Do I Smell A Stinker?: Life On Mars Redux

This is the big week for TV networks - upfronts, when the fall schedules are announced. With ABC making nearly no changes to their schedule in a bid for stability, any new shows added to that list should be an undoubted masterpiece, right? Well, the only new scripted show to be picked up by the alphabet net is Life On Mars, a remake of the hit BBC time travel drama. The basic plot point of both versions is that the lead character (a police detective) is in an accident in the present, and wakes up to find himself trapped in the 70’s. Sounds okay so far? Wait for it…

The history behind the project: David E. Kelley has been working to get this project to TV for the better part of the last two years – the original pilot episode was shot last summer. For those of you who don’t know Kelley’s body of work, he came to fame at the helm of Ally McBeal and has worked on a variety of TV shows including The Practice and its current spin-off Boston Legal. In all of his shows so far, there have been some charming characters and witty dialogue – but no ringing endorsements to his ability to helm a sci-fi cop show. Well, now that the show has been picked up – Kelley is severing ties with the program. So what brilliant team is taking the reigns? Since the abysmal October Road has been canceled, the out-of-work producers from that show have been handed this gift. And here I thought Road was helmed by a room full of retarded chimps. Who knew?

“Can they really be that bad?”, you ask: Did you ever SEE October Road? I watched the first episode because I always had a thing for Laura Prepon, the feisty redhead from That 70’s Show. But around halfway through the pilot, after dry-heaving a bit from the throwaway dialogue and terrible acting, I had seen enough to know that my Tivo must have had a bellyache just trying to record the show. I deleted it and tried to forget. But now these guys are trying to wreck something I might actually watch. Dang!

Can LOM be salvaged?: I started digging into the pasts of the new showrunners, hoping that the October debacle could be forgiven. It looks like Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec have been working together for a while, and they've actually worked on some sci-fi tinged dramas such as Alias and Early Edition. Not bad. Ohhhh, but they also worked on the MTV-music-video-meets-cop-show Fastlane, which featured the acting “talents” of Tiffani Thiessen and Bill Bellamy. Granted, this FOX program was one of my guilty pleasures, but the cheese factor of that coupled with October Road? Yikes.

The final part of this unholy trinity is Scott Rosenberg, who seems to have been involved with a lot more movie projects than TV. I again saw a glimmer of hope when I read the title High Fidelity on his writing credits list – classic. So what could ruin that? Oh, there it is – Kangaroo Jack. Yeeeech.

The other bad omen for Mars is the apparent disinterest of the American audience for time-travel dramas. Within the last two seasons, ABC had its own failure with Day Break, while NBC suffered a similar fate with Journeyman (and we won't question the fact that the lovely but possibly-cursed Moon Bloodgood was on both shows). But still, I keep a glimmer of hope alive – I am a sci-fi dork, after all. And what I’ve seen of the original UK version was great, so if this new take on the mythology can at least partially live up to that, it may make it. Add the casting of a sci-fi vet like Colm Meaney and the possibility of some decent scripts and it could actually be good. Make me proud, chimp-men, make me proud…