Life on Mars Overview: Series 02

_****

Trapped thirty-three years in the past, Sam's chances of getting home grow dimmer every day, and, worse still, he's growing accustomed to the world of 1973. Given hints that not all hope is lost, Sam makes one last ditch effort to regain the life he thought he'd lost, but the ultimate question is if he can leave behind a reality that so desperately needs his influence.

Previous: The End of the Tunnel
Previous: Series 01 Overview

Where the first series was focused mostly on what happened to the world around him, the second series questions who he is to the world he's in. Sam (John Simm) is slowly losing hope of returning to his proper time, but as the story progresses there's theories that Annie (Liz White) once presented him with, that he may simply have amnesia, begin to make more and more sense. His life in 1973 is incredibly vivid and real, and with every day that passes the question of his sanity burns in the back of his head, and there's every possibility that he may already be home.

At the top of this series Annie is promoted, allowing the writers to integrate her far more organically in the investigations of the episode. Previously there was always a reason needed for Sam to bring her into the proper story, but her automatic inclusion here allows more time for the rest of the plot and a chance to expand on the universe they live in. There's also a minor internal struggle in Annie as she questions whether she deserves her promotion or if it was done simply because Sam likes her, forcing her to get out of her shell and prove herself as an individual. While her confidence is greatly boosted the longer she works alongside Gene (Philip Glenister) and his men as equals, there are also times that she finds herself getting in over her head due to her own cockiness. Annie certainly isn't the perfect detective, but that's exactly what makes her learning process so believable, and the number of times she's made to feel as less of an asset due to her gender only adds fuel to her efforts.

The relationship between Sam and Annie evolves very well in this series, with a clear attraction between both parties, but neither being able to bring themselves to move the relationship any further. Sam's inability to allow himself to get closer to Annie is due largely to the looming presence of Maya (Archie Panjabi), the girlfriend he's left behind in 2006, as he knows that she's waiting for him despite the likelihood that he may never return. When Maya is taken out of the picture entirely, and Sam is free to pursue whomever he pleases, he and Annie take another step toward a relationship, only to have Sam halt once more with the excuse that he'll only have to leave Annie in the end. Sam's excuses keep the two from realizing their romance until he's offered a definitive way home, and it's in that moment that he understands what he'll be missing should he not take a chance when he can; though he asks Annie to spend the night with him, no questions asked, she refuses, stating that she can't be with him knowing he'll only leave her, and in having his own excuse used back at him he sees how unfair he's been towards the both of them in this situation, though neither was particularly wrong in standing by it all this time. Their struggle is very understandable from both sides, and it lends a real sense of gravity to their situation, making their eventual kiss all the more satisfying in the end.

Gene has never been the model of police procedure, nor has he always been incredibly open to Sam's reasoning, and his portrayal as a bent cop has always been somewhat ambiguous given his end-goals, muddying the lines between right and wrong. In the latter half of this series Gene is very abruptly made to go from having questionable morals to being actively murderous, encouraging the deaths of suspected drug dealers simply to scare the other criminals on his streets. There were certain lines that Gene seemed unwilling to cross during his early appearances that completely dissolve here, and it feels as though it's done in an effort to vilify him in order to make Frank Morgan (Ralph Brown) appear all the more justified in his actions. There are many ways in which Morgan could have gained Sam's loyalties without the writers tearing Gene down as a person, and to have it done without warning as it was just feels sloppy.

The entire concept of this series is based around what may or may not be happening in Sam's head, so it's understandable that most everything revolves around him, but where the issue of women's rights is touched upon from time to time very naturally, the issue of racism is not. I appreciate that the writers made time to focus on the subject of race in the 1970s, but the two episodes that deal with it feel completely shoehorned in in order to relate directly back to show the separation between Sam and the people he works alongside in 1973. The first time race is introduced, through Sam's future mentor Glen (Ray Emmet Brown), it involves as few people of color as possible, abandoned almost entirely partway through the story, and picked up again in the end when it should have involved the interaction between Sam and Glen from start to finish. The second story is created simply as an excuse to have Maya break up with Sam despite the fact that they're thirty years apart and never interact with one another directly. Were these plot points presented merely as a story to play out in the background it wouldn't be so distracting, but because they are made to set up their respective episodes, only to be cast aside in favor of Sam's emotional health, it seems almost more insensitive than it would having ignored the issues entirely.

Simm is absolutely phenomenal in this role, and his chemistry with the rest of the cast is equally as fantastic; the romantic tension building between Simm and White's characters is great, and the animosity Sam has with Ray (Dean Andrews) is palpable. There is such a good interaction between these actors that they really sell the idea that they're all that each other have while also getting across the idea that they sometimes can't stand one another. While Simm is perfectly capable of carrying this series, it is often Glenister that steals the show, and there really isn't a weak link among the main cast.

At the close of the previous series it seems as though Sam is stuck without a paddle, nowhere to look for answers and unlikely to find any on his own. Here there are hints dropped that, not only might there be another way home, but also that he may be entirely mistaken as to his situation. The clues as to the real nature of Sam's existence in 1973 are very interesting given how certain he is of what happened to him, and his emotional devastation as he comes to think that everything he knows about himself is a lie is incredible to watch. One of the hindrances of this series is the fact that every scene is from Sam's point of view, limiting the direction of stories that can take place in this universe, and this is brilliantly side-stepped in "Coercion" wherein Sam is so ill that we see the case play out without him in his imagination. It's impressive that the group of directors involved here are able to pull this series off as well as they do given the repressive nature of the narrative structure, but they make it seem almost effortless at times and never fail to deliver.

Previously the mystery had been about Sam's inability to get back to 2006 and the search for how he was brought back to 1973, where this series had a greater focus on Sam's purpose in 1973 as well as his greater identity. Sam has been a very well-drawn character since his first appearance, and the fact that the writers are so capable of turning everything on it's head in order to question whether or not Sam is who the audience has been shown is very impressive. Given the set up for the series as a whole it's a given, from a viewer's standpoint, that Sam will make it back to his own life and discover exactly what it is that happened to him, but while the final script gives us that, it also lends credence to other theories by questioning the very nature of reality. Life on Mars ends on a high note, closing the story while allowing it to carry on beyond the end credits and assuming the audience is intelligent enough to draw their own conclusion.

The beautiful thing about Sam's story is that it doesn't have a conclusion; certainly there is a sense of closure to the greater mystery that is Sam Tyler, but there's also a promise that he and his friends will continue on far beyond the horizon. The minor ambiguity about which reality is real isn't at all distracting because, in the end, he makes the right choice in regards to what he feels in his heart is right, choosing to lead a life where he's needed rather than living a life that makes a comfortable kind of sense.

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