YMMV / Life on Mars (2006)

• And You Thought It Would Fail: The series was initially rejected by The BBC and took nearly a decade to get greenlit. John Simm thought the idea was ludicrous upon reading the script.
• Anvilicious: The show comes down hard against football hooligans, as made especially clear by Sam's post-arrest speech about what football is about.
• Awesome Ego: Gene.
• Awesome Music:
  • The title theme.
  • All the early 70s music used - perhaps surprisingly in some cases. Tracks from Cream, The Who and T. Rex were always going to sound good. What's more surprising is how awesome the series manages to make Paul McCartney, Mott the Hoople and Lindisfarne sound. Special mention also to the eponymous David Bowie track that soundtracks Sam's first moments in '73. And has a pretty awesome reprise when Sam throws himself from a roof to return there in the last episode.
  • The song "Over the Rainbow" plays in the scene previous to where Sam throws himself off the roof.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In a Series One episode, Sam jokes that he's asked Doctor Who about the time travel situation. John Simm's other big role in a BBC drama would turn that into retroactive Celebrity Paradox. Plus, co-creator Matthew Graham would write the episodes "Fear Her" and "The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People", the Two-Part Episode featuring Marshall Lancaster (Chris).
• Ho Yay: When you have at least one reviewer acknowledging that the real romance of the series is between Sam and Gene...
  • There's a John Simm interview where this was actually put to him as a question. Simm is both amused beyond belief and not entirely dismissive of the idea that the entire point was Sam coming to terms with being gay.
• Iron Woobie:
  • Sam Tyler. He's a Fish out of Temporal Water experiencing tons of angst (and Sanity Slippage) as he tries to get back to his own time, and he gets verbally, physically and sexually assaulted on a regular basis. He's also a badass police officer who manages to make the most out of his admittedly sucky situation.
  • Arguably Gene himself too. While he is politically incorrect, rough around the edges and frequently skirts the line of morality, he is ultimately a man who cares about protecting people and the sanctity of the law. His more misguided or ignorant actions are born from a desire to protect the innocent and he shows a deep distaste for serious corruption once Sam takes a stand on the matter. Also, while he is demonised by Sam and the press, it is shown that his gut instinct is actually often correct in many cases and he is an effective police officer. Once his true nature and past is revealed in Ashes to Ashes, he also takes on a significantly more sympathetic light.
• Memetic Mutation: A Running Gag in the fandom is to jokingly claim that Sam Tyler is The Master who forgot who he was (either due to another fob-watch incident or through some other form of amnesia) and is now stuck in the 70s.
• Misaimed Fandom: Gene Hunt was initially portrayed as being nothing but the "overweight, over-the-hill, nicotine-stained, borderline alcoholic homophobe" that Sam Tyler described him as. Although the writers had always intended to deepen Hunt's character as the show went on, they were disturbed at the way that Hunt's extreme political incorrectness actually made him very popular with fans.
• Retroactive Recognition: Archie Panjabi as Maya, Sam's present-day girlfriend — three years before she played Kalinda.
• Strawman Has a Point: Frank Morgan. He's right — Gene Hunt is a flawed police officer. His motives may be right, but his judgment is skewed. He is far too emotional and violent. The fact that he put himself at the front of his suicide mission does not negate his flaws, or the fact that he put his team in danger when cooler heads could have completed the task with less risk.
  • Gene Hunt himself in the second episode (see Jerkass Has a Point above). Technically Hunt should not be framing Kim Trent, but at least it would have kept him off the streets.

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