Discoholic 🪩
No title available
trying on a metaphor
oozey mess
#extradirty
Claire Keane
@theartofmadeline
Peter Solarz
DEAR READER
Product Placement
Jules of Nature
No title available
Love Begins
roma★
No title available
Game of Thrones Daily
Monterey Bay Aquarium
izzy's playlists!
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
i don't do bad sauce passes
seen from United States
seen from Spain
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Belgium
seen from Denmark
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Israel
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
@cleopatraindenial
So I was pretty sure Tumblr's new guidelines were never going to affect me, but then...
Not angry, just baffled. Like, I'm legitimately interested in what software they're using for rote identification, because 6 of these photos don't have pictures of humans at all and the remaining two are Peter O'Toole wearing all his clothes and far enough away you can barely see skin. People aren't visible: that was the whole point of this set.
The End. What I learned: - Never do this ever again. Seriously. Even with Shazam, Soundhound, and the Wikipedia list and official soundtrack as rough guides. There were 106 distinct songs - not including reprises - and I am too much of a completeness freak to let things go. - There are different music licensing laws for broadcast vs DVD versions. It took me until Episode 1.4 to realize this. - I now know way too much about 70s Glam Rock, a genre I never really cared for before. - I made plots!
More Sam... It turns out I have a lot
Life on Mars - Series 2
2.1 The Man from the Future - Sam's not-particularly-well-hidden insanity finally comes to the attention of somebody not named Annie. 2.2 Harcourt - A Western. The movie kind, not the omlette. 2.3 Red Wire, Yellow Wire - Sam should know by now that he knows nothing, but he doesn't. So once more with feeling. 2.4 Key Party - Tony and Cherie Blair go undercover at a swingers party. Because why not. 2.5 Overdose! - Everything's fun and Camberwick Green until someone almost dies. 2.6 Layla Dylan - The one that takes elements from other stories, scrambles them, and adds a better soundtrack. 2.7 The Hunt - Frank Morgan comes to Oz. 2.8 Over the Rainbow - Oh, Sam...
Gene and Sam I like how they aren't easy friends. They have to work at it.
2.8 Over the Rainbow I can't feel it
The finale. This episode contains the most memorable scene in the series (I think everyone would agree). I really liked the resolution depite the fact I can't believe anyone let the writers actually do it. The background is another Western plot but the real focus is Sam's shifting ideas about his own reality.
It leaves you with the answer to the central question of the show from three different points of view: objectively, from Sam's perspective, and from your own. It's a perfect piece of existential television.
Music (broadcast ----> take-home): I hope I don't fall in love with you, Tom Waits -----> Instrumental score (Not pictured) My Coo Ca Choo, Alvin Stardust plays on the radio at the very beginning Life on Mars is reprised twice and is also the outro of the series.
This is only the second episode where music not available in 1973 is used.
2.7 The Hunt And trust a man from Hyde? Never
A somewhat inevitable plot: an agressive, blackout Gene wanders off and wakes next to a dead body, putting him on a collision course with 'coppers-must-be-whiter-than-white' Sam. What makes this episode interesting is the introduction of DCI Frank Morgan, who walks the unsettling line between ally and antagonist. There's nothing particularly wrong with him or his ideas other than the fact that until now, Sam's the only one who's held them. I really like how the men from Hyde are visually aligned for this entire episode - in purple of all colours.
Music (broadcast ----> take-home): (Not pictured) Go Down Moses. A particularly horrid rendition by Gene's lawyer. Evening Blue is again the song that plays in the pub when Sam, Ray and Chris gather to discuss the case.
2.6 Layla Dylan You can't admit you're bloody wrong
This is the most frustrating episode of the whole series for me. It's bits of other plots (protecting a witness, ethnic minority scapegoating) smashed with a bunch of stuff that should have definitely been addressed before now (Maya, the un-PC world of policing in the 70s). It feels like it belongs somewhere near the start of the first series. Having it appear so late in the game feels jarring with respect to characterizations of anyone not named Sam.
Music (broadcast ----> take-home): (Not pictured) Snow Flower, Ananda Shankar is played at the cultural centre both times Sam visits. Rocketman, Breathless and Whisky in the Jar are both played multiple times throughout the episode (the record shop and Rocky's place in particular).
I have no idea what song Toolbox is playing on the organ and I don't aim to find out.
2.5 Overdose! I came out of a musical box
Such a fun filler episode with a great premise: the hospital has screwed up Sam's medication and he's in turn manic, feverish, and hallucinating worse than usual. This is the only episode that contains any scenes not from his point of view. It also gives us the one-and-only Camberwick Sam. Bless them.
Music (broadcast ----> take-home): Apart from the Camberwick narration, there's only the three songs. This is the second use of You shouldn't do that if you're watching the take-home version (see 1.2 Lost + Found).
2.4 Key Party What is it with you and women?
This is a super weird story that's clearly designed to get everyone to the swingers party, though the decor and music at said party are so charmingly 70s that I generally let it slide. It's an episode about Sam's easy rapport with women and, oddly for a TV show, it's fairly explicit in this tendency being a net positive for him both personally and professionally. I also quite like the villain.
Music (broadcast ----> take-home): Lay Down, The Strawbs -----> The Story in your Eyes, The Moody Blues (Not pictured) Samba Pa Ti, Carlos Santana which plays after Court in the Act in the same scene. (Not pictured) I'm nearly certain When the City Sleeps, Barclay James Harvest plays after Santana in the background. This is the second episode in which it's used (following 2.3 Red Wire, Yellow Wire).
2.3 Red Wire, Yellow Wire Next time you know something Tyler, keep it to yourself
One of the better entries to series two, it deals with the beginnings of the Troubles. Or rather, the fear, distrust, and prejudice associated with them even as early as the 70s. It also has Sam being spectacularly wrong in epic fashion and having to learn to rely on instinct as opposed to knowledge. By the same token, Gene and Ray each ignore evidence for gut feeling and end up being wrong too.
Music (broadcast ----> take-home): (Not pictured) Kevin Barry, an Irish rebel song about the execution of an 18-year-old Irish Republican by the British in 1920 is sung by the Irish workers as they leave at the end. Hellraiser is reprised everytime they get into the Cortina How Can I be Sure is reprised at the end in the Railway Arms.
2.2 Harcourt Every son kills his father
The closest Life on Mars gets to a Western, which is to say pretty damn close but shot against industrial Manchester. Gene plays Sheriff, Sam plays Deputy, there's an armed gang of robbers... It even ends in a showdown. Points for the fact that they clearly had to shoot this episode on a windy day so Gene's hair in particular flies around in every shot.
Music (broadcast ----> take-home): I'm pretty sure this version of Sweet Jane is Mott the Hoople's. The Velvet Underground does the original.
2.1 The Man from the Future Your DI is insane. Oh yes, he is totally loco.
To my mind the best episode of Series 2, somewhat awkwardly positioned right at the beginning. It has Marc Warren in a villainous turn as Tony Crane who is torturing the comatose Sam in the future while he runs the beginnings of his criminal empire in 1973. This episode has a truly desperate Sam compromising left and right to put Crane away, and is the closest Sam comes to revealing his secret to the department at large.
Music (broadcast ----> take-home): (Not pictured) Head in the Sky, Atomic Rooster plays as Gene crashes through Sam's door at the beginning. This is the second time it's used (see 1.3 Tenner and a Party Seven).
I have no idea what the melody Crane whistles. If anyone wants to make a case I'm all ears.
Life on Mars Overflow 2
Life on Mars Overflow 1
Life on Mars - Series 1
1.1 Stay - Sam Tyler has become unstuck in time. Or he's a vegetable. Or a fruit loop. Any way you slice it he's in trouble. 1.2 Lost + Found - An exercise in decoupling being right in theory and being right in practice. 1.3 Tenner and a Party Seven - In which a man is murdered, a bet is made, and you're surrounded by armed bastards. 1.4 Backhander - Repeat after me: locking a man in a giant fridge is not a sanctioned interrogation technique. 1.5 The Manchester Derby - The one with the four minute rant against football hooliganism, which - to someone whose country never had this problem - seems insanely over-the-top. 1.6 2pm - Wherein the show's obsession with phones momentarily becomes an obsession with clocks. 1.7 A Death in the Cells - A man dies and Sam cares. 1.8 Vic - Why did we think Sam's hallucinations would ever lead somewhere good?
Sam Tyler may be my favourite television character
He's just the right mix of principled yet adaptable, compassionate yet self-involved, and self-sufficient yet vulnerable that works for me. He feels like a real person.