It's a new tv show. New York detective Sam Tyler who gets hit by a car and wakes up in 1973. He thinks that if he figures out why he's in the past, then maybe he can get home. Of course, the legal system in 1973 is different than the legal system in 2008. One of the major themes of the show is Sam's conflict with the attitudes of the 70s.

It's a great show. I'm usually not into police dramas, but it's the time travel aspect that attracted me to the show.

You can watch the show on surfthechannel.com

I must just say this. Life On Mars is not new. You must not forget that it is still a BBC drama and it is recommended you watch it before you watch the American version, as reviews of th US version are not good.
If you are a Doctor Who fan you will recognise who plays Sam Tyler in the BBC version as he also played The Master. His name is John Simm.
Just give the original a look in.

The US version is new. I only saw the last episode of the UK version. The US version is actually really good.

Who do they have playing Sam Tyler and Gene Hunt?

Jason O'Mara plays Sam Tyler and Harvey Keitel plays Gene Hunt.

Harvey Keitel, I know him from Star Trek: DS9 and Voyager. Cool. Just watched the trailer for your US version, to be honest it was very American, not sure I could sit down and watch it. But then your history is different to ours, I can't relate to the clothes, cars and news/events in your version just as you probably can't relate to the cars, clothes and news/events in our version.

I prefer the UK version of The Office to the US version of The Office.

I would also say that, maybe it just seems more real, as Ricky Gervais's character is so painful. I did enjoy watchinig some of the US version though.

I enjoy both versions.

I think you're right about Life on Mars. I understand the cultural references better in the American version better than the ones in the British version.

The US Version is canceled. I just saw the last episode. I was disappointed by the ending.

Well, I just finished watching the first episode at YouTube. It's a pretty good episode, and it's good that Sam Tyler was able to get to the source of his girlfriend's murder.

Actually, his girlfriend wasn't murdered. At the end, she told him via radio that she's fine.

Okay, yeah, I caught that part. I went to Wikipedia to find out more about the show - and, apparently, both 2008 and 1973 were simulated realities. That sounds like a very interesting concept.

I hate when a show turns out to be all a dream.

I'm not fond of it myself, but there's one way you could spin that around. Dreams don't necessarily have to be just figments of your imagination. You could choose to view dreams as gateways to other realities. Sometimes, I think dreams can be more than just dreams.

I think the scene in 2035 is really just another dream.

Is this about the US or UK version. I don't remember the radio bit at the end of the first episode, but then ive not watched it for a while.
So, they cancelled the US version, was it that bad? The UK version got a fair bit of bad press when it was in its first series. Originally they never intended on making the second series, but I think the fans got behind the show and demanded to know what happened to Sam, I know I did, I got hooked and couldn't believe that they could leave it on an ending like that, I'm so glad they did the second series, the ending is really good, have to say, I'd do the exact same thing.

The show was actually pretty good. It got canceled because it wasn't getting enough viewers. And ABC was stupid enough to put the show on after Lost.

The UK version had a better ending than the US version. The last episode was great until the last five minutes. In that episode, Sam got kidnapped by his dad. Gene killed Sam's dad. Annie got promoted to detective. Sam finally kisses Annie. He gets a phone call from Frank Morgan and told Sam there's one last thing to do. Sam told Frank that he doesn't want to leave 1973.

It turns out both 2008 and 1973 are part of a neural simulation. Sam was really an astronaut on a mission to Mars in 2035. Gene, Annie, Ray, and Chris were astronauts too. Frank Morgan is the guy at NASA who started the mission. Wait till you hear the worst part. Gene is really named Major Tom and he's actually Sam's dad. Leave it to ABC to kill a good show.

Ok, now that sounds really strange and far-fetched. Knowing that makes me appreciate the UK version more. At least with that you could see it happening to someone. Did your version have the creepy girl from the TV? In the red dress holding the clown?

There's no creepy TV girl. There's no Phyllis either.

Was Manchester really that crappy looking in the 70s?

I'm pretty sure it was yes, as its just as crappy looking today. Put it this way, as a big city a lot of areas look crap and are complete dives, like any city in the world really but with the exception of those delightful tower blocks and crappy past architects.

I saw the 2006 scenes of Manchester and it looked pretty good.

Well, like I said, every city and town have areas that look good and those what look terrible. Birmingham is a prime example of that.
But still, 70s architecture wasnt all that brilliant, they seemed to love concrete too much back then.

Have you seen Ashes to Ashes?

Nah, never really got into that. Though should have, cause they had a DeLorean in one of the episodes.
I think the main reason I didnt was cause John Simm wasnt in it, and I really enjoyed watching him in Life on Mars, and as The Master in Dr Who. I think hes a great actor.

According to one of the episodes of Ashes to Ashes, Sam and Annie got married and were one of the happiest couples anyone has ever seen. They didn't have any kids.