Life On Mars Sequel Coming

[Malcy]

Matthew Graham recently said that there were plans for a sort of final chapter for the Life On Mars story. There's a rewatch planned tomorrow at 7pm and he's said that he will reveal details on what they have planned for it.

I've wanted to see more for years. I loved the series and Ashes To Ashes. The original plan was another couple of series of LOM and no ATA. Apparently Gene Hunt will be toned down a bit because he'll no doubt offend all the little pricks who pretend to be offended by everything which is a shame.

Really looking forward to seeing what they're going to do with it.

[madhair60]

yeah mate Gene Hunt tells it how it is dont he

[Spiteface]

So is this sequel gonna be a 90s one called "Black Tie White Noise" or something?

[Malcy]

So is this sequel gonna be a 90s one called "Black Tie White Noise" or something?

They've said that they don't want to visit any other decades so it could be set in the 70's.

[Pseudopath]

So is this sequel gonna be a 90s one called "Black Tie White Noise" or something?

"Dead Man Walking" would be a pretty good title, although it's not a particularly well-known song.

[daf]

1960's : "An Occasional Dream"

[crankshaft]

A 90s one would surely have to be called Hello Spaceboy.

Ideally they'd set it in the decade just gone and call it Where Are We Now? Except that, music aside, who wants to live through that again?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Matthew Graham recently said that there were plans for a sort of final chapter for the Life On Mars story. There's a rewatch planned tomorrow at 7pm and he's said that he will reveal details on what they have planned for it.

I've wanted to see more for years. I loved the series and Ashes To Ashes. The original plan was another couple of series of LOM and no ATA. Apparently Gene Hunt will be toned down a bit because he'll no doubt offend all the little pricks who pretend to be offended by everything which is a shame.

Really looking forward to seeing what they're going to do with it.

That's an utterly abysmal idea, the Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes saga ended perfectly. It doesn't need a sequel, it already had an ending.

Also: mate.

[JesusAndYourBush]

It doesn't need a sequel, it already had an ending.

A prequel then.  Laughing Gnome.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

A prequel then.  Laughing Gnome.

Sold.

[chveik]

fucks sake we're suffering enough as it is

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Apparently Gene Hunt will be toned down a bit because he'll no doubt offend all the little pricks who pretend to be offended by everything which is a shame.

This statement has been bugging me, Malcy. When Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes first went out, I don't recall anyone taking offence at Gene Hunt's outdated attitudes. He was a broad parody of a macho, sexist, homophobic Sweeney-esque copper, that was the whole point. We all got the joke.

You could, I suppose, argue that the writers chickened out by not depicting him as a massive racist too, but that would never have worked as we had to fundamentally like the character. Also, it's not unrealistic to accept that a man like Gene Hunt, for all his flaws, wouldn't actually be a massive racist.

[daf]

I took it that Malcy was noting that sensitivities for such depictions have changed in the few years since the original series were made -

Like a Little Britain kind of thing, where Matt Lucas notes that they probably wouldn't do some of the characters / sketches  if they made it today.

"I think you would do things differently now. There was a character who was a rubbish transvestite who said 'I'm a lady'. She was fun at the time but I think we look differently at the transgender community now and it would be very hard to do that. It would be very hard to play characters of other races now and even Marjorie. People talk about that now in terms of fat shaming. We would definitely approach it very differently."

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/matt-lucas-little-britain-offensive-loose-women-interview-david-walliams-comedy-series-a8004536.html

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I think the difference there, though, is that Lucas and Walliams weren't actually satirising anything. Lucas regrets those sketches because he now realises that they were lazy and insensitive. Gene Hunt, by contrast, was a very specific, deliberate pastiche of a politically incorrect '70s bloke.

[Endicott]

Lucas is being disingenuous. Fat shaming is just the current terminology, what Little Britain did was offensive then and that is precisely why they did it. It was a reaction to the 80s PC brigade.

Personally I don't think the analogy of LOM and LB is any good, Gene's a character in a drama, it's a completely different thing to a comedy show. Surely there are plenty of dramatic characters who behave badly without causing any opprobrium.

[Malcy]

This statement has been bugging me, Malcy. When Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes first went out, I don't recall anyone taking offence at Gene Hunt's outdated attitudes. He was a broad parody of a macho, sexist, homophobic Sweeney-esque copper, that was the whole point. We all got the joke.

You could, I suppose, argue that the writers chickened out by not depicting him as a massive racist too, but that would never have worked as we had to fundamentally like the character. Also, it's not unrealistic to accept that a man like Gene Hunt, for all his flaws, wouldn't actually be a massive racist.

Yeah I was meaning more along the lines of what Daf has said. There seems to be an increasing number of articles and comments on shows that aren't all that old and how they are 'problematic', 'unacceptable' and stuff like that.

When LOM came out in 2006 there wasn't really any of that around whereas today it would be flagged instantly and complained about no end I reckon. The problem is that there is an increasing number of people who won't get the joke and it seems that the writers won't want to trigger them.

Then again, there's no guarantee that this will be on the TV. There were a couple of books written by the writers. Could be more books.

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2020-02-27/life-on-mars-sequel/

"satisfying and it will be exciting, and there will be a fantastical element to it, and it will hopefully be funny, but it will be dark and it will be serious as well. It will be about something."

[chveik]

Personally I don't think the analogy of LOM and LB is any good, Gene's a character in a drama, it's a completely different thing to a comedy show. Surely there are plenty of dramatic characters who behave badly without causing any opprobrium.

I agree. nobody's saying this about Tony Soprano or Walter White.

[Mister Six]

The Sopranos ended long before this kind of discourse entered mainstream media, and before all the journos and luvvies were on Twitter. Walter White was basically a nice liberal bloke who didn't say bad things about gay people, just melted bodies in plastic drums.

I think the difference there, though, is that Lucas and Walliams weren't actually satirising anything. Lucas regrets those sketches because he now realises that they were lazy and insensitive. Gene Hunt, by contrast, was a very specific, deliberate pastiche of a politically incorrect '70s bloke.

Aye, but that won't matter to some people on Twitter - who themselves don't matter, but for some reason[nb]Because most people in the biz spend every waking second squatting around sniffing each other's farts on Twitter.[/nb] find their daft, ill-considered opinions being taken seriously (or portrayed as important by hacks who need to knock out a quick and easy "news" story before lunch).

I don't think this is necessarily going to be an issue for any LOM sequel because the target audience will be people in their late 30s-50s who don't give a shit, and anyone younger probably won't notice, but there's tons of context-ignoring "THIS IS V PROBLEMATIC #CANCEL UWU" shite spouted about other programmes and films by overzealous teens and twentysomethings on social media every day.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I agree, you're right, but it's all meaningless bollocks in the end. As you say, some deadline-pressured hack will (theoretically) collate a few tweets and knock out a click-baity 'IS THIS PROBLEMATIC?' piece, which everyone will forget about within 24 hours.

Gene Hunt would be appalled.

[Mister Six]

Everyone will forget about it unless they don't, at which point it'll spread into tedious "WOKE STAZI!" op-eds in the Mail and tedious "WE NEED FEWER YT CISHET MEN BEHIND THE CAMERA" thinkpieces in The Mary Sue, and the BBC feels compelled to apologise because it hasn't had a backbone for about 20 years, and the next time something is commissioned it's that little bit blander, safer, less interesting.

Yes, even safer than a sequel to/revival of a decades-old show.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Which is why I spend most of my life cowering beneath a duvet and occasionally getting up to feed my cat.

[Mister Six]

Sensible.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Given that they are set in the past and shown to have the values of the past, the content isn't at all problematic.

What's problematic is the idea that we should pretend the past was slightly different in ways we feel more comfortable with.

Anyway please no more of these, the concept was running out of gas by the end.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Given that they are set in the past and shown to have the values of the past, the content isn't at all problematic.

What's problematic is the idea that we should pretend the past was slightly different in ways we feel more comfortable with.

Anyway please no more of these, the concept was running out of gas by the end.

I agree, apart from your last point. Ashes to Ashes was far more compelling and emotionally resonant than Life on Mars. It didn't run out of gas, it wrapped the whole thing up as perfectly as you could ever wish from This Sort of Thing.

[Rev+]

Gene was problematic, that was a huge chunk of the point of Life on Mars.  The good old days never existed, and at the end of Ashes to Ashes it turned out that Gene wasn't even Gene, he was a fantasy character that existed only in his own head.  He was The Law, as projected in the movies.

The ending was the sort of conceit you can't roll back from.  It's done, leave it.

[Urinal Cake]

It's pretty easy. Gene Hunt says some bad shit but the protagonist tut tuts him like nearly every comedy nowadays e.g. Pierce in Community.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Ashes to Ashes finished ten years ago. I don't remember anyone using "woke" in the modem sense back then, but things haven't changed that much in the last decade, have they?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I genuinely have no idea what we're debating now.

[Custard]

If it happens, I imagine it might focus on the period between Mars and Ashes. But I also think Ashes had a perfect ending, so I won't be upset if this doesn't happen

"Wait, did any of you actually believe that this was a real police station?"

Still one of my favourite things, ever

[Jockice]

No, don't. Just don't. I hate when they destroy things with great endings. They should join it together with Mad Men and This Country and really fuck things up.