America’s got a mixed track at remaking British television shows. *The Office* is popular now, but most fans agree it was at its best after it stopped aping the UK version. On the other hand, the less said about the American version of *Coupling*, the better.

So, which one is *Life on Mars*?

As a big fan of the original show (which ran for a total of 16 episodes on the BBC), I decided to give the US adaptation a shot, fearing the worst. Turns out, it’s not so bad; it’s actually pretty good.

The premise, of course, is the same: Detective Sam Tyler (the Irish Jason O’Mara, with an able American accent, takes over from John Simm) gets in an accident and ends up mysteriously transported from 2008 to 1973, where he’s still a cop in same precinct. He butts heads with his new boss, Gene Hunt (movie legend Harvey Keitel, who’s certainly a bigger star than role originator Philip Glenister, but lacks a bit of the charisma) who has a typically ’70s way of policing: beat the bastards up first, then ask questions later. Maybe.

New York replaces Manchester, and the production values are much higher, and while the first episode is at times a shot-by-shot remake, the American tweaks are effective (the twin towers, for example, make a great entrance). By the second episode, the show has begun to diverge a little (a hippy neighbor with pot-infused lasagna, and a space probe that shows Sam glimpses of his real life), but they manage to hold onto the elements that made the original so fun. It’ll be interesting to see how much they continue to follow the trail blazed by the original, especially since one American season has more episodes than the entire British series.