Michael Reuben
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Life on Mars, Series 2 (U.K.)
Studio: Acorn Media Group
Rated: NR
Film Length: app. 468 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (enhanced for 16:9)
Audio: English DD 2.0, English DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
MSRP: $59.99
Package: Box with 4 slimcases
Insert: None
Original Airdates (U.K.): Feb. 13-Apr. 10 2007
DVD Release Date: Nov. 24, 2009
Introduction:
The second and final season of one of contemporary TV’s greatest achievements comes to region 1 DVD, completing the U.S. release started last July. In the review that follows, I will assume the reader’s familiarity with the review of the previous DVD set.
The Episodes:
We rejoin Sam Tyler (John Simm), who is still stuck in 1973, still a Detective Inspector with Manchester CID, and still not sure whether he’s mad, in a coma or back in time from 2006, where he was in a traffic accident while investigating a case.
But some things are different from the first season. Almost in spite of himself, Sam is becoming acclimated to 1973. He no longer blanches every time his boss, DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) gets violent with a suspect. He just works Hunt’s “old school” tactics into his investigative routine. He neither avoids nor tries to win over his nemesis, the boorish Sergeant Ray Carling (Dean Andrews). He just ignores Ray’s guff and gives him orders. And try as he might, Sam can’t stop himself from casting longing looks in the direction of WPC Annie Cartwright (Liz White), even though he’s still convinced she’s just a figment of his imagination, like the rest of the Life on Mars world.
Not only is Sam getting used to 1973, but 1973 is changing him. In the very first episode of the second series, Sam pursues strategies in the apprehension of a suspect that would have been anathema to the Sam Tyler who first arrived in 1973. It’s as if circumstances have conspired to give Sam a glimpse of the world from Gene Hunt’s perspective: as a vulnerable place that needs constant protection from arch-villains that would harm it – by any means necessary. And in another episode, Sam gets an unexpected lesson in humility. Relying too heavily on his knowledge of the future, he grossly misjudges a situation, with serious consequences, and spends the rest of the episode trying to make amends.
Hanging over the entire season is a sense of unfinished business, and not just because the whole “purpose” of Sam’s trip to 1973 remains in question. At the heart of every episode is some unresolved case that dovetails in unexpected and sometimes unsettling ways with an element of Sam’s former life. For example, in one episode the signature of a serial killer who was thought to have died in prison is suddenly found on a new victim who worked as a “Beauvoir girl” (that’s an “Avon lady” to you and me). Sam’s favorite aunt was a Beauvoir girl, and Sam immediately recognizes the Beauvoir scent on the victim’s body. The Beauvoir connection leads Sam to an encounter with his aunt (who doesn’t recognize him, of course) and gives him an intense personal interest in solving the crime. It also deepens his awakening feelings for Annie. (Anyone familiar with the American remake will recognize these elements of the story, which the American series borrowed in its entirety.)
In another episode, Sam is shocked to recognize a much younger version of a major gangster, Tony Crane, who he had arrested in 2006 and left awaiting trial. Reflecting on all the damage that Crane will do between 1973 and 2006, including killing a witness whom Sam had persuaded to testify, Sam becomes obsessed with stopping Crane in the past, if he can. His efforts are complicated by physical problems that may be caused by someone in 2006 interfering with his life support system – someone who may be Crane! (Crane is played with reptilian charm by Marc Warren, best known here as “The Repairman” from Wanted.)
In a poignant episode, Sam is shocked to hear the voice of Maya, his former colleague and girlfriend from 2006 whose abduction Sam was investigating just before he awoke in 1973. Like many voices from 2006, Sam hears Maya on the radio and TV, and she seems, very reluctantly, to be bidding him farewell. Since Maya is of Pakistani parentage, is it a coincidence that Sam hears her voice just as he is called to investigate a case involving Manchester’s emerging Pakistani community? The investigation will bring Sam into contact with anti-immigrant groups, new business communities and the birth of Manchester’s heroin trade. Through it all, messages from Maya keep arriving at unexpected moments.
Episode 5 is probably the most comical of the eight episodes. It involves a case that CID handled before Sam’s arrival and that now must be reopened because they might have the wrong man (more unfinished business!). Unfortunately for Sam, he gets sidelined at critical moments because, back in 2006, his medical team has given him the wrong medication and his neural functions are scrambled such that he’s reduced to watching his 1973 colleagues as if they were characters on TV (and yelling at the TV, as all of us do at one time or another). From that frustrating vantage point, Sam is able to watch both Annie and Chris (Marshall Lancaster) make effective use of the lessons Sam’s taught them – and crack the case by the time Sam’s medication has been rebalanced and he’s back to “normal”.
The final two episodes of Life on Mars take the audience on a rollercoaster ride. In episode 7, one of the regular characters is arrested for murder. Now, many cop shows have used the plot device of having a familiar character charged with a crime, leaving his or her colleagues to sort out the charges and find the real culprit. (Law and Order: SVU just re-roasted this old chestnut.) But when it’s Life on Mars and the entire cast of characters may be fictitious personalities spun from the hero’s imagination, you can’t be sure how it will play out. Adding to the uncertainty is the appearance of a new senior officer, one DCI Frank Morgan (Ralph Brown), who, though Sam doesn’t know him, immediately assumes an air of familiarity and begins talking about the need to clean out the whole of Manchester CID.
If you don’t already know how the original Life on Mars ends, then don’t let anyone tell you, and don’t try to read about it anywhere. The series’ creators crafted a terrific head-spinning conclusion that is dramatically satisfying but sufficiently enigmatic to give viewers something worth thinking about after the credits have rolled. It’s a difficult balance to achieve. Clear up everything too neatly, and you get the American version: an overly clever trick ending that leaves you with nothing to think about. Clear up too little, and you get something like The Sopranos’ infamous black screen, which many viewers experienced (and not unjustly) as a big “screw you!” Life on Mars gets the balance just right, which is yet one more reason why the series is endlessly rewatchable.
Video:
The image on these DVDs is consistent with the look of the first series. The look is the same unglossy, documentary ordinariness emphasizing grittiness and age. The DVD image is detailed and features excellent color, within the washed-out palette used for the show. I noticed more occurrences of aliasing in the second series than I recall in the first, especially in usual suspects such as grille work or other instances of closely spaced horizontal lines. These might be lessened or eliminated with a video scaler, or even with the upscaling provided by a Blu-ray player. The presence of occasional video noise tends to confirm that there’s been no artificial noise reduction or edge enhancement.
As with series 1, there is a Blu-ray release available in the U.K., which has been reported not to be region-locked. However, it has also been reported to be merely an upscaled version of the standard definition transfer. Therefore, it is unlikely that Life on Mars will be released in a version that looks significantly better than this one unless someone goes back to the source material and retransfers it for Blu-ray.
Audio:
As with the previous series, there is a choice between a DD 2.0 track and DD 5.1 track, and again I selected the 5.1 track for its higher bitrate. It is a front-oriented mix with relatively little in the way of surround activity. Dialogue remains firmly anchored in the center, and the bass get a nice boost from time to time, particularly in the score. It’s a solid, serviceable track. The subtitles may be needed for anyone unaccustomed to regional English accents.
It was confirmed that a few songs were replaced when series 1 appeared on DVD in the U.K. and that those replacements were carried over to the region 1 release. I do not have original broadcast copies against which to compare series 2, but one can only hope that, given the success of the show, the creative team had the foresight to secure video rights for all songs when they came to do the second season. If anyone is aware of song replacements, please let me know.
Special Features:
Unlike the first series DVD set, the second series has no commentaries. This may be due to the participants’ lack of availability. When the first set of DVDs was being prepared, they were still together working on the second season. By the time the second set of episodes was ready for release on video, everyone had moved on to other projects.
The Return of Life on Mars (45:19). Preceded by a spoiler warning, this is an in-depth documentary on the making of the second season. It includes interviews with all the principal cast members, producers, writers and one of the directors. (As in the first season documentary, co-creator Tony Jordan is absent).
The biggest difference for the participants during the making of the second season was the confidence that comes of knowing you have a hit. Of course, the flip side is the pressure to deliver on the audience’s expectations. One item of note is the history of how episode 5 came to contain a parody of a fondly remembered children’s TV show from the 1970s; the parody is funny even if you haven’t seen the show, because the essential premise is drawn from situations in Life on Mars. The original idea was to give John Simm a break from filming, because otherwise he had to work non-stop, since he’s in every scene. Brilliant ideas sometimes spring from the most mundane sources.
Behind the Scenes of Episode 3 (21:56). Extensive on-scene footage from a major sequence that opens the episode, with interviews and comments from all the major players and representatives of all the departments, from the writer to the stunt coordinator to the effects technicians. The completed scene plays at the conclusion.
Behind the Scenes of Episode 5 (15:15). The making of the unusual animation clip that opens episode 5, with interviews from the animators, storyboard artists and the executive of the animation house who, quite by accident, ended up as the narrator.
Behind the Scenes of the CID Set (3:33). A video “walkaround” of the elaborate CID set narrated by S.J. Clarkson, who directed four of the eight episodes in series 2, and producer Claire Parke. They point out elements and details that go by too quickly to be seen during the course of the show and talk about the experience of shooting on the set.
Behind the Scenes of Episode 7 (3:25). Narrated by director S.J. Clarkson, this combination of film, video and animation describes some of the logistical challenges of shooting the courtroom scene that opens episode 7.
Behind the Scenes of Tufty’s Cameo (3:43). Possibly the single funniest extra on the set, this provides a look at a giant squirrel costume that plays a pivotal role in episode 7. Yes, a giant squirrel costume.
The End of Life on Mars (27:52). Appropriately preceded by a spoiler warning, this documentary is also difficult to describe without spoilers. What can be said is that the show’s creators debated for a long time whether to continue with a third series. They also considered ending series 2 on a cliffhanger, which would then be resolved in a “special” (as both The Office and Extras were concluded). Once they made the decision to conclude with series 2, the ending was debated, fussed over, polished and tweaked right up until the very end.
Previews. Disc 1 opens with a general trailer for Acorn Media features, followed by trailers for The Murdoch Mysteries and the miniseries Traffik. These can be skipped via the menu button.
In Conclusion:
Rarely do the stars align as perfectly as they did to produce popular entertainment of the caliber of Life on Mars. Even more rarely do both the creative team and the business people share the wisdom to know the right moment when to conclude their story and go home. (HBO and David Chase, shame on you!) In the review of series 1, I talked about the spirit of the old 1970s cop shows that the British series captured and the American remake missed. Equally important was the creators’ decision not to strip mine their series for every last ounce of air time they could extract. They respected the integrity of their story, and when it was over, they said: The End. That’s why there are no bad episodes, and nothing feels rehashed. No one will ever use the phrases “Life on Mars” and “jump the shark” in the same sentence (except for this one).
Equipment used for this review:
Denon 955 DVD player
Samsung HL-T7288W DLP display
Lexicon MC-8
Sunfire Cinema Grand amplifier
Monitor Audio floor-standing fronts and MA FX-2 rears
Boston Accoustics VR-MC center
SVS SB12-Plus sub
