One thing I do remember from speculation during the first series is that you shouldn’t read too much into anachronisms such as a 1973 cop sporting a type of digital watch that anyone old enough to remember would know was not available until at least 1980. The producers acknowledged that some mistakes like that did slip through, unintentionally.
Of course, they could just be saying that to throw us off the scent. I seem to remember the camera lingering very long on the shot of the definitely-not-1973 watch, like they wanted you to notice.
My favorite bit still is when Sam’s griping about being stuck in 1973, and how he’d rather be dreaming about how it’s 1988. “It’s like bloody Star Trek compaired to here!”
Hmm, the LSD trip in this last episode is the first time I noticed the buckled shoes.
I like Sam, but I am really enjoying Gene.
“He’s gay?”
“As a bloody Christmas tree! Mind you, he is a little touchy on the subject, being a twisted Catholic with an elderly mother and all, so I wouldn’t go mentioning it to him.”
BBCAmerica must be editing the show a bit. I just looked at the quotes on IMDB and there’s some dialog listed that was missing from what I saw.
I enjoy the show quite a bit - we call it “NYPD Who”.
What’s “really” going on? My guess is, the same as what was going on with The Prisoner or Twin Peaks: Lots of “clues” for the cultists, ultimately very little real sense, and eventually an ambiguous and unsatisfying end to the series which will provide food for much speculation.
I finally finished watching the whole season, and I really enjoyed it, especially the interaction between Sam and DCI Hunt. We didn’t find out what is really going on, but then if we did, there wouldn’t be a second season, I suppose.
In the last episode:
[spoiler]I like that the flashbacks turned out to be a repressed memory.
I had a hard time seeing Sam’s dad as a vicious bad guy, because that actor played the sweet, pathetic Midshipman Hollom in the movie Master & Commander.[/spoiler]
One question - in the episode where the guy was holding the newspaper people hostage (the worst episode, I think) Annie was revealed to be a cop instead of a nurse because she called DCI Hunt “Gov”. Is “Gov” an informal title equivalent to the American “Boss”?
Over the whole season, did it seem like they showed a lot of shots of Kleenex boxes? Like maybe the prop guy got his hands on a lot of '70s Kleenex boxes and wanted to show them off.
Yes, “guv” or “guvnor”, short for “governor” of course, is equivalent to “boss” which is used here too. There’s also the more blue-collar “gaffer”, which you might hear on a building site, and which footballers are seemingly obliged to use when referring to the coach.
I don’t remember the Kleenex boxes particularly, among all the other seventies props on display. I did think that a couple of the mid-series episodes weren’t as strong as the others, too.
I just saw the last episode last night, and I want to know…
What the hell is the matter with you Brits? Why just do an eight episode season, especially of a high quality show? That’s just evil. Y’all should spread the quality out over twenty-three episodes, so they are all nice and mediocre, like we do here.
One quick question regarding the last episode: Who answered the phone? At first, I thought it was the test pattern girl, but towards the end I began to think it was Young Sam. But if it was Young Sam, then wouldn’t Our Sam have recognized the number?
I assumed it was Young Sam. Maybe he and his mother relocated shortly after this episode, and changed phone numbers, so that Our Sam wouldn’t remember it.
Speaking of test pattern girl, what’s her significance, anyway? Just another manifestation of Sam’s “real” life coming through media, like in the radio broadcasts? It was confusing to put her in a red dress, and then also show a red dress in the flashbacks.
I heart Life On Mars! I special-ordered the DVD set from the UK, because I’m that crazy.
One thing I don’t get (ok, ok, a few things): Sam’s family has moved out of their house at the end of Episode 4 (I think. The one where he first encounters his mum.) So why are they living there during Episode 8 (the last one)? Are we experiencing 1973 out of sequence?
What’s up with Neil? If he’s just an ordinary 1973 bloke with a penchant for cruel jokes, why does he greet Sam with “Can you hear me?” Is this normally how he greets perfect strangers? Is that why Annie dumped him? (I’ll have to double-check, but I don’t think that Annie had had a chance to brief Neil on Sam’s condition yet.) And how DID Neil find out about mobile phones, anyway?
How does Sam get any cooking done in that sleek, postmodern kitchen he has in 2006? His 1973 kitchenette looks like it’s already seen ten times as much use.
Sam knew which horse would win the horse race in Episode 4. Why doesn’t he place an enormous bet, as he suggests to his mum?
My prediction: Sam starts Series 2 under a looming threat of being hauled off to the nuthouse. Ray saw his “GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!” outburst in Episode 7, and Annie can–and probably will–testify to his deteriorating mental condition.
It seems pretty clear to me that she is an updated version of Death; if Sam had flahsed back to 1373, she’d be wearing a black hood and carrying a scythe…
I don’t think so, since she recognized Sam in Episode 8. I think we’ve got a combination of all these row houses looking the same and the producers having to reuse locations.
Neil is also on the TV sometimes. I think he’s One Of Those Things.
I know this is an old thread, specifically my old thread but it’s CS and didn’t want to start a new one…
Someone else must be watching the second series of this show, surely?
Really enjoying it so far, no answers to anything revealed but the show’s as enjoyable as the first series (if not more, since we can get deeper into the characters). The introduction of the black DC who later becomes his role model was interesting, I’d like to know how true to life the workplace attitudes were towards him. The most recent episode (airing tomorrow, not quite sure how I’ve seen it already) with the suspected IRA bomber was more just plain old Sam “no, this is how we should do it” against the gov, but that’s very watchable.
I read someone on the intaraweb that this will be the last series of the show, and the writers will wrap things up neatly, and not give us another lost. I’d hope this show has got more than another five episodes left in it, but I guess the writers may just want to take it off while it’s still good. More writers should do that.
I’m loving the second series of LoM! I think that the addition of the mystery guy at Hyde 2612 (or whatever it is) is a great twist that really deepens the mystery.
And the DC Glen Fletcher storyline in Episode 2 was great. It felt, to me, like a more explicit elaboration on one of the major themes from Series 1: the extent to which Annie and other outsiders must “go along to get along”. In both cases (Annie and DC Fletcher), Sam genuinely perceives the “outsider” as a full-fledged member of the team–to the extent that he doesn’t understand why they don’t stick up for themselves. In Episode 1 of the first series, for instance, he “outs” Annie as a university graduate. You can tell from the look on her face that she’d wanted to keep that particular fact under her hat, lest the men feel threatened and lash out cruelly… which is exactly what happens, to Sam’s astonishment–but not Annie’s, or the audience’s. Sam’s treatment of Glen is the same way: he urges Glen to “be himself” and not tolerate racist treatment; but he doesn’t seem to notice that Glen was only really accepted by the other cops after he’d made appalingly racist jokes at his own expense.
The acting, as always, is superb. I’m particularly fond of a tiny little touch at the end of Episode 2: Sam and Gene have cornered Sup. Harry Wolfe, who asks them what they plan to do with him now that they know he’s guilty. Gene’s response is “We arrest you!”, but with a sort of “of course!” tone that makes it clear that Gene never even considered any other action. I think he’s starting to absorb Sam’s integrity, and his disgust for bent cops.
And Sam, meanwhile, is certainly absorbing Gene’s ideas about methods! His handling of the casino guy at the end of Episode One was incredibly ballsy. Also, notice that he does laugh at Ray and Chris’s rude jokes at the beginning of Episode 2. Not where anyone can see, but he laughs all the same. I don’t think he’d have laughed at all in Series 1.
I’ve been watching it, but not taking it all too seriously.
The way they introduced the ambiguity of his role was one of the most impressive bits in the script, IMO. (The way he talks to Sam in a more typical Manc accent, and when reverting to the Caribbean one, he explains it as “they prefer it if I sound this way”.)
Being of the female persuasion, I didn’t actually think she was hot, but rather thought that Sam was remembering his idealized version of his mum. You know, Mum being the most beautiful woman in the world. Aawww.
Lathe of Heaven, where are you watching LoM in California? I saw the 1st season on BBC America, and have been eagerly awaiting the 2nd. Have I missed it?!?
p.s. Love your screen name! Do you know anyone named Jor Jor or EnememenAsfah?
His 1973 kitchenette looks like it’s already seen ten times as much use.