Life on Mars Like Journeyman?
August 5th, 2008 by Robert Seidman
Talk about comparisons you do not want to hear about your new show before it even airs! Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune writes in her “The Watcher” column a piece titled: The New Life on Mars - is this Journeyman, take 2? Ouch!
Ms. Ryan is definitely not bullish on the US version of Life on Mars, writing:
“A fascinating, unique love triangle evolves between Sam’s ‘real’ in-the-moment friendship with Annie, his longing to get back to Maya and the fantasy of what could be,” the ABC release states.
I’ve already seen that show — it was called “Journeyman.”
I’d even started to like “Journeyman,” before it was yanked because too few viewers got on board with Kevin McKidd, who played a time-traveling reporter. “Mars” is also reminiscent of “Day Break,” another semi-serialized drama about a man traveling between different time periods.
Doesn’t ABC know that its main accomplishment with “Day Break” was to tick off fans who never got to see the show’s final episodes in a timely way after the Taye Diggs vehicle was canceled?
I’d even started to like Journeyman too, after it got over its stupid relationship nonsense and shed most of its viewers besides me, Bill and apparently Ms. Ryan. Read the rest of her fairly scathing (loved it!) piece on the prospects for Life on Mars via the Chicago Tribune site here.
I was a big Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine fan, so I hate that the prospects for Colm Meaney’s new show aren’t looking good before it even gets out of the gate.
Update: reader/commenter Holly notes that I don’t need to feel as bad because Colm Meaney has already been replaced and won’t be on the show. Holly Notes that the entire cast from the pilot (which is being reshot) has been replaced other than Jason O’Mara.