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List Price: $39.99 | | Label: ABC Studios
Salesrank: 472
Released: September 29, 2009 |
| Our Price: $14.65 |
| Used Price: $19.00 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
From the studio that brought you Lost, comes the groundbreaking series that captured the imaginations of fans from coast to coast. With an irresistible soundtrack and one of the most celebrated casts on television, including Harvey Keitel, Michael Imperioli, Gretchen Mol and Jason O Mara, Life On Mars is a smart, suspenseful drama with a finish that will blow you away. Its one of those endings I believe will make you watch the series again, says Executive Producer Josh Appelbaum. There s a fine line between delusion and reality. NYPD detective Sam Tyler finds himself walking both sides of that line when he is suddenly hurtled back in time to 1973 after being struck by a car in 2008.
Journey back to the 70s and uncover the secrets of Life On Mars. It s a strange and exhilarating ride raves the New York Times. Plus, with unique and exciting bonus features including an insiders view of where the shows concept began, a six million dollar moment in which 1970s legend Lee Majors steps back into the past with the cast and crew, and much more
Bonus Features Include: Time Warp, The Joint, Getting Their Groove On, Lee Majors Six Million Dollar Man.
Description of Life on Mars: The Complete Series:
Life on Mars wallows in glorious 1970s fashion and music as it follows Sam Tyler (Jason O'Mara), a police detective who gets hit by a car in 2008 and wakes up in the same spot in 1973. The local police precinct, headed by Lieutenant Gene Hunt (Harvey Keitel, who fits seamlessly into the period surroundings), is expecting Tyler, but Tyler doesn't know why or how he's there--or why he's receiving messages from his previous life, as well as mysterious phone calls from the beyond. Life on Mars blends this science-fiction premise with story lines that would fit in some classic '70s cop show, but Tyler's future knowledge (and his past life) are essential to solving every case, even if it features a missing rock star groupie or a murdered newspaper columnist. Many episodes focus on the mystery surrounding Sam, including meeting his own mother, father, and childhood self, as well as tiny robots, strange men on TV screens, and a hippie chick who speaks in ambiguous koans. The supporting cast includes Michael Imperioli (rocking a serious '70s 'stache) and Gretchen Mol (fetching in Farrah Fawcett wings); guest stars range from Wallace Shawn to Gina Gershon to an uncredited Whoopi Goldberg.
It's regrettable that, in adapting the original British version of Life on Mars, the producers replaced its understated focus with swagger and overstatement; a fantastical premise is more persuasive if the moment-to-moment story makes sense--regrettably, the narrative logic here owes as much to 1970s cop shows as does the production design. Everyone twinkles to excess, wooing the audience and undercutting any sense of grit. The cast is a charismatic bunch who don't need to spend so much time with rueful smiles and approving looks. The producers knew they'd been canceled in time to resolve the mysteries in the final episode, which diverges significantly from the British version. Also included are a number of cheerful audio commentaries and featurettes, including a tour of the set with '70s icon Lee Majors. --Bret Fetzer
Life on Mars: The Complete Series Reviews:
A Christmas Gift... 
2009-11-29 - This will be a gift for my husband as he had loved the show when it aired. Now he will be able to watch it whenever he likes! It is a very good series...check it out! The acting is very good and the story line is refreshingly different...Enjoy!
Great show
2009-11-27 - This series was a thinking person entertainment. Very interesting to see how the law and the police acted in the 1970's and slowly watch how one person's thinking can help change all around them.
Wish it had stay on the TV, thought it was a very good show and enjoy watching it all over again.
Weak copy 
2009-11-27 - I was a huge fan of the excellent BBC version of Life on Mars, and was looking forward to the ABC series.
I will use the words of Stephen King to illustrate my thoughts: "I wish an American network would run the British Life on Mars, one of the greatest limited-run (16 episodes) television series I've ever seen -- it shuts the American version down completely."
The difference is night and day, the American version was decent, but the BBC version is comparable, and in my opinion superior, to shows like Dexter, Mad Men, and Weeds.
Even at the low price of $15, you'd be better off saving for the original BBC version finally available on DVD on amazon.
Typical Hollywood So-Called "Creativity"
2009-11-26 - I've watched the first nine episodes (2 discs) of Life on Mars that I borrowed from the public library. (That's a good way to find out whether or not you want to buy a particular item.) Well, let's just say that the show didn't exactly ring my bell. I will give the Sam Tyler character credit for one thing, though. He did NOT get all indignant at the people who were smoking - and inside, at that. Perhaps it would have been different if he had been a member of the LAPD, rather than the NYPD. Or maybe the writers thought that a scene showing Sam Tyler's shocked indignation at smoking would have been such an obvious cliche that they decided to avoid it.
Whatever the finale of the series entails, it apparently has gotten people into such an uproar that I think I'll borrow that disc from the library - just to see the ending.
LATER...
Everything that I've ever read about writing spoke adamantly against this type of ending. The ending of the series was comparable to, and as bad as, a junior high school composition that ends, "...and the little boy woke up!"
Life Should Have Gone On
2009-11-26 - It was a great intellectual and emotional delight to absorb this set.
Everything was marvelous, inluding the:
- Acting (wow you were right there in the episode)
- The story (each show was stupendous) and great meta-story (fully fulfilled at the end)
- The music (O, were the 70's that long ago?)
This was my favorite series of 2008-2009 and it is in my top ten best time travel shows of all time.
Too bad SyFy channel did not pick this up or Sarah Conner, or Eli Stone, or Jericho - can't SyFy buy anything???
Watch it and fall into deep felicity.
