067Y18A02 10/03 Life on Mars - Series for TV

The made-for-television series feature we watched this week was a British show called Life on Mars.

We have been discussing Beginnings and the beginning of LOM gains full marks in this category. It seems to be following the well-trodden path of the average tv cop show: smart, ambitious protagonist, Love Interest with one of his co-workers, a mystery for Our Hero to solve, blah, blah, blah.

Then come the scene that actually shocked some exclamations from some of you - and it certainly did from me: the violent, totally unexpected collision of a speeding car with Our Hero. For a moment we are completely confused: Where did that come from? What's going on? Isn't Our Hero the hero after all: is he going to get killed off in the first episode?

The partial consciousness a few seconds later is also good: not just the standard "Is he alive?" but other questions crowd our mind. Is the strange title of the show going to take us into Science Fiction? Is he going to become Our Crippled (but brilliant) Hero? Will The Girlfriend actually become the protagonist and set out to revenge her mate? and, above all, the mark of a truly excellent production: - what's going to happen next?

When we were talking about the three components of any story - Beginning, Middle and End, it doesn't usually become necessary to spend much time talking specifically about the Middle. After all, that is what drives the story. Its something we expect to talk about more in the general talk about Plot.

But LOM manages also to defy our expectations. The middle of not only this, the first episode, but the entire show, manages to keep up the suspense to a point where we are never sure exactly where we are. A typical cop-show after all, but just transferred to another time? The "break-through" voices he keeps hearing mean he is in a coma and just dreaming it all, yeah? Then how does he manage to dream the realities he encounters? And what about the whole thing about finding that the suspect in his 'real life' as a little boy had contact with a real killer in 1973? How does that work?

As I mentioned, the show went for four seasons and, although I watched the whole thing over a very short period, I found myself changing my mind about what was going on several times. There are shows such as Lost which also keep us in suspense for the life of the whole production but, by the end we are often left with a few loose ends that never get actually cleared up, and some departures into the completely unrelated , not to mention the occasional cheats like dream sequences or contrived solutions. This never happens in LOM.

Another factor that kept many viewers interested was the irony. I'm not sure how well that translated in a cross-cultural context. But one of the delights of this show was when it would suddenly - and so briefly one was left wondering whether it was intentional or not - stage a complete spoof [mockery]of itself. This is called, in England, taking the mickey. It means to make fun of. And all of the way through LOM one found oneself waiting for these seemingly random [without any purpose or warning] little scenes.

There was one small example even in this first show where, having solved part of the case (yep. It was only part!) the camera suddenly goes into slomo. (slow motion) and shows the two men coming through the door with triumph and waving arms etc. Standard cop-show stuff. But instead of coming into a room of congratulatory colleagues and the big, celebratory cake/party that usually happens, they pull a bottle out of a file cabinet and each take a swig [a drink ]. Alone. As I said, perhaps it doesn't actually work in another culture.

The ending of this first episode shows what ensured the success of this show over four seasons: it left us with unanswered questions. This is one of the advantages of tv series over a standard movie. Following the Greek (remember them?) recipe, the End has to be the place where all the pieces come together; where good triumphs over evil; where rewards or punishments take place.

It is very difficult to have a picture which still leaves us with questions but yet has completely satisfied us. There have been a few notable exceptions over the years and these movies usually end up becoming 'cult classics' [considered classic not by the general public but by a group of specialised people]. But a TV series has the option of inviting us to tune in again next week for the answers to our questions. Yet, even so, not many manage this so successful as LOM. The general premise of Prison Break, for example, is whether or not justice will ever be served. Yet each episode becomes a completed story on its own. Missing an episode or two will neither advance the over-all plot nor retard [to stop] it.

The difference in LOM is that we are never completely sure of exactly what the plot is: we watch each episode hoping we'll start to understand which one of our guesses is correct.

I don't know how many British tv shows you are familiar with but, in general, they are very different to American tv. One aspect of this difference is in the reality. American cops seem, in spite of the reality that the police force does not pay highly, to live in houses, have new model cars, be handsome or pretty, and be either good cops or bad cops.

By contrast British cop-shows are not so glamorous. The cops themselves often live in rented apartments - some still live at home which American cops never seem to do - are not particularly beautiful or handsome, often wear terrible clothes and either don't have their own cars or else have rather smaller, or older models.

Also American cop shows usually feature a lot of shooting and gun fights which is very different to Europe and the UK.

It is probably this lack of glamour that makes them not very popular in China. Which is actually a great shame, because there are some really good British shows. Watching them would perhaps give Chinese people a more balanced idea of what the world outside of China is actually like.

Humour is one of the marks of most British shows also, and this doesn't seem to feature very much in American shows with the consequence that, to other foreign audiences, they often seem too serious and violent to make comfortable viewing. Although, when British shows do violence it tends to be more personal combat rather than clean, long-distance shots from a gun. Which, because it is more realistic, tends to have more of an impact.

I hope you have all given a little thought to the presentation of Beginnings next week? Although I did not want you to rehearse out of class, I'm hoping that, when I do assign you your groups there will be enough ideas for you to discuss them between yourselves and come to a co-operative decision on what is going to work well and what is not.