Promise and Disappointment

Over the weekend we had several events in the world of Life On Mars, the Australian Premiere of Season One and a BAFTA Award for the show (special thanks to Mark from Tardis And Torchwood Treasures for the awards tip-off). The first episode was shown on ABC TV (Channel 2) in Australia on Sunday night at 8.30pm, to some quite favourable reviews.

Australian newspaper The Age had this to say, from its columnist Greg Hassall,"On one hand Life on Mars is critical of the corruption, sexism and racism rampant during the '70s. At the same time, there is obvious nostalgia for the period's less complicated moral landscape."

The article then goes on to add "Time-travel scenarios are notoriously tricky to handle and the writers set themselves a huge task trying to combine this element with a gritty police drama. It's no surprise the show was rejected for years before the BBC finally took a punt on it. It was clearly a punt worth taking, with the show becoming a huge hit in the UK and picking up an international Emmy award." So The Age like it, and so they should.

The ratings for the week in Australia should be interesting with respect to LOM, Channel 2 rarely makes the top 20. So lets keep our fingers crossed for it. I have no doubt it would have done better on a commercial station, but we will have to just wait and see.

Besides the premiere in Australia, Life On Mars had other good news this week where it picked up the illustrious "Pioneer Audience Award" at the BAFTA's on Sunday. It had been nominated in 3 categories, including Best Actor (John Simm) and Best Drama. Sorry John, better luck next time hey?

Oh well the writers now have another award, to add to the growing stash including an International Emmy Award. 'Til next time Martians, Peace.




Cyberman