When you’re low on funds and can’t afford premium cable, you still have options. Fill the cable void by watching old DVDs, borrow rom-coms and slasher flicks from friends or do what all the tech savvy dirties do, rip and burn TV shows. (I’m not sayin’ we do that in our household…I’m just sayin’)
Our latest triumph over poverty is the BBC series, Life On Mars. If you’re a fan of The Wire, or you love cop dramas (Steven Bochco productions count), then you will love this series. As the opening sequence explains: Detective-Inspector Sam Tyler is hit by a car and suddenly finds himself in 1973! Is he mad, in a coma, or back in time? Whatever’s happened to him, it’s like he’s landed on a different planet. If he can work out the reason, maybe he can get home!
Never mind that the lead actor, John Simm, looks like Thom Yorke. And forget that the soundtrack, set design and ridiculously short car chases are the most awesome thing you’ve ever seen. Don’t even try to wrap your head around how David Bowie might or might not fit into things. Watch it because Philip Glenister plays masterful Manchester badass, Gene “Gov” Genie (Detective Gene Hunt), and delivers lines like, “The Paki in a coma’s about as lively as Liberace’s dick when he’s looking at a naked woman.” And, “Drop your weapons! You are surrounded by armed bastards!”
Nothing brings the broke together like the warm glow of a television and a little limey escapism.
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