Product Details

• Actors: John Simm, Philip Glenister, Liz White, Dean Andrews
• Format: Box set, Color, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 8
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Acorn Media
• DVD Release Date: July 6, 2010
• Run Time: 930 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0038M2SAW
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,379 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

"Not your mother’s procedural drama" --Entertainment Weekly

"Intelligently entertaining" --USA Today

Seen on BBC America

"An intoxicating treat" --Variety

"One of the best TV series ever made" --San Francisco Chronicle

Crazy, in a coma, or back in time? Struck by a passing car in modern-day Manchester, detective Sam Tyler (John Simm, State of Play, Doctor Who) wakes up in 1973, where he’s the newest member of his old police squad. Sam’s respect for proper procedure and 21st-century mentality clash mightily with his bullying boss, DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister, Cranford). Still, Sam gamely adapts to crime solving in this retro world, despite hearing strange voices that call him back to his former life. When he bonds with sympathetic policewoman Annie Cartwright (Liz White, The Fixer), Sam wonders: does he really want to return?

Winner of two International Emmys® for best drama series, Life on Mars is "an entertaining collision of bare-knuckled police-procedural realism and mind-blowing surrealism" (TV Guide), acclaimed by critics and fans alike.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 75 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars British Copper Series with More Bang for your Buck May 14, 2010

By Harold Wolf TOP 50 REVIEWER

The COMPLETE set of episodes for the UK variety of 'LIFE ON MARS' is compelling viewing for crime and mystery fans. Now, with the entire series assembled into one package, the difference between this gritty cop in 2 worlds can be fully compared to the US duplication. The debate will forever rage, but you may find that this UK series is bang-on for several reasons.

A young Manchester detective is struck by a car and sent eventually to intensive care in a coma. However, Sam Tyler (John Simm) is hearing, thinking, and seeing regardless of the fact his body is immobile, speechless, and unresponsive. Doctors, wife, cops look for signs of life, continuing life-sustaining machines and measures, as Sam tries to get his message through.

In the meantime, Sam also returns to a police station with an arrogant, brute commander, Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) leading the team. But it's in 1973, complete with perfection in sets, costumes, props, and antiquated police procedures as well as techniques. Sam remembers the modern style of police work and tries putting it to work in this location, this time, with this drinking, hot-head, abusive boss. It leaves both men frustrated at each other on a regular basis. The conflict between the characters is played brilliantly by the 2 stars.

Crime after crime, is investigated through the series, while Sam tries to make contact with the modern world from his comatose-like stage in a hospital bed. The jump from modern to 70s in issues and times is well done, leaving a continuing plot over the episode crime plot always dangling for its own suspenseful end. There is even romance conflict from both ends of Sam's existence. The show seems to have it all, something for everyone.... Even the surprise ending that leaves one desiring more of Life On Mars.

Annie Cartwright (Liz White), is the bonny looking policewoman of 1973 who is a "friend" of Sam, often taking his side. You'll love her (how do you say 'hot' in British dialect?). Ah, the British accents. It's no wonder, the US tried to keep it going--but alas, without the UK stars. Worry none about accents: SUBTITLES AVAILABLE.

If you have not tried the UK version of this original version which was recast and rewritten in an American version, it is highly recommended. Then, make your own personal judgment.

"LIFE ON MARS" is unrated, but not for children. If rated, it would likely be PG-21, R, or, in a few fast scene flashes, more. Put the kids to bed first.
....The series cleverly uses period music and recording artists at key spots in the episodes. Included, but not limited to, are artists and songs: David Bowie, "Goodbye Yellow House Road", "The Sweet Hellraiser", Barclay James Harvest, "In the Shining Sun", David Cassidy, Moody Blues, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Elton John, "Rocket Man", Whiskey in the Jar, Traffic, Cream, "Crossroads", The Sweets, "Love Lies Bleeding", Israel Kamakawiwi'de, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", "Changes", and of course, "LIFE ON MARS."
....16 episodes, about an hour each.
EXTENSIVE BONUS MATERIAL-detailed on this COMPLETE set's listing.

Best time travel tale since "The Wizard of Oz". Read more ›

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars But Where is Home? September 2, 2010

By Martin Asiner

If you first saw LIFE ON MARS in the American version then later viewed its original British predecessor, then one thing stands out. The U. S. version was good but the BBC series was compelling. It is not often that any film company can successfully unite two divergent genres, but LIFE ON MARS is a gripping melding of a cops and robbers crime solving series with a cerebral science fiction subtext. In both the American and British versions, the basic plots converge; however, it is the British series that has the far more deft hand at creating and maintaing ongoing interest. John Simm is Detective Sam Tyler of the Manchester Police Force in 2006. He has a car accident and like Hank Morgan in CONNECTICUT YANKEE wakes up some thirty three years earlier, also as a police officer with the same name. He wanders into his reassigned police precinct and wonders whether he is insane, in a coma, or has inexplicably travelled through time. His new comrades seem as if they are little more than brute atavisms, solving crimes the old-fashioned way, mostly through a politically incorrect mishmash of beatings of suspects, violations of every rule of contemporary police procedure, and frequent use of anti-feminist and anti-gay slurs. And to top off matters, no use of personal computers or forensics or DNA technologies. Sam's boss is Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), a brute of a cop who sees nothing wrong with beating a confession out of a suspect. Hunt drinks constantly, is overweight, and is rude to everyone under his command. When a policewoman Annie Cartwright (Liz White) joins his squad as a detective, Hunt mercilessly taunts her in gross sexual innuendoes.... Sam is the modern cop who tries to use his advanced knowledge of police procedure to reform Hunt and his fellow detectives who all too often are hardly differentiated from the scum they manhandle in the interrogation room.

Each episode in centered around a crime which finds Hunt and Sam confronting each other as often as they do the perps they encounter. Hunt is sure that Sam is a wuss who fears getting his hands dirty to protect the citizens of Manchester from the lowlifes of the streets. Sam is conflicted as he sees Hunt brutalize suspects but cannot interfere, but interfere he often does, sometimes with both coming to blows. Sam makes friends with policewoman Cartwright. They spend several episodes deepening their relation. When he tries to tell her that he is from the future, she is sure that he is mad. Part of the joy of watching LIFE ON MARS comes from the interest that is generated by a square peg trying to fit in a round hole. Complicating matters are the frequent nightmares, visions, amd hallucinatory audio episodes that link Sam from his present of 1973 to his future of 2006. Until the closing episode which I shall not here reveal, Sam tries mightily to determine where he belongs. He sees a little blonde girl appear and disappear on a weekly basis as she divulges tantalizing bits and pieces of his "other" life. He sees characters on the television deviate from their script to address him by name. He receives phone calls from an unknown source, telling him to be patient so that the caller may ultimately bring him home. Philosophically though, where is home? As Sam struggles to temporally center himself, the viewer does likewise. Where do we belong? LIFE ON MARS is a magnificent achievement that entertains even as it elucidates. Read more ›

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Am I mad, in a coma, or back in time? August 18, 2010

By Vicky Welsby

This series has to be one of the best series I've seen in years. It's superbly written and the lead actors are fantastic. Sam Tyler (played by the absolutely awesome John Simm), a 2006 detective from Manchester has a car accident and awakes to find himself in 1973. He finds that he's on transfer from Hyde (a real town not far from Manchester) to what was then Salford and Manchester Police (now Greater Manchester Police).

Following his car accident, Sam hears everything that's going on around him and adapts it into 1973 as messages in various forms, such as seeing his aunt on the TV, or hearing his girlfriend on a broken radio. He's unsure what's happening to him and frantically tries to respond to the messages and make it known that he's alive. It's brilliantly done, as is the way the series shows Sam despirately trying to cope with the completely non-PC style of policing of the time and a completely different kind of life in 1973. It shows things we take for granted now that didn't exist then. Things like, when Sam first arrives in 1973, he starts to look around for his "mobile" when questioned as to "mobile what", he looks totally baffled as to why the copper doesn't understand that he means his mobile phone. It just makes you think "oh yeah, we didn't have them then".

He's also trying to cope with his brute of a DCI, Gene Hunt (played by Philip Glenister), who's all too keen to go in with his fists and also doesn't seem to care what he says or who he says it to. The difference in attitudes and the conflict it often causes between the two is wonderfully protrayed by John Simm and Philip Glenister.

There are a couple of small inaccuracies in the timeline that I've noticed.... For example, when Sam first awakes to find himself in 1973, there's a billboard advertising "the highway in the sky". Because I originally come from the Manchester area, I know that this refers to the Mancunian Way, which was actually long established by 1973 (it was built in the 60s and officially opened in 1967). But, hey, with a series as good as this, who cares?

The soundtrack to the series is brilliant, with some excellent music from the era that I just love listening to, and the fashions just look hillariously funny now. The series is absolutely superb and, I'm sorry guys, but the the US version isn't a patch on this. This is a must have for anyones DVD collection. Read more ›