I ended up watching and enjoying this ep a lot more than I thought I would. I like the show when I remember to watch it!
Who is the actor that played the Rock Star, Sebastian? He looks a little familiar but also new.
Thanks! 
Cheyenne Jackson played Sebastian. He does Broadway, but he’s done a few other television shows, and he was in even on Top Chef this season (the Christmas episode).
I love this show so much. Sam is such a dork, and all the characters are really starting to grow on me. Even Ray. ABC has ordered 17 episodes. I’m hoping they at least play all the eps before they cancel the series. Yes, I’m quite confident that a show I love will die in the first season. It’s the story of my life!
They even went so far as to create a fake Sebastian Grace Wikipedia entry. Not a terribly convincing one, but good enough to fool my boyfriend for a few minutes. You gotta love a show that bothers to think of something like that. It’s definitely growing on me.
My wife and I were pretty sure while watching it that Sebastian was just Sam (Jason O’Mara) in a wig and makeup. I figured Cheyenne was Rocket Girl. Oh well.
I also enjoy this show, which means its fate is doomed. Is it wrong that I’m already anticipating getting the DVD of the season? Last night, right after a dramatic scene (Sam in the meadowlands, lifting the body out of the water) the show abruptly cut off to a screamingly loud brash commercial, completely jarring me and ticking me off. I am growing ever fonder of skipping television altogether and waiting for a series on DVD where I can skip those !@##$$ing commercials and watch 3-4 episodes in a row.
No love for Wallace Shawn? Didn’t NoNuts look hot in her jeans at the end? I can’t stand Maria, by the way.
We need more episodes where Sam literally loses his shirt. One of my fondest memories so far is of him handcuffed to his bed, shirtless. (Poster fans her face gently.)
I like the weirdness, too–the little bits of the bigger puzzle. And the music! More early-seventies music, please!
The fact that Sam is ridiculously hot has nothing whatsoever to do with my appreciation of Life On Mars.
They do a great job of slipping in the modern references someone like him WOULD normally say in that situation, without belaboring or over-playing the joke. The bits about “Send it to the lab and run the DNA.” “The what?” “uhhh, the fingerprints.” etc.
I enjoy this show as much for the musical nostalgia as anything else. Got shivers hearing the opening bars of “Starman” by Bowie last night.
It will probably be canceled sooner than later, most likely too eclectic to hold a decent audience share. The good news is that this is based on an earlier BBC show of the same name. It ran two seasons and I assume that it was only supposed to last two seasons. So it shouldn’t be too tough to just give it a decent burial at the end instead of cutting it off abruptly.
The original is available via Netflix IIRC, in case anyone is interested.
The original Life on Mars is so awesome, I reacted with extreme skepticism when I heard there would be an American remake–and somebody besides John Simm playing Sam Tyler! I didn’t want to like it or Jason O’Mara. But I really like way the new version kept the important aspects of the original, but allowed the show to develop its own tone. Simm!Sam Tyler is not a huge dork like Jason O’Mara’s version. And Harvey Keitel brings a very different edge to Gene Hunt. But instead of jarring me into thinking “Ugh, this is wrong,” it actually makes me happy. I also like how the first six episodes mirrored the first season of the original LOM, but now they’re going off in their own direction without losing what made the original six so great.
I’d be willing to bet they won’t use the BBC show’s ending.
Sam and Annie have just GOT to get it on! Is she as cute as a button or what? That cast is really growing on me, except I agree that I can’t stand Maria. Let’s get that spacey naked neighbor girl back.
She’s freakin’ hot in last night’s episode, when she loses that annoying flip in the front of her hair.
They’ve already indicated that the show will take a different tack for the whole thing, incuding the end.
Another one was in an episode where Sam started to say something about the “African-American community” and then quickly corrected himself to say “the blacks.”
I love this show.