Life on Mars (US)



Dramatic Hour Long, Cop Show, Magic Realism, Period Piece

The American version of Life on Mars, set in New York City. The plots in the early series were close remakes of the BBC original, only localized in: Sam Tyler of the NYPD is hunting a serial killer, listens to David Bowie, gets hit by a car, wakes up in 1973, becomes a Fish Out of Temporal Water who is dealing with the different standards of the time and hears voices in his head and on TV that suggest he may just be in a coma. As the show progressed, it introduced the reoccurring Motifs of tiny robots (which may or may not be released into people to prove the existence of a human soul), toy rocket ships, and a mysterious group called the Aries Toy Company (more sinister than it sounds). Even the mentions of Luke Skywalker count. There were also hints of a government conspiracy and even the introduction of another character who said he had been abducted from the future as well. The whole thing was a head scratcher for sure.

Tropes carried over from the British version-

 * Cool Car: The Chevelle SS.
 * Fish Out of Temporal Water
 * The Seventies: And boy can you tell. Ray, in particular, looks straight out of the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" video.
 * Time Travel: sort of...

New tropes unique to the American version

 * All Just a Dream -
 * Or Was It a Dream - What's real? Do we really even know? Some have wondered if this was deliberately done to provide the possibility in case of a super-last-second renewal.
 * And You Were There - In the finale, everyone from the police force
 * Lampshaded as well.
 * Arc Words: Reoccurring references to Bowie songs.
 * Rose saying, "Look at those cavemen go."
 * Big Applesauce
 * By the Book Cop: Sam, Annie, and Chris.
 * Call Forward - in "Everybody Knows It's Windy", Gene reads in the paper that Vice President Spiro Agnew has just resigned, and comments, "What's next? The President being involved in a burglary?"
 * Calling the Old Man Out - Sam to Vic on two different occasions, most notably in the series finale.
 * Celebrity Star: See above.
 * Clear My Name
 * Cowboy Cop: Hunt and Ray. Funnily enough, Sam becomes one in his pursuit of a man he recognizes as a serial killer he busted in the future - and because of media scrutiny, the rest of the department is trying to follow procedure to the letter.
 * Cryptic Conversation: the maharishi in "My Maharishi Is Bigger Than Your Maharishi".
 * And again with the angel/homeless guy in "Things To Do In New York When You Think You're Dead".
 * Cultural Translation: (Of course. That said, it does a very good job of adapting the material into the new setting.)
 * Darker and Edgier: Sam's confrontation with his father is much darker than in the British version. In addition to remembering that he saw his father kicking a policewoman to death, as in the British version, Sam discovers that his father was a Diabolical Mastermind who shoots him (twice) and leaves him for dead.
 * The Ditz: Windy, Sam's hippie (and possibly nonexistent) neighbor.
 * Egopolis: Gene Hunt likes to think of the area policed by the 125 as "Huntlandia, home of the blueberry crepe."
 * Gainax Ending
 * Gene Hunting - Just for Pun
 * Help Yourself In The Past - Sam saves himself a few times, in a few different ways.
 * Hollywood Atheist - established in "Things To Do In New York When You Think You're Dead".
 * Hows Your British Accent - Sam fakes an Irish accent for "All The Young Dudes"; naturally, he gets compliments on its realism. (Actor Jason O'Mara is Irish.)
 * I'm Mr. Future Pop Culture Reference - Sam introduces himself as Detective Luke Skywalker to his mother because it was the first thing he could think of. The name follows him.
 * When he has to cover as a pilot, he uses the name Tom Cruise. He uses Bono when he fakes being Irish as well.
 * In the Blood - Sam worries that his father's dark, destructive behavior runs through his veins. Several times he lets these urges overwhelm him.
 * Subverted in the series finale
 * It Will Never Catch On - Ray Carling derides a man who lost all his money on a portable phone company. As he said, "Who wants to carry around a phone?"
 * A Little Something We Call Rock and Roll: in "Things To Do In New York When You Think You're Dead", except by rapping Ice Ice Baby. It works.
 * Locked in A Room - more than once.
 * Made of Iron - it's one thing when Sam left the hospital AMA to investigate leads on his personal situation. At least he waited. But Ray Carling is so eager to get revenge on the Irish Mafia for shooting him and Chris Skelton that he leaves immediately after his wounds are sewn up!
 * Mind Screw -  Is this in Sam's head? Is the whole thing in Sam's head? What's real or not? The ambiguity leaves a lot of people still guessing.
 * Modesty Bedsheet - A few instances, but the most baffling by far happens when a Hooker With a Heart of Gold seduces the protagonist by taking her bra off in front of him (with her back to the camera) and jumping into his bed. In the following sex scene she's enthusiastically bouncing away on top of him... with her bra put back on.
 * Motifs: Many, most notably the little robots that see into your soul and the various rockets/spaceships seen in every single episode. Makes sense in the Grand Finale.
 * Names the Same: As another connection between Doctor Who and Life on Mars franchise, Sam Tyler's mom is called Rose.
 * Not Named in Opening Credits - Inverted,.
 * Prophecy Twist - that coma Sam got visions of throughout the first half of the season is not necessarily his.
 * The Reveal - Say what you want about the American version, but  is pretty shocking.
 * Shout Out to Shakespeare: Sam lives in apartment 2B.
 * There Are No Therapists - Subverted, sort of. Annie has a psychology degree.
 * Twenty Minutes Into the Future -
 * Twist Ending
 * Western Terrorists - One episode featured the 1970s student-radical group the Weathermen claiming responsibility for bomb attacks on former colleagues of Gene Hunt's.
 * Worthless Foreign Degree - The robber in "Take a Look at the Lawmen" was a scientist in the Soviet Union, but "here I rob bank."
 * Wrap It Up