'Life on Mars': The curliqued whimsy of fate
Our intrepid time-traveler is Detective Sam Tyler. His new Life on Mars includes a fun-loving hippie neighbor, hateful colleagues and the second-oldest Huxtable contacting him via radio and the stars. Maybe this week she'll try smoke signals...
We join swingin' 73 with a hippie love-in at a park, which Sam recognizes as a place he played as a kid. His delightful hippie neighbor is there, as is a crime scene. A 31 year-old military veteran named Robert Reeves Jr. was beaten to death and left in the park. Lieutenant Hunt says Reeves was a black beret (he can tell by Reeves' gold Zippo lighter, much like Lynn Echolls left Logan when she took a swan dive off the Coronado Bridge) and a tough sonuvabitch, and vows to find the killer.
Sam gives Annie the assignment of casing the victim's car and Det. Carling asks her to come along to "do the dewy-eyed doodoo that only you do" with the victim's family. Snerk. At the victim's house, the men take the widow and Annie takes the son. Mrs. Reeves tells the detectives Robert had only been home from 'Nam for six months and that he was having re-entry problems, receiving a call recently from his squad leader John Fisher. Sam asks about a mistress, but Mrs. Reeves categorically dismisses the notion. Sam joins Annie and the son outside, bonding over lost fathers and the Knicks. I guess there are worse things to bond over... maybe.
Suddenly Sam recognizes the neighborhood and realizes his younger self is somewhere in the city as a little boy. He babbles about "finding himself" and Annie looks at him like he's crazy. I sincerely hope he interrupts his parents' first meeting and has to attend the Enchantment Under the Sea dance as his mom's date.
Sam takes off with Carling to question Fisher, the war buddy, and at his posh high-rise office. Fisher was basically bullied into combat by his family history. Fisher confides that Reeves was tormented by the lack of respect the veterans were getting back in the states. Back at the Precinct it turns out there have been 7 similar cases in the last 3 months of returning veterans being savagely beaten, all by "privileged hippies" who had "educational deferments."
Carling, Sam and Rookie Skelton bust in on a hippie rally to question their leader, as Sam sees a flash of his young self in the warehouse the hippies are using for their rally. He chases off after the apparition and runs into Windy the Hippie in the stairwell. She drags him back to the hippie rally and dances for him, when he sees another apparition of himself as a boy. Sam follows the apparition and stumbles upon a guru leading a meditation. Lisa Bonet, he is not. Windy whispers in his ear that maybe 2008 is the illusion and 1973 is the reality.
In the morning, Sam is passed out in his bed. Windy wakes him up with coffee and a song I used to sing in Bible school. He confides in her about trying to find his younger self and as she strikes a yoga pose, there is a knock at the door. Of course it's Annie and now sexy Sam Tyler is stuck between a hippie and a hard place and only wearing sweatpants and a tank top. Sam throws on a shirt and Annie fills him in on the victim's car, which was full of matchbooks, loose change and an accountant's business card.
Accountant Lawrence Jones is brought in for questions, saying Reeves wondered about tax liability on an inheritance. Jones gives off the plays-for-the-other-team vibe, which Annie picks up on. Sam charms Annie by complimenting her "gaydar," sending her giggling at the concept.
Det. Carling makes fun of Annie bringing in a tax accountant, but Sam sticks up for her and asks her to share her homosexuality theory with the group. She balks and Sam steps up for her, but Lieutenant Hunt goes crazy about them accusing a "war hero" and a "family man" of being gay.
Annie and Sam pay a visit to Robbie, Reeves' son. Sam again bonds with Robbie over lost fathers and the Knicks, then busts Robbie for smoking. Heh heh. He then flashes on three yellow diamonds in a window, which are the same diamonds that were on the guru's forehead at the hippie party. He walks in the house with the diamonds and into a bedroom, where he unearths a shoe box of keepsakes from a baseboard. They aren't his keepsakes, though. The picture is of a young African-American girl and her family. Sam thinks this used to be his bedroom, though.
Sam meets Lieutenant Hunt at Along Come Mary's, a bar whose matchbook Sam took away from Reeves' son when he confiscated the cigarettes. Sam tries to convince Lieutenant Hunt that lots of people are gay and you'd never know. HIs example is Rock Hudson and Hunt says the Rock was doing things to Doris Day that he could only dream of. Heh.
Sam asks the bartender about Reeves and the bartender says one of "us" was killed and you finally care, so the dead guy must've been a congressman or something. Turns out Reeves only recently came out and that Lawrence Jones is still deeply in the closet. Sam tells Hunt the murder was a hate crime and Hunt replies, "As opposed to an I-really-really-like-you crime?" Okay, Keitel's delivery of that was priceless. Also, I happen to agree. Check out "In Excelsis Deo" and "Take Out the Trash Day" of the West Wing season 1 for a very interesting perspective on hate crimes.
The precinct. Sam says there have been multiple incidents of gays beaten to death in that exact park and wants them to investigate the gay-bashing. Carling makes a "parties for queers" joke and dismisses them, so Sam spoils the ending of Soylent Green. Heh heh. He also says they are going to set a trap for these gay-bashers and that Rookie Skelton is going to be the bait. At the park, Skelton walks alone by himself as Annie and Sam do surveillance. Skelton gets cruised by an old man and then has a realization about his Uncle Harold that is pretty funny.
The precinct. Carling dismisses the "fairy" crimes and Lieutenant Hunt responds, "So, he's a fruit fly. You know what's worse than a fruit fly, Ray? A murderer. There's nothing lower than... a murderer. So what' s the diference who the victim was? No man has the right to take another man's life, no matter what you and I think. There's a killer on the loose and it's our job to pursue him to the very gates of hell. Do you understand this?" Maybe I'm a sucker for big speeches, but I liked it. And Keitel sold it.
In the park, Rookie Skelton is jumped by three teenagers, who start to kick him to death. Annie and Sam rush in and Sam dispatches two of the thugs, while Annie jumps on thug #3's back. Way to go, Annie! Just a little bit of Jason O'Mara's accent sneaks through in his, "Well done."
Back at the cop shop, Hunt gets to interrogate the thugs. It's kind of sick how excited I got about Keitel getting to lay into three teenaged gay-bashers. He gets in a particularly nice back-handed slap on one of them. The thugs say they like to mess "those guys" up but that they didn't kill anybody. Sam reminds the thugs that if they don't cooperate, they go to prison. And the typical day in prison is: breakfast, sodomy, exercise yard, sodomy, lunch, sodomy, arts & crafts, dinner, major sodomy" and then is interrupted by Lieutenant Hunt asking for a clarification between "sodomy" and "major sodomy." Sam responds that major sodomy involves a large kissing component. This gets the hugs talking about the crime they saw, saying the killer only punched Reeves (never kicked him) and ran off with a limp. They head back for Joey Fisher, the military buddy.
Fisher says that Reeves wanted to bring back to the States something that "happened over there." Man, I guess what happens in Vietnam stays in Vietnam? Fisher says when Reeves tried to continue things, he just snapped and didn't mean to kill him. Wow, that's kind of depressing. Fisher is arrested
The only really false note of the episode happens when Hunt mutters to Sam, "Gays in the military? What next? They're gonna want to get married?" Wah-wah! [Thumbs down, writers]
Annie and Sam visit Reeves' widow and he tells her Mr. Reeves was very brave and that he died for what he believed in. He does reveal that it was John Fisher who killed him, because he resented Reeves' bravery and courage and ability to stand up and be what he really was, as Robbie the son listens from the staircase. Outside, Sam tells Robbie that if he can close his eyes and feel his dad, then his dad never really left. It's pretty ham-handed and cheezy, but I guess it's not Lisa Bonet speaking through the stars.
The cheeziness is capped off with a musical montage of Sam and Windy, Annie and the Widow Reeves, Hunt and then Carling at the station, and then Sam spotting his younger self with his dad coming out of the subway on their way to a Knicks game (which is one of the only memories he has of his father). And fin. I will say... the episode really had me until the very end. It crossed over from touching to cheezy. But overall, it was pretty strong.
My favorite episode so far. But the series has a way to go. Finally they put Mol's character to good use. Keitel is just wrong for the role. And Imperioli is playing the same character he played on "Law and Order."
There was a line in there where O'mara was saying prejudice like that was going to lead to a war that was even more unjust than the one they just got done fighting and even change the very geography of the city. Was he implying that it was prejudice against muslims that brought down the world trade center?
I am thinking he meant it was Muslims prejudice against America that led to bringing down the Twin Towers. (This is in reply to poster himespau's thoughts.)
Another great episode of Life on Mars. I enjoy the show a lot so far.
Yes himespau..he was talking about 9/11...
great episode...love the 'gaydar' moment...that was funny.
That episode sucked. Another ABC storyline honoring ****sexuality with other liberal subtext about 9/11. It's no wonder this show is getting trounced in the ratings by the superior ELEVENTH HOUR and ER. I thought I might like this series, but the plots are lame, the acting subpar, and the writing is horrible and offensive. I'll never watch another episode, and I hope the gAy-B-C network cancels this show soon.
I was on the cusp of quitting this show until this episode came along. Yes, it may have gotten a little "cheesy" at the end, but I happen to love cheese! So, ABC loses "Former Viewer" but retains me ... a dyed-in-the-wool TV addict who is known to recommend shows to others.
I was so glad Annie got to search the impounded vehicle; she seemed shocked and thrilled, didn't she? I liked Harvey's/Gene's speech, too.
Each episode keeps getting better and better.
I like that this episode sort of focused on Sam's childhood and skipped having a link or a 'communication' to 2008.
Very proud of Sam for respecting and encouraging Annie to do more.
Maybe it was a little cheesy at the end, but I figured Sam had to see himself and his dad so that the whole "1973 is the reality and 2008 is the illusion" theory would get knocked out.
I agree that the "gays are all right, let's all have some quiche" plotlines have worn thin, but that wasn't the point of this episode. The point was that a vet got murdered, who just happened to be gay. It was a juxtaposition between 1973 priorities (going after the murderers of a vet) and those of somebody apparently from 2008 (going after the murderers of a vet who was gay). It was interesting to me because even today, a gay man who is killed will not receive near the kind of publicity that a murdered vet would (even if he also turned out to be gay). Matthew Shepherd was the lone exception, and his story is already pretty much a footnote. There are still hierarchies of importance at all levels of society in regards to who receives the best treatment when it comes to crime. Think what you want to about gays, but I'd like to think that if the reverse were true, and a straight man were murdered, that a precinct made up of gay detectives would put as much effort into finding the killer as if the victim had been "one of their own."
Beyond the obvious politics involved, this was a fine episode. Not near enough music this time around, though. The clothes, though! My god, was everyone stoned and/or blind in the 70s? Sheesh! :)
Too gay.