The Blog to Nowhere

I think I need an icon that says "TV fiend". :-)

I found the unaired pilot for US Life on Mars and wow, the actual pilot seems brilliant compared to it. The unaired pilot actually had more original elements while keeping the basic plot, but it was executed so clumsily. The actors playing Gene, Annie, and I assume it was Ray, weren't that great (sorry Colm Meaney). Though, the unaired pilot did keep Sam standing on the roof of building, contemplating jumping. The move from L.A. to New York City was also a wise decision. L.A. seems too bright and not gritty enough to match the era. So copying the UK pilot practically word for word resulted in some good.

And just some quick thoughts about SGA's mid-season two parter. So stupid how Sci Fi is just off loading these episodes. Yes, there was only a week between parts this year, but at this rate the series will be done by December. I don't see what the rush is. When BSG comes back in January, it'll be ending, too, so Sci Fi won't have any good shows come the summer. But anyway...

( Spoilers for SGA 5x11 )

And I forgot to talk about Sanctuary last week. I had seen the webisodes a while back and was wondering how they would redo the pilot now that they had more money. It seems the luxury of a bigger budget and being an actual TV show now allows for more character development. Things are revealed much more slowly or not at all. It was a bit weird how they reused some of the footage from the webisodes and inserted it into the episode. And now with episode two done, they can move on to original stories, though it was nice to see the story from the second half of the webisodes resolved. In the webisodes, it just ends with everyone in peril.

Some user on some site commented how Sanctuary was just a rip-off of Torchwood. I admit the concept of the shows are similar and there are some similar character roles, but it's not the same show. Sanctuary's a Canadian production through and through. :-)

I couldn't help myself. I watched the premiere of the US version of Life on Mars. Okay, so the whole point of importing the show was to take the concept and place it in America, right? I mean, if you wanted original Life on Mars, an American network could have just bought the UK version. So it was really sad to see that the US pilot was practically a scene by scene reconstruction of the UK pilot with nothing new or too radically different. Case in point...

( Pic spam behind the cut. Spoilers for episode 1 of Life on Mars UK and US. )

I hope US Life on Mars picks up once the show starts with original episodes. Not that I'm planning to watch more.

Up next: character comparisons (and more clone shots).