Life On Mars

The time-travel element puts enough of a twist in it to move it a couple of notches above all the other entries in the fall season, not to mention all the same-old police procedurals clogging the networks.

The premise of ABC's Life on Mars is ludicrous but irresistible.

Life on Mars offers fine performers, some arresting images, sly satire and a terrific song score.

This captures the original series’ vibe nicely.

The script, from Josh Applebaum, Andre Nemec and Scott Rosenberg, is true to the spirit of the original and exciting enough to make you swallow the premise and beg for more.

They've pulled together a vivid cast and evoked the ideal tone - not comedy, not psychodrama, not sci fi, but an intriguingly evasive blend of them all.

The new American version moves a little faster, which may sacrifice some of the subtlety of the original, but overall this first episode is a faithful adaptation.

This idea--that Sam is experiencing his coma as an “alternate reality” via a TV show--is wickedly clever. It’s a question as to whether Life on Mars can sustain and develop this idea, which is really an investigation of limits.

The premiere episode of Life on Mars, by contrast [to "Kath & Kim"], is strange and exhilarating.

This vivid series puts an ironic spin on nostalgia.

O’Mara’s Sam is incredibly engaging, and I’m pleased with how well this Americanization of an already very fine piece of flinty cop nostalgia is going.

Four episodes of Life on Mars have by now aired, each livelier and more confident than the last and--despite its mush of a lead character--justifiably so. That's no small triumph.

Based on a popular BBC series, Life on Mars, like Mad Men, makes a long-ago era feel both alien and nostalgic, like in the sweet moment where Sam wanders into a record store and just beams.

If the ambition of the pilot continues, American television may get another remake right. We'll have our first hint this next week. In the meantime, enjoy the pilot.

Happily, the American version--a second try, after an original pilot was scrapped--makes mostly wise decisions, starting with trusting the show to O'Mara. He's off to an excellent start, particularly in grounding the story by keeping his reactions rooted in reality.

I'm not wholly convinced by the American Life on Mars.

While I prefer the British Mars, the show's premise is so strong that this decent execution of it is hard not to recommend.

It still has some problems, and may not be able to milk the concept any longer than the Brits did, but the central concept--modern law-enforcement veteran has to deal with a world where forensics science is in its infancy and civil rights are treated as inconveniences at best--is still appealing, and in some ways more so when it's transplanted to the early '70s New York immortalized in cop films like "The French Connection" and "Serpico."

ABC sticks its neck out a bit further with Life on Mars, a pretty good remake of a remarkable series that also appeared on BBC America

Both ABC's Life on Mars and CBS's "Eleventh Hour" have the comfortable feel of many shows that have come before them and lasted a long, long time.

The show raises questions, and fans of the paranormal will find they're kept open in reasonably interesting ways. The problem is that time-travel shows require a level of attention casual TV viewers don't always want to invest.

This is a flabbergasting cast, so far called upon to do not much besides posturing. But my fingers are crossed, and my eyes too.

Purely as a cop show, Life on Mars is competent but not that compelling, though O’Mara does a fine job as Tyler.

Despite the prestigious presence of stars such as Harvey Keitel, Michael Imperioli, Lisa Bonet and Gretchen Mol, Life on Mars, a new ABC crime drama, comes off as naggingly undistinguished.