DVD Review: Life on Mars – The Complete Series

life on mars

Brittany Frederick – Staff Writer
brittanyfrederick
@thetwocentscorp.com

If all you’ve heard about Life on Mars is that it was a short-lived show on ABC, you’re sadly underinformed. The real Life on Mars was a dazzling, amazingly-cast UK series that “blows the American version out of the water” – not my words but those of Stephen King. Now Acorn Media has released the complete series on DVD. Here’s a look at the release!

The Show

Quite frankly, Life on Mars is one of the best UK series that I’ve ever seen. I remember thinking it was a pretty unique premise, and I’ve been a fan of John Simm ever since I saw him in the political drama State of Play (another UK production with a vastly inferior US remake). The series surpassed all my expectations. Life on Mars is swiftly plotted with a steady but not overbearing mythology, and an ending that is heartbreaking yet appropriate.

For those of you unfamiliar with the show, here it is in a nutshell: DI Sam Tyler (John Simm) is in a car accident and wakes up in the 1970’s. He has no idea if he’s gone nuts, is in a coma, or really has gone back in time. Until he figures it out, though, he’s surrounded by 1970’s cops lead by DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister). Sam also begins to fall for WPC Annie Cartwright (Liz White), while trying to solve crimes, confront his past and find a way to get himself home. It has an amazing pedigree as it’s produced by Kudos, the same studio that brings us Spooks (or MI-5 to US audiences).

Simm remains one of my favorite British actors. I had the opportunity to see him on London’s West End in Andrew Bovell’s Speaking In Tongues last year, and he was amazing. Philip Glenister is more than a match for him, creating a larger-than-life Hunt who is both ally and adversary simultaneously. The two of them are surrounded by an able supporting cast that can hold up the weight of some excellent writing, and by series’ end you’ll feel as if you’ve been on a complete journey.

Life on Mars also spawned a spinoff series set in the 1980’s, called Ashes to Ashes. Philip Glenister returned, this time alongside Keeley Hawes (Spooks/MI-5) as DI Alex Drake. Unfortunately, I can’t give it the same level of recommendation; I lost interest two episodes in. But Life on Mars stands on its own as a great dramatic accomplishment.

The DVDs

Life on Mars: The Complete Series is a combined repackaging of the earlier Series 1 and Series 2 sets released by Acorn; if you have those there’s no need to upgrade, but if you don’t, this has the whole show in one complete package. Series 1 and Series 2 come in separate cases for easy access, four discs in each case. There are 16 episodes in all, presented in 16:9 widescreen.

I had no problems with the DVDs whatsoever. The picture is clear, and doesn’t suffer in particularly dark scenes (parking garages, et al). Colors are naturally muted in some shots but that doesn’t detract from being able to see what’s going on. Sound played fine on both my laptop and Blu-Ray player.

The titles are unique – a sort of tour of the police bullpen – if a bit annoying as you have to wait for the DVD to zoom down hallways to get to the next menu. I’m not all that thrilled with the menu music, but who spends all that much time on a menu anyway?

My major gripe concerns the commentary tracks. Rather than being accessible from the episodes screen, you have to go to Audio Setup to activate them. It’s annoying and possibly confusing for those who don’t know better. I prefer to have my commentaries a la Day Break, where each was indicated on the menu for each episode including a list of participants. It’s much easier to access that way and I can see right there who’s on each track. No such luck here; in fact there’s not even a booklet to accompany the discs. Acorn somewhat makes up for this by labeling each disc with which special features are on it, but it still would have been nice to at least have commentaries front and center.

The Special Features

Life on Mars comes with a bevy of special features, but surprisingly, most of them concern Series 1. Series 2 only has three, though they are quite hefty and well done documentaries; it’s as if the Series 2 DVDs got a bit shortchanged. In contrast, Series 1 has commentary on every episode, a few more featurettes, and everyone’s favorite, a gag reel (though not as funny as I expected it would be). There are no commentaries on Series 2, which is a letdown as I’d love to have seen them, especially for the final episode.

Where Acorn makes up for this is that most of their featurettes are long and engaging – and I mean long. These may be the longest featurettes I’ve ever seen on a TV-DVD set. Series 1’s incisive “Take A Look At The Lawman” is just over an hour long and covers pretty much everything you want to know about the show at that point. Series 2’s three featurettes clock in at 45, 48 and 28 minutes respectively. These aren’t 5-10 minute puff pieces like we see on other sets. These are really full-length looks at the show in all aspects. We also see shorter looks at music and production design.

As I mentioned earlier, I do bemoan the lack of commentaries on Series 2 but this is a well-stocked DVD set regardless. I’d have liked to see some more bonus features on Series 2, like maybe another gag reel, but overall there’s a decent set of special features here.

Final Verdict

Recommended. Life on Mars is an excellent series, and Acorn has done a good job of creating a set with a good transfer and some great special features. It’s not perfect but it’s worth the investment. It’ll blow holes in the US version any day.

As of this writing, this box set is available on Amazon for $55.49.

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