Everything old is new again

Sorry to say, I STILL haven't finished my new books - so the review will have to wait. However, as promised, here are my thoughts on the US version of Life on Mars as promised. We are now 7 episodes in and I am actually not sure if I will bother watching the rest. The main trouble is that the US traits of prudishness and political correctness are dooming the series to continual blandness. The main things that I liked about the original was the realism that it projected. The speech patterns, slang and general conscious and unconscious racism projected by the characters firmly planted things in the '70's. Although the 'blood and gut's' portion of the series was muted, it was still there and the writers did not shy away from issues such as drugs or homosexuality, but were able to keep away from overt sex and violence that would have been easy to add. The US Version? Many of the stories have been dumbed down and, in some cases, made unintelligible. The growing love story within the series has been allowed to be a more major portion  and, in my opinion, it lowers the quality of things. I suppose, if you hadn't seen the original, it would have been better, but I don't think so. Overall then, a poor copy and a critical failure - like so many US copies of British programmes. Mind you, the BBC doesn't always get things right. Survivors 2008 is a case in point. This may get rather interesting though. It seems that a new production of  The Day of the Triffids is on it's way. Man, I really hope this is done properly. This is a story that has never really dated and becomes more relevant with time. Considering that Triffids are shown as a source of biomass and oil substitute, the comparisons with our current obsession with GM crops and dependence of foreign oil is amazing. Don't watch the skies!  

Comments

[vb]

I loved "Day of the Triffids," which I've always mistakenly referred to as "The Crysalids." I look forward hearing more about the production. Laurence, will continue to post on it?

[Christy]

I watched the BBC's Life on Mars and enjoyed it. Lately, I have watched some of the American series. I agree with you - the American one is inferior. It seems to be played more for laughs than anything. Pity. So I'll just go back to watching the BBC reruns.