Drop your weapons, you are surrounded by armed bastards

I've got a new Brit show I'm digging, hep cats: the BBC drama Life on Mars

It's on BBC America, and I'm only one and one-half episodes in of the three episodes broadcast here in the Colonies and I'm hooked. Here's the premise: Detective Sam Tyler's partner and girlfriend is abducted by a serial killer. Minutes later, Sam gets hit by a car... and wakes up in 1973. Confused. And hating his clothes.

Sam is pretty sure he's A. dead B. crazy C. dying D. in a coma. His colleagues are cigarette smoking, face punching cops who aren't sure why the hell he's acting so strange. The case the '73 detectives are working on seems like it might tie into the 2006 case he was working on...

It's a nice balancing act of bits that make you think he's desperately trying to get out of a coma and get back in 2006, and it really is all in his head. Probably.

Sam has to figure out how to be a cop thirty-three years before cell phones and forensics are common place. He can barely get a crime scene closed much less life a print after a robbery. All his tech, standards, and procedures are gone, and all he has left to rely on is himself and a bunch of drunk cops who'd rather beat the shit out of him than let a perp off when there's no evidence.

The direction is really really good, the editing is top-flight, the color palette is all over, the acting, especially by John Simm (playing Sam) is really interesting. I wonder if Simm has a comedic background like the kick-ass Hugh Laurie rocking out the confused/scared/bright/driven/angry/funny/sad "man against the world."

I think the DVD set of the first season will be available in the States by the end of the year, and if you're looking for something to try in the ol' NetFlix que I really think Life on Mars is worth a look. I didn't even mention the soundtrack of the show... man it's good.