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We've now watched series 1 of Life on Mars, and I have to say that I haven't seen anything so Freudian since my last dose of Schnitzler. Gene Hunt, in all his wonderful awfulness, is clearly Sam's id, and in the final episode, he convinces Sam that his father is evil and must be excised from the family unit, leaving little Sammy in sole possession of his mother. Grown-up Sam gets all weepy about this, but given the way he turned up with a bunch of flowers to go on a date - er, have lunch with his mum in a previous episode, having told her he was named Bolan, like his hero, I am inclined to think that his superego doth protest too much.


In general, I've throughly enjoyed the series, though I can't help noticing that, like Hustle, LoM has no less than five major characters, only one of whom is female - it makes me all nostalgic for my Buffy days, when half the cast were women. And the only black guy falls quite clearly into the category of Magical Negro. Ah well, perhaps Ashes to Ashes will improve the odds.

One of the pleasures of watching Life on Mars has been spotting Hustle actors. Kudos clearly has a pool of favourites, to the extent that I sometimes get the impression the whole series is one giant crossover. We thought we'd hit the jackpot when Trevor showed up as Sam's dad, so imagine our excitement when today Danny appeared. Leaving with me no choice, of course, but to believe that all the events of that particular episode were one giant con. Thereby explaining Sam's sudden ability to change history, instead of being ground beneath the wheels of Fate, which is what's always happened so far.