Life on Mars was my guilty pleasure when I was over in the states for two years. I hadn't watched it before - hadn't even heard of it - but I had just watched 'The End of Time' from Doctor Who and I needed to see what else John Simm had been in. I have a problem, I'm aware. I missed my good ole English accents after hearing American twang for a time - and some Mexican because there was a fair bit in Connecticut, oddly - so when I found Life on Mars, bam, it was on my telly all the time until I came back home.
Gene Hunt is just a bloke. He's every bully's nightmare, every nerd's deepest fear, the guy you never want to get on the wrong side of. Yet, time and again Sam Tyler did just that. Poor Sam. I loved re-watching the first episode. It had such a strong pull to it, because we didn't know if Sam was alive, dead, insane or an actual Time-Traveller. The last point is kind of funny because, hey, he's a Time Lord a year or so after this series
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I've not seen the American version, because they do have a lot of copied shows over there that don't seem to work out too well (like Being Human). It got more episodes than ours did, but I heard they didn't have the same substance in the end compared with the original Life on Mars.
Incidentally, I went out and got David Bowie's 'Life on Mars' track after watching this too
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![[Image: lifeonmars460.jpg]](http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/arts/2007/03/23/lifeonmars460.jpg)
![[Image: life3.jpg]](http://www.deathbymovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/life3.jpg)
![[Image: lost_paladin_banner_by_milleniumring-d8i4gzv.jpg]](http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2015/046/1/5/lost_paladin_banner_by_milleniumring-d8i4gzv.jpg)