khaosworks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
khaosworks) wrote2008-06-19 07:57 pm
khaosworks) wrote2008-06-19 07:57 pm
Entry tags:
It's On America's Tortured Brow
In other pre-air pilot news, I just watched the US version of Life on Mars. It's pretty much the same script as the first episode of the UK version, but of course set in 1972 Los Angeles instead of 1973 Manchester.
Given how much I enjoyed the UK version, I don't think I managed to approach it at all objectively, or maybe I'm too used to the original. It's workmanlike, but the performances and the performers had no chemistry at all, and as a result the whole thing seems actually boring and flat - the biggest tragedy of all being that Colm Meany as Gene Hunt is actually unfunny. Meany's a terrific actor, but his Hunt doesn't have the way Phillip Glennister's has of dominating the screen every time he enters it. One of the best things about Life on Mars was seeing the way John Simms and Glennister managed to focus your attention entirely on the relationship between these Sam and Gene: when they were in the same scene, they were the centre of the universe.
Maybe it'd be better received by someone who's never seen the original. I don't know.
But it seems that it's all moot anyway, since this version of the pilot will likely never make it to air as David E. Kelley has left the show and they're not only changing the location from L.A. to New York, but also making changes in the cast. However, given that it's on the Fall schedule, that doesn't give them much time to get their shit together. And it doesn't look like they're going to.
Given how much I enjoyed the UK version, I don't think I managed to approach it at all objectively, or maybe I'm too used to the original. It's workmanlike, but the performances and the performers had no chemistry at all, and as a result the whole thing seems actually boring and flat - the biggest tragedy of all being that Colm Meany as Gene Hunt is actually unfunny. Meany's a terrific actor, but his Hunt doesn't have the way Phillip Glennister's has of dominating the screen every time he enters it. One of the best things about Life on Mars was seeing the way John Simms and Glennister managed to focus your attention entirely on the relationship between these Sam and Gene: when they were in the same scene, they were the centre of the universe.
Maybe it'd be better received by someone who's never seen the original. I don't know.
But it seems that it's all moot anyway, since this version of the pilot will likely never make it to air as David E. Kelley has left the show and they're not only changing the location from L.A. to New York, but also making changes in the cast. However, given that it's on the Fall schedule, that doesn't give them much time to get their shit together. And it doesn't look like they're going to.