Life On Mars/Ashes to Ashes

[RainDog]

I just recently watched the British series Life on Mars, and some of the sequel, Ashes to Ashes. The premise for both is that a detective gets injured, faces death, and goes into a coma - then wakes up sometime in the past. Each detective has some moment from the past he or she thinks needs some closure.

Life On Mars played with this really well - set in the 70s. Ashes is set in the 80s. Both from the BBC, both set in GB. The first one was made in 2006/7. The second in 2008, and... not sure but seems as if it's still ongoing.

The woman who plays the lead role in Ashes to Ashes was one of the principles in the second season of Line of Fire. The second season, afaik, is now on Hulu - I know the first season was - I saw it there and really enjoyed LoF when Lennie James was the lead.

I didn't know Life on Mars had been remade as an American series - but apparently it was, in 2008. Never saw it.

Here's the imdb on the british version - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478942/

And A2A- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478942/

[truebrit71]

1. Life on Mars was brilliant....

...rally enjoyed it...must admit that I never got into the sequel...iirc I tried watching the US version of Life on Mars but was thoroughly underwhelmed...

[RainDog]

2. I really enjoyed it too

...it never really made it into my line of sight until recently. I think I had seen it referenced from time to time but I thought it was a sci-fi show - space opera kind of thing - which isn't my cuppa joe, usually.

I liked Line of Duty (not fire - d'oh) so much, I searched for other series from GB that were highly regarded - and this show is consistently ranked as the number 1 favorite among critics and fans.

I saw the second season of Line of Duty before I watched any of Ashes to Ashes - which I think was good b/c I saw Keely Hawes as this dowdy, unsympathetic, often alienating person before I saw her with a perm and bad 80s fashion - and the sort of reactions she got in the workplace based upon treatment of females at the time.

So I took her more "seriously" as an actor - I see her inhabiting a character, not being aligned with the pov of the whole show, if that makes sense.

Life on Mars worked the complications of dealing with the two worlds better - it was new, and so had more surprises in that way - I think that's one thing that makes A2A less "must see."

I've only seen the first season of that one - and it ended with a sincere, gut wrenching moment - I thought Hawes delivered on that sort of emotion you can, in a way, only know if you've lived it, maybe.

I'm lucky I have a friend who likes to watch shows with me - he's all tellied up. I don't even have cable anymore, so I miss a lot of what's showing unless I seek out info.

I also watched the French version of Les Revenants - enjoyed it - I don't really like to watch US remakes, tho I hear the US version of House of Cards is well done, too.

I just couldn't imagine anyone being able to top Ian Richardson's scheming. I saw that years ago, via VHS tapes (that's how long ago) from my public library. His performance has stayed with me all these years - that's some excellent acting.