KEY POINTS:
All comfortably familiar by cop-show standards, Life on Mars begins with NYPD Detective Sam Tyler nabbing a murder suspect, who then gets a grilling from him at the precinct house. He takes a phone call in the age-old squad room, which has lately been upgraded with computers and
a splash of colour on the walls.
But about seven minutes into the episode, viewers are struck by something unexpected. Tyler, too: he's the victim of a hit-and-run - and, after coming to, he realises the city (including his squad room, reverted to typewriters and a drab green paint job) dwells in the year 1973.
This is the premise for Life on Mars, which socked Tyler with numerous challenges. He must sift through varied nutty explanations for why he's here. He'd better brace himself to cross paths with his former self. He needs to figure out how to get home to 2008. And he has to keep plugging away at his job, fighting 70s-vintage crime while stripped of many tools he took for granted in what he regards as "the present."
Life on Mars is based on the BBC hit of the same name. But that's just the stepping-off point for this new adaptation, says its star, Jason O'Mara (who in 1973 marked his first birthday).
"In the British version, there were just three options for Sam's condition: Is he back in time? In a coma? Mad? But we've come up with more than 13."
Right now O'Mara is killing time between scenes on the set where there's desks heaped with handwritten evidence; a cigarette machine in the stark coffee room; photos of the incumbent president, Richard Nixon; and an overall grunge that seems to have started during the Hoover years.
The Irish-born O'Mara (seen in Grey's Anatomy and Men in Trees) is the lone remaining cast member from a scrapped Life on Mars pilot that had placed the action in Los Angeles.
"I got a phone call," O'Mara recalls. "They said, 'The good news is, we're gonna continue with you as part of the show. The bad news is, your castmates won't be joining you.' That was a little strange."
Did it leave him with survivor's guilt? "Yeah," says O'Mara, smiling wanly. "Lots."
"We chose to set the show, and shoot it, in New York instead," explains Andre Nemec, who took over with his producing partners Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg last summer. "That made us rethink some of the casting. "
Among their new hires: Gretchen Mol, who plays Annie Norris, a smart, ambitious would-be cop so far marginalised in the Police Women's Bureau. Even in her crisp uniform, Mol exudes the porcelain "It Girl" glow she displayed much less primly in the 2006 film The Notorious Bettie Page.
A bearded, shaggy Michael Imperioli plays tough-guy Detective Ray Carling. "I was looking for a series in New York," says the actor who starred in The Sopranos as Tony's thuggish nephew Christopher before a short gig as a detective on Law & Order.
"I like playing cops, and this is a different spin," he says. "And when they told me they were going after Harvey Keitel - that was a good sign."
The august Keitel plays two-fisted Lt Gene Hunt, with whom the culture-clashing Tyler quickly comes to blows.
Rounding out the ensemble is Jonathan Murphy (October Road) as rookie Detective Chris Skelton and Lisa Bonet as Maya Daniels, Tyler's fellow cop and sweetheart left behind, in harm's way, in 2008.
"The show's not really a time-travel show," says Nemec, speaking from LA. "At its core this is a 1973 police show, so, every week, there will be a close-ended case. Meanwhile, we deal with the fact that Sam is in 1973 and doesn't know why, as we drop clues to lead the audience to why this is happening - and other clues to lead you astray."
Whatever the final answer may be, it's different from the one cooked up for the BBC series, Nemec says.
"We wanted to put ourselves into a completely different world where you couldn't just go to Wikipedia to find out the underlying mythology."
But you'll have to bide your time, as will O'Mara, who has no more idea than viewers why he's planted in this 1970s squad room. As he says, "I'm discovering the truth as I go, when I open each script."
Lowdown
What: Life on Mars stateside remake of BBC time-warp drama about a cop from 2008 doing time in 1973 New York
When & Where: TV3, 9.30pm
- AP