I'm too drunk to go into my usual depth, but Life on Mars requires your attention. It's crying out for it.
The UK version, of course. It's intelligent, it's thrilling, it's often funny, it's exciting, and it's SO expertly written and so impeccably acted that you'll forget you're watching a TV show. I think it might be the perfect TV show. It does everything I feel a good TV show should - mystery, comedy, tragedy, excitement, action, drama, emotion, the whole spectrum - and it does every single one of them impeccably.
It's about a policeman from 2006 who's hit by a car, and wakes up in the 1970s. He doesn't know if he's imagining the entire experience, if he's actually travelled through time, or he's a 70s native who's just gone mad. It's got EVERYTHING. I love it. It's the perfect TV show.
If you've got five minutes... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7i_j6cdKkY
Don't worry, it's just from the pre-titles sequence of the first ever episode. The very beginning, so it won't spoil anything.
Oh. Also. CHILLING soundtrack.
This. Oh and when you've watched it watch Ashes to Ashes.
Definitely. Ashes to Ashes is essentially the continuation of Life on Mars. There are 16 episodes of Life on Mars and 24 of Ashes to Ashes. The cast changes somewhat, and LoM is a self-contained narrative - a single, sixteen-hour storyline - so they gave it a different name when they continued it, seven years after where LoM left off. But it's just as good as LoM, and I'd say by the time you reach A2A series 3... possibly beginning to eclipse it. Jim Keats in particular is a fantastic character.
But aye. It's essentially got everything. It's as intriguing and clever as the best science fiction, it's as compelling and superbly-acted (and sometimes tragic) as the best drama, it's as witty and action-packed as the best cop show... it's like James Bond meets Inception meets It's a Wonderful Life meets Starsky & Hutch meets Doctor Who. Every bit as mindboggling as a show like Lost, but served with an extra helping of
soul and charm.
Speaking of which, Doctor Who is also worth watching.
And! Staying on the theme of BBC dramas. Sherlock is phenomenal. I heard it marketed as "Sherlock Holmes set in the modern day," and thought "that sounds more astonishingly shit than man could possibly fathom." I always considered Sherlock Holmes fairly austere and dull - this sort of dry, worthy, impenetrable text that could only be appreciated by scholars.
I've not investigated Sherlock Holmes books enough to find out if I was right or not (probably not). But I had nothing to worry about. The modernisation wasn't tacky for a second, but the sheer
pace and the amount of joy injected into the source material - it's this wonderful mishmash of intelligent, exciting television. There are only three episodes so far, but they're each 90 minutes long, so it's like getting three brilliant films.