Okay. I don’t do reviews. I leave that up to the big wigs. So this isn’t a review. This is a problem I have with Life on Mars. Not the original British show, but the American remake that comes on ABC. Life on Mars starts out with a detective, who happens to be a white guy, who gets hit by a car and is thrown back into 1970 something. I am not spoiling this for anyone since he tells us and the writers remind us over and over again, that he’s in a coma and is dreaming the whole thing, but I’ll save that for whoever is going to do a review. I have been watching this nonsense every week its been on instead of watching Eleventh Hour, another American remake of a British TV show that comes on CBS at the same time incidentally.
In the first episode we meet our main character, Det. Sam Tyler, who is deeply in love with Det. Maya Daniels (Lisa Bonet), a woman of either biracial or black background. So much so, that he’s planning to propose to her. When Det. Tyler gets thrown back to 1973, his new “love interest” is Anne Norris (Gretchen Mol) a blonde hottie. And he’s also been caught up with another blonde in the second episode of the series. Given, it is 1973, and black people were viewed a little differently, but is was 1973 in New York, which was a fairly liberal state then. But the more and more I watch this show, the more it bothers me that he started out with a black girlfriend and is now cavorting around with a blonde white woman. Call me biased or whatever. But I think I am done with the show. It wasn’t very good to begin with anyway, and American remake of British shows is so unoriginal, uncreative, and uninspiring.
Posted under Television
This post was written by Jarrell on October 30, 2008
7 Comments so far
I feel you, black geek. I just have a problem with hotties in general. In the British version his original girlfriend is East Indian, sweet and normal looking. Then when he gets to the 73 world, he has a normal looking white brunette girlfriend. But that's Britain, which seems to have a sanity about actresses. In the US, everything has to be sexed up.
How do you really feel? All kidding aside, I agree with you about the remake part, and I find the whole show's concept ridiculous. (I do like Eleventh Hour)
But as far as replacing Lisa with Gretchen, it does seem like if this is happening in his mind, he could exert some control over what's happening. If Anne represents something that he wishes for, or maybe a fantasy, or maybe how he thinks of Maya, then the writers of this show have a sick sense of humor or no taste.
What would have had more impact? Make Anne's character a black woman who is essentially the same character as Anne and the love interest part would have more significance because of the time period and could be used to show how far (or how little) things have come in respect to how interracial relationships are perceived.
So detective Tyler is supposed to fall in love with a color not a person?
I think the question Jarrell is implying is if all of this is happening in his head, and everything is his creation and influenced by his life experiences, then why did he make a conscious, or subconscious, decision to change her race?
Carole's observation is a more pertinent issue. Why did the producer/creator of the series, both the UK and the USA versions find it necessary to start his potential fiance as one race and then change it in his mind. This could easily have been dismissed if the USA version hadn't repeated the change. I, like Jarrell, wonder if this was something the writers planned on making an issue. Maybe we are giving the writers too much credit. He can fall in love with whomever he wants regardless of sex, color or religion but it's more than a coincidence that they did the same thing in the remake.
Is he? He's the one that idealized his perfect mate as a white woman and not the black woman who he planned to profess his love to and propose to…..Not me.
I think the question Jarrell is implying is if all of this is happening in his head, and everything is his creation and influenced by his life experiences, then why did he make a conscious, or subconscious, decision to change her race? rnCarole’s observation is a more pertinent issue. Why did the producer/creator of the series, both the UK and the USA versions find it necessary to start his potential fiance as one race and then change it in his mind. This could easily have been dismissed if the USA version hadn’t repeated the change. I, like Jarrell, wonder if this was something the writers planned on making an issue. Maybe we are giving the writers too much credit. He can fall in love with whomever he wants regardless of sex, color or religion but it’s more than a coincidence that they did the same thing in the remake.
Is he? He’s the one that idealized his perfect mate as a white woman and not the black woman who he planned to profess his love to and propose to…..Not me.
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