The star of the original Life on Mars returns today for his second season as another great detective solving crimes in the BritBox original series from IPT,Grace. John Simm, known for his run as a detective unstuck in time as well as the key villain of Doctor Who, plays Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, a cop sent down to desk duty a few years ago for embarrassing the bureau by bringing in a psychic to help solve a crime. Only last year television viewers got to meet the next great TV detective with the airing of the show’s first season, and this year he’s joined in the second season opener by former Doctor Who star Arthur Darvill. We at borg named it the runner-up for best new TV series of 2022 (see our review here). The second season of Grace begins in the U.S. today, exclusively here on BritBox via Amazon.
Is the second season of the hit Netflix sci-fi comedy Russian Dollheading the way of Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes? Just check out the trailer below for the second season, arriving in only two weeks. The first season introduced chapter one in the story of Natasha Lyonne′s vulgar, angst-plagued New Yorker Nadia, an emotional, more accessible Jessica Jones, a superpowered heroine with a unique gift (like Deadpool 2’s Domino), the power of the do-over. But the trailer appears like Lyonne, as star, writer, director, and showrunner, is pulling out all the stops this time, taking the series to an incredibly realistic New York of the past. The time jump made the irreverent comedy a science fiction genre bender. It’s now getting a Stranger Things-esque retro fix that looks to be even more layered than its first season.
The star of the original Life on Mars is back as a detective solving crimes in the new BritBox original series from IPT,Grace. John Simm, also known for his run on Doctor Who, State of Play and other British dramas plays Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, a cop sent down to desk duty a few years ago for embarrassing the bureau by bringing in a psychic to help solve a crime. When a former colleague rises up the ranks and pulls D.S. Grace in to a high-profile case, viewers get to meet the next great TV detective. The first episode of Grace is now streaming in the U.S. exclusively here on BritBox via Amazon.
My name is Sam Tyler. I had an accident, and I woke up in 1973. Am I mad, in a coma, or back in time? Whatever’s happened, it’s like I’ve landed on a different planet.
First off, it’s really going to rile some people when you pronounce something the greatest ever. But we’re talking here about the British television series Life on Mars. And not just Life on Mars, but The Empire Strikes Back of television series, Ashes to Ashes. You can quibble with M*A*S*H or Law and Order or Buffy the Vampire Slayer or The Twilight Zone, or engage you people over there shouting Firefly and Supernatural and the others over there fighting over the best Star Trek series–but we’re talking about Life on Mars here. And if you’ve watched its two seasons in 2006 and 2007, or the three seasons of Ashes to Ashes from 2008 to 2010, then the news that another chapter of the series is in the works is the kind of happy news that can actually distract you from the real world right now.
Yet it’s true. Life on Mars co-creator Matthew Graham confirmed it all yesterday as part of a Twitter “watch-along” of the first episode of the genre-bending series for the UK audience. Graham first hinted at the possibility in a Tweet he posted Tuesday promoting the event, and he provided more details after the show. Just like over the past 15 years, Brits posted how much they loved the series, how they believe it to be the best series ever made. The series follows John Simm (Doctor Who, State of Play) as Sam Tyler, a British cop in 2006 who is working on a case when he is hit by a car. He awakens in the same police station 33 years earlier, in the year 1973. He knows he’s unstuck in time, but unsure how he got there. Is he in a coma? Did something supernatural take over? Is this what death is like? This is where the genre-bending begins. Until you’ve watched all five years of episodes, you won’t really know what is the true genre behind the genres hinted at in the series. Tyler befriends and shares his situation only with co-worker Annie Cartwright, played by Liz White(Doctor Who, The Woman in Black). He finds he is now working under the cantankerous Detective Police Inspector Gene Hunt, played by Philip Glenister(Cranford, Horatio Hornblower), one of my picks of the greatest characters of all time (seriously, I wrote about it here eight years ago). DCI Hunt becomes the centerpiece of this strange world, continuing past the second season of Life on Mars to co-star in the same role in Ashes to Ashes along with Keeley Hawes(Doctor Who, The Bank Job), a police officer named Alex Drake who is shot in 2008 and wakes up in 1981. Life on Mars continued with Ashes to Ashes much like The Closer continued with the series Major Crimes for U.S. audiences, swapping out the lead roles, but continuing with the rest of the cast. Here that included two other cops, played by Dean Andrews(Father Brown, Marchlands) and Marshall Lancaster(Doctor Who, Casualty) who appeared in all five seasons.
During yesterday’s watch-along, Graham peppered Twitter with glimpses at what lies ahead in what he called, The Final Chapter. Although he didn’t say if any actors had confirmed returning, it seems impossible anyone would make this announcement without buy-in from Glenister, Simm, Hawes, White, Andrews, and Lancaster. To that point he said, “we intend to get as many back (across both decades) as we can. So when you wonder who will be coming back for The Final Chapter – think Avengers Assemble!” He specifically referenced wanting Annie (Liz White) back, and Hunt’s boss DCI Litton. Graham mentioned the series will be set in Manchester and London, partially in the 1970s, partially in the 1980s, but mostly in an alternate now, all running for four or five episodes. “I’d like to tell you that in The Final Chapter there will be a TV show WITHIN our TV show. TYLER: MURDER DIVISION,” adding, “We would never make another Mars unless we really had something to say and could push the envelope all over again. Finally we have something.” While watching a classic scene in the first episode, co-creator Ashley Pharoah Tweeted, “I wonder if Phil and John could jump over that desk now? I guess we’ll find out”.
BBC America has been advertising the new series Intruders for months now but this extended trailer should be all you need to know this is a series pilot not to be missed. So stick around after Doctor Who’s big premiere episode with the 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi Saturday night. It looks like Kate Hudson’s Skeleton Keyand Daniel Radcliffe’s The Woman in Black meets Marchlands and Lightfields.
As thrillers go they got this preview right, with pretty heavy doses of creepy–just right for a late night show with the lights off. How can they go wrong, with stars like John Simm–star of Life on Mars, one of the five best television series of all time–and Mira Sorvino, Oscar winner and versatile actress most recently dazzling us as a cop on Psych? Add in James Frain and Robert Forster–Frain a more recent character actor showing up everywhere, and Forster a genre TV staple–and this show just begs to be seen.
Put together Academy Award winning actress Mira Sorvino and star of the British mega-hit Life on Mars John Simm, add in Blair Witch Project’s Eduardo Sanchez and The X-Files executive producer Glen Morgan, and what do you get? It’s the new BBC America series Intruders. Based on the novel The Intruders by Michael Marshall Smith, Intruders has the dark and creepy vibe of The X-Files and the supernatural horror of Skeleton Key.
The sci-fi/paranormal thriller is set in the Pacific Northwest and follows Simm as Jack Whelan, a former LAPD cop with a troubled past whose quiet life is shaken when his wife (Sorvino) Amy vanishes. Whelan is consumed by the investigation into his wife’s disappearance as an underworld society is enmeshed with the pursuit of an assassin and another case involving a missing girl.
Why will Intruders be worth checking out? If you watched Life on Mars–the British original, not the U.S. remake–you’ll know how brilliant John Simm can be as the lead in a mystery tale. You may also have seen him in State of Play (the original British series, not the American movie remake) or as The Master in Doctor Who. Mira Sorvino will also be a welcome addition to television. In the TV realm we’ve only seen her recently at the tail end of the Psych series (in a great, quirky role) and before that in a guest spot on House, M.D.
There’s got to be a reason that the third season premiere of BBC’s Sherlock was the most downloaded episode ever at Youku.com, a major source of streaming TV content in China. Whether it’s the writing, the stunning movie-worthy cinematography, or the stellar cast you return for, Sherlock’s new season began with a gripping, emotional, and downright compelling opener. Of course, like seasons one and two (the Brits call them series one and two), we only get three episodes this season. Which begs the question: What the heck is wrong with the Brits??? (Ahem, we mean that in the nicest way possible).
But seriously. Probably the best TV series of all time, the original Life on Mars, lasted only three seasons. Why??? The Hour got cancelled after two seasons. Why??? And instead of series in the U.S. that may have 13 or more episodes a season, Sherlock has only three episodes. Why??? Does the BBC not realize what a goldmine it has? If the theory is that the three annual episodes are so brilliant because the BBC takes its time and can focus on only three episodes to make them so dazzling… well that’s just not good enough. Let’s devote more resources to Sherlock and other superb British series. Just look at Mr. Selfridge– it has ten episodes in the queue this season. That’s more like it!
OK enough ranting. Steven Moffat has said “We think of them as films because they are ninety minutes long and once we knew we weren’t doing hour long episodes they needed to be on that sort of scale. They have to have the size and weight of a movie.” Since it’s the great Mr. Moffat we’ll just let him have the last word. Sherlock is must-watch television, period, so let’s move along.
This year’s TV series Almost Human had the potential to be a big hit, with movie star Karl Urban as one of the two lead actors, and a classic sci-fi plot that looked like it would mix RoboCop, Alien Nation, Blade Runner, and Total Recall. After a fun but uncertain pilot episode, it has managed to deliver each week the kind of science fiction stories that are stuff of classic TV. Almost Human isn’t just sci-fi, it’s a full-blown police procedural drama, and a good old-fashioned buddy cop show to boot.
The series centers on megastar-film actor Karl Urban’s future cop, Detective John Kennex. Kennex is a grumpy guy with baggage, a past encounter gone bad resulted in the death of his partner and the need for a cybernetic leg. Early detractors of the series likened his Kennex too much to his similarly gruff Doctor McCoy from the new Star Trek movies. It’s a fair comparison. But we don’t care. They are both great characterizations and the miserable, tough guy routine is separable and fun to watch, especially Kennex’s banter with co-star Michael Ealy as almost human robot cop Dorian, an android of a decommissioned type who has become Kennex’s partner. In fact, the buddy cop routine will make you think of your favorite buddy cop shows, in the league of Alien Nation, Adam-12, Life on Mars, Hot Fuzz, Dragnet, Life, White Collar, and Starsky and Hutch.
This week’s episode was emblematic of why the series is destined to continue as long as the network will let it. The writers basically took the plot from a classic episode of Law and Order about pacemakers being refurbished and placed in new people. Here, that concept is blended with a current political item: what happens if there is no Affordable Care Act in the future, and a current element of technology some people use every day: the prepaid cell phone. So how did the writers put it all together?
Two episodes down and we at borg seem to be the only viewers utterly underwhelmed by BBC America’s hotly-anticipated new import, Broadchurch. Lured in by trailers featuring some of our genre favorites, including Jodie Whittaker (Attack the Block), David Tennant, and Arthur Darvill (both, Doctor Who), we eagerly cleared our schedule and tuned in, expecting the sort of dazzling drama that series like The Hour and Life on Mars have led us to expect from BBC. We won’t tell you what happened next (it makes borg.com reviewer Elizabeth C. Bunce seem soulless), and we won’t waste the bandwidth trying to shout over the accolades. Instead we’re putting our energy into giving other disappointed viewers what they really wanted from the eight-part series. Unfortunately for many American viewers, several of these shows have not yet made it to Region 1 (U.S.) DVD, but they are well worth tracking down.
If you tuned in to see…
Jodie Whittaker as a grieving mum, try Marchlands (reviewed earlier this year here at borg.com)
The luminous Jodie Whittaker gives a haunting, nuanced performance as a young mother trying to come to terms with the disappearance of her daughter, while stifled by life at her in-laws’ home and the judgement of local villagers. Also starring Denis Lawson (Bleak House, Star Wars) and Doctor Who’s own River Song, Alex Kingston (Arrow), Marchlands is a complex look at the lingering resonance of one family’s tragedy. Plus there are ghosts, which in borg.com’s opinion is always a bonus. (And if you love Marchlands then you’ll want to see the follow-on series Lightfields we also reviewed here).
David Tennant investigating a murder in an idyllic seaside village, check out Viva Blackpool (just Blackpool in the UK)
With a television series featuring Doctor Who and Arrow’s Alex Kingston, Life on Mars’s Dean Andrews, Luke Skywalker’s pal Wedge Antilles, and the lead actress from Attack the Block, you just can’t go wrong. And it’s really hard to beat an old British cottage near the woods as the setting when you’re creating a ghost story. Add to it one of borg.com’s most discussed subjects: a movie about a creepy little girl, and you’re in for a good show. That could not be more true than with the UK mini-series Marchlands. UK production company ITV and 20th Century Fox created an expertly constructed five-part, supernatural drama mini-series that traverses three families living in different eras in the same British house.
Marchlands first aired in the UK in 2010, but it hasn’t been released in the States yet. In fact the only way to view it is to buy it from a British online retailer along with a DVD player that will play DVDs from Europe. Along with watching all the other series from the UK long before they cross the lake to America, going the extra mile to get access to these series is well worth the effort.
