Alex DeLarge
07-13-2007, 08:12 AM
One day, in the year 2006, Detective Chief Inspector Sam Tyler of the Manchester Police, got struck down by a car. When he woke up, he found himself in bell bottoms with his collar up, David Bowie's "Life on Mars?" no longer playing on his iPod but on his 8-Track. He was in the year 1973, now a Detective Inspector, working for an asshole misogynist, DCI Gene Hunt and his corrupt police station. Every now and then, Sam gets flashes of another world. One that says he's in a coma in 2006 and this is all his elaborate dream. But is it? Or is he truly Sam Tyler in 1973 and delusional? Or is he a time traveler even?
I just got done with the first series and I LOVE it. It's a perfect mix of cop drama (one of my favorite genres) and "What is reality?" mindf**ks (can we still say the "f" word like on the old F13?). The writing is pitch perfect. I wasn't a big fan of Matthew Graham's contribution to Doctor Who, Fear Her (though I do love the original idea), but here he is a phenominal writer. The other two co-creators, Tony Jordan and Ashley Pharoah are damn good too and my favorite episode came from Mr. "Head Torchwood Honcho" Chris Chibnall, who made the darkest ep of them all.
The acting and characters are what rocks. I fell in love with John Simm on Doctor Who and he's just as good here, playing a completely different character in every respect. Philip Glenister SHINES as Gene Hunt. An absoltuely horrible person, but so funny and so awesome, like a Doctor Cox (down to calling Sam "Gladys" and such). All of my favorite lines are from him. But my favorite character is Chris. He's just so funny and nice. In nearly every episode, he says something that makes me smile and chuckle in every episode.
My one biggest flaw (minor spoilers here!) is that for me, the mythology is a bit too formulamatic. It's the same thing every week. Sam hears or sees something that hints he's in a coma, usually implying he can get out of the coma if he does something that he can never bring himself to do. If this was the X-Files and ran for 22 episodes in 9 years, I could see them handling the mythology like this but I'm half-way through the series and nowhere closer mythology-wise than I was in Ep 1 (with the possible exception of some classic paradox stuff in the finale).
Still, every episode has a cool mystery and cop-plot and the character development in each episode (especially Chibnall's) is amazing and keeps me clued to the screen the entire time. A cool mystery, some of the best characters on TV, hilarious moments and kick-ass 70s music (including a bunch of Bowie of course). I'm going to watch the second series in a moment, but I recommend Series 1 to anyone who likes cop shows, mind-f**ks or yummy John Simm after seeing him on DW! Check it out!
UPDATE: After watching episode 1 of Series 2 (which already, not only breaks my "mythology complaint," but demolishes it), I must say I will NEVER watch the Doctor Who episode, Love & Monsters the same way again. Marc "Elton" Warren was extremely nice and lovable on DW... but he is TERRIFYING as Tony Pope! He plays a DAMN good villain. Shows how good of an actor he is, I guess (I also got a chuckle out of his wife is played by the actress who played Jabe on DW and Swanson on Torchwood).
I just got done with the first series and I LOVE it. It's a perfect mix of cop drama (one of my favorite genres) and "What is reality?" mindf**ks (can we still say the "f" word like on the old F13?). The writing is pitch perfect. I wasn't a big fan of Matthew Graham's contribution to Doctor Who, Fear Her (though I do love the original idea), but here he is a phenominal writer. The other two co-creators, Tony Jordan and Ashley Pharoah are damn good too and my favorite episode came from Mr. "Head Torchwood Honcho" Chris Chibnall, who made the darkest ep of them all.
The acting and characters are what rocks. I fell in love with John Simm on Doctor Who and he's just as good here, playing a completely different character in every respect. Philip Glenister SHINES as Gene Hunt. An absoltuely horrible person, but so funny and so awesome, like a Doctor Cox (down to calling Sam "Gladys" and such). All of my favorite lines are from him. But my favorite character is Chris. He's just so funny and nice. In nearly every episode, he says something that makes me smile and chuckle in every episode.
My one biggest flaw (minor spoilers here!) is that for me, the mythology is a bit too formulamatic. It's the same thing every week. Sam hears or sees something that hints he's in a coma, usually implying he can get out of the coma if he does something that he can never bring himself to do. If this was the X-Files and ran for 22 episodes in 9 years, I could see them handling the mythology like this but I'm half-way through the series and nowhere closer mythology-wise than I was in Ep 1 (with the possible exception of some classic paradox stuff in the finale).
Still, every episode has a cool mystery and cop-plot and the character development in each episode (especially Chibnall's) is amazing and keeps me clued to the screen the entire time. A cool mystery, some of the best characters on TV, hilarious moments and kick-ass 70s music (including a bunch of Bowie of course). I'm going to watch the second series in a moment, but I recommend Series 1 to anyone who likes cop shows, mind-f**ks or yummy John Simm after seeing him on DW! Check it out!
UPDATE: After watching episode 1 of Series 2 (which already, not only breaks my "mythology complaint," but demolishes it), I must say I will NEVER watch the Doctor Who episode, Love & Monsters the same way again. Marc "Elton" Warren was extremely nice and lovable on DW... but he is TERRIFYING as Tony Pope! He plays a DAMN good villain. Shows how good of an actor he is, I guess (I also got a chuckle out of his wife is played by the actress who played Jabe on DW and Swanson on Torchwood).