LIFE ON MARS

I love that. Hated it before, love it now!

A few months ago I read this script. I knew it was a foreign (British?) show and after I read the script I spit on it, lit it on fire and took some of that twilight drug to make me forget the last hour. Seriously, it was so bad. I didn't know how anyone could make such doodie.

Now, more then a month into its season, this show is AMAZING. Like I think it's my fave show. At least close to the top. I don't even know why I watched that first show since I hated the script so much but I'm so glad I did.

Seriously! Golden!

Really, you'd be thinking the same thing, or maybe you did. A show about a guy who gets hit by a car and ends up in the 70s. Huh? That sounded dumb just writing it. The biggest question I had was "how did he get there?". At first that question was said with an eye roll and a head shake. Now I ask the question like I ask a question about Lost, "where did the island go". My sarcasm is completely gone. I am ALL FRAKKIN' IN.

Sam's mentor who in the 70s is an up and coming detective. Really, genius.

Sam Tyler is a cop who gets hit by a car in present day NY and wakes up in the 70s where he's a new transfer to his old police precinct. In this new/old precinct things are done truly old school, no Miranda rights, no women doing detective work, and lots and lots of witness ass kicking.

Come on! I giggle when I see this.

The cast is beyond stellar. Jason O'Mara plays Sam. He is all kinds of adorable. I saw him at a party a few months back and he's completely normal sized. Not tiny and not huge. Lisa Bonet plays his love in present day. Harvey Keitel and Michael Imperiolli (from the Sopranos) play his lieutenant and fellow detective, respectively. Havery Keitel as a hard nosed detective. Not exactly out of the box casting, but perfect nonetheless. Gretchen Mol, yes, ex-model Gretchen Mol plays a lady police who helps women and children but who should be a detective herself, but they don't promote dames! Hahhah.

Not only is Sam trying to figure out where/when the hell he is, he's also working cases as a detective. He figures if he solves something there it'll send him back to the his present to be with the woman he loves. This sounds like Quantum Leap and I LOOOOVVEE Quantum Leap. Usually if a show really excels in one respect it loses focus in another. This show's meat and potatoes is the cases Sam investigates with sprinkles throughout of his old life that he comes across randomly, making him wonder what is reality and what is a dream. For instance, he wakes up in the middle of the night and is watching a professor give a lecture on TV but it suddenly turns into a doctor talking about how he (Sam) is in a coma, like he's explaining it to family members. At some point Sam's heart even sounds like it stops beating. People appear and disappear. I love this show!

There are so many things right about this picture.

Can you tell I love this show. Watch the first two episodes. If you aren't in love with this show then your heart is dead. No, if you don't like this show after 2 episodes fine, but if you like any of these shows: Law and Order, Lost, Quantum Leap, NYPD Blue, Kojak, any good show ever!, you're going to love this.

WHY 24 MAY HAVE HELPED CHOOSE OUR NEXT PRESIDENT

This Tuesday we may see something that I for sure never thought possible. We may have a black President. Seven years ago a show premiered with a premise that seemed outlandish and almost silly at first. 24 came on the air mere weeks after 9/11, even editing one of the opening sequences of a plane exploding, trying not to offend it's still mourning viewers. The job that season that my love, Jack Bauer had, was to thwart an assassination attempt on the first black candidate in history who actually had a chance of becoming the nation's President.

I'll never forget, during every episode, the opening in that first season... "The following takes place between 6pm and 7pm, on the day of the California Presidential Primary". This year, on the day of the California Presidential primary, as I cast my vote for Barack Obama, I was struck with how life was imitating art, and it got me to thinking about how much art may just influence life.

David Palmer, 24's President, rest his fictional soul, was by far, the most confident, smart, educated, humane, likable, and strong President that I can remember on any TV show. West Wing's President Bartlett of course wasn't too shabby, but President Palmer exuded something that at the time, and still, our real President was sorely lacking. I wanted him to be our President, in real life.

I think watching him as President for the few seasons he was on, and even as a former President before his horrible assassination a few seasons back, gave fans of the show a glimpse of what would, or I guess more accurately, what wouldn't, happen if the President happened to be black. Millions of people watched and hoped that my Jack would save soon to be President Palmer's life, which of course he did, and admired the President on his life saving decisions for our country. 24 didn't depict a man who tried to start a race war, who only helped his fellow black man, who ignored foreign policy or domestic terrorism. We saw a man who loved his country, who fought hard to keep it safe.

I truly hope that on Tuesday this country thinks about the issues we face and chooses someone whom they think is right for the job, whoever it may be. Whatever the outcome, I do think that Fox's breakout 2001 hit helped some Americans see that there's nothing scary about a black President. Maybe this year they'll also see having a woman in the White House is pretty damn cool too.