aquaman. And what about Lois Lane? And to make sure all our bases are covered, don’t forget the hot new lipstick lesbian Batwoman. And Krypto and Bat-Mite for the animal lovers! And Mr. Mxyzptlk for the dyslexics. Or the backwards Bizarro Superman for fans of right-wing talk radio! The USPS says a set of stamps featuring Marvel Comics heroes is due next year. Let’s see, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and the Hulk are a lock. Probably Captain America, too. But what about Sub-Mariner, Daredevil, Blade, Nick Fury and Ghost Rider? Hmmm. On second thought, the USPS could be on to a very lucrative, never-ending commemorative series here. And what about TV characters? How cool would a Mulder and Scully stamp be? Or classic movies. You know, with a little creativity on the postal folks’ part, maybe it wouldn’t be necessary to hike the rates every couple of years. Oh and to answer the question, no you can’t. Self-adhesive, remember?

HEY HEY: On Aug. 15, Rhino Records will issue expanded editions of the first two albums by The Monkees. Both “The Monkees” (which spent 13 weeks at No. 1) and “More of The Monkees” (18 weeks atop the chart) will be issued as two-disc packages including stereo and mono mixes plus rare and previously unreleased alternate versions of tracks as bonuses. As for any more Monkees reunion tours, things don’t look too good. All four members — Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and the elusive Mike Nesmith — were supposed to tour in 1997, but after a successful British tour, Nesmith dropped out. Things appear to have deteriorated further since then, with Jones recently declaring, “I would not work with those guys again if my life depended on it.” Of course, the Eagles once said something about hell freezing over — and then named their first of many reunion tours after that phrase. Never say never, as Sean Connery has taught us.

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Current Mood: impressed
Current Music: "Live and Let Die"

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