What did you find in your inbox this morning?

Okay, so I didn't quite keep my promise from Tuesday, or post the review of life on mars, but I don't think any one's really reading them - If I get a couple of requests I will, otherwise I'll leave it.

So, onto today. I opened up an inbox to find a forwarded email from one of my friends, I don't usually read them because, well - They are almost always those damn chain mail things like send this to 10 people in the next five minutes or you will have a cursed love life, or will get visited at midnight by the dead girl in the closet with a knife, etc...

Anyway, I was bored, so I opened it - And I was pleasantly surprised, and it made me giggle - So I've decided to copy and paste it for you guys to read too:

THEY WALK AMONG US

Some guy bought a new fridge for his house. To get rid of his old fridge, he put it in his front yard and hung a sign on it saying: "Free to good home. You want it, you take it." For three days the fridge sat there without even one person looking twice at it. He eventually decided that people were too un-trusting of this deal. It looked too good to be true, so he changed the sign to read: "Fridge for sale $50." The next day someone stole it.

One day I was walking down the beach with some friends when someone shouted...."Look at that dead bird!" Someone looked up at the sky and said... "where???"

While looking at a house, my brother asked the real estate agent which direction was north because, he explained, he didn't want the sun waking him up every morning. She asked, "Does the sun rise in the north?" When my brother explained that the sun rises in the east, and has for sometime, she shook her head and said, "Oh, I don't keep up with that stuff."

I used to work in technical support for a 24/7 call center. One day I got a call from an individual who asked what hours the call center was open. I told him, "The number you dialed is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week." He responded, "Is that Eastern or Pacific time?" Wanting to end the call quickly, I said, "Uh, Pacific".

My colleague and I were eating our lunch in our cafeteria, when we overheard one of the administrative assistants talking about the sunburn she got on her weekend drive to the shore. She drove down in a convertible, but, "didn't think she'd get sunburned because the car was moving."

My sister has a lifesaving tool in her car it's designed to cut through a seat belt if she gets trapped. She keeps it in the trunk...

My friends and I were on a beer run and noticed that the cases were discounted 10%. Since it was a big party, we bought 2 cases. The cashier multiplied 2 times 10% and gave us a 20% di scount.... (maybe I should have bought 10 cases)

I couldn't find my luggage at the airport baggage area. So I went to the lost luggage office and told the woman there that my bags never showed up. She smiled and told me not to worry because she was a trained professional and I was in good hands. "Now," she asked me, "has your plane arrived yet?"...

While working at a pizza parlor I observed a man ordering a small pizza to go. He appeared to be alone and the cook asked him if he would like it cut into 4 pieces or 6. He thought about it for some time before responding. "Just cut it into 4 pieces; I don't think I'm hungry enough to eat 6 pieces."

Yep, they walk among us
AND they reproduce!

Life On Mars S2E2 (Contains episode spoilers)

Photo Copyright of www.timetravelreview.com and the BBC

I have to say, I think this is the best Life On Mars episode yet. Partly because it doesn't overly focus on events surrounding Sam being stuck in the past. Except for the newspaper switch about 7 or 8 minutes in, and then the phonecall near the end. Instead it was a much more physiological and character based episode, which I don't think we get to see enough of. Especially not for Gene, not that properly explores his character like this did.

The episode starts off simply, Sam, Chris and Ray are moving Dickie Fingers, a safe cracker from prison back to the station to ask more questions about a few robberies he was involved in. A van gives chase, and a gang of armed men run the police car off the road (not that Chris's driving did them any favours) and the men take Dickie.

Arnold Malone is their number one suspect for robberies that have being happening in the area for years. However Malone tips them off about the next robbery.

Another plot is that one of the first black police officers is transferred to the station - And he also happens to be Sam's mentor. Sam due to a little time shifting or whatever the writers want to call it, knows Glenn Fletcher is dead back in the present, but is surprised to see him back working along side him. But is even more surprised how weak and scared of challenging ideas he is, so sets about trying to give Glenn some back bone and be the first to change how people treat Black officers and racism in general - So pushes him to be the man Sam learnt from when he first became an officer.

Back with Dickie Fingers they find him red handed and question him. But Dickie instead of dropping Malone in it, points the finger at Superintendent Harry Woolf, the officer who happens to be presiding over the case and has been trying to get Malone sent down for years. Not to mention the fact that he's Gene's mentor...

As I said before I really did like this episode, I thought the dynamic between Sam and his will-be mentor and being disappointed, mirrored with Gene and his past mentor and still being disappointed was very well done, and the showdown scene as it were with all four was just brilliantly done.

I especially loved the camera angles as Gene's arm shook with holding the gun, and Sam was stood in the background, watching seeing what he would do. Because in a way I think Gene and Sam kind of mentor each other and are great friends, as the final scene in the pub helped to show.

There was a bit of humour in the episode, mostly from Annie and Chris - Such as Annie half threatening to shoot Gene after being refused gun training, and Chris forgetting whether they were staking out a Post Office or a bank.

However it was still a mostly character based episode and touched on both police corruption and racism within the force, but in a way that didn't seem too trivial.

I think my favourite moment for me was at the end when Gene said that even after everything Woolf had done, he would still stand by him when he died of cancer in a few months. It would have been all too easy for Gene to just hate him and walk away, which he would have being doing really had he let Woolf escape, but he proved he was a better man by not letting him get away with it, and proving it again by sticking with Woolf to the end.

Life On Mars isn't on next week so the next review for it will be in two weeks time.

Life On Mars is back on BBC1

Photo Copyright of www.timetravelreview.com and the BBC

Just like the title says, and I for one was certainly not let down. I know I should be going into more detail but I'm really at a loss for words. For one thing Marc Warren's cameo as Tony Crane was just so creepily good. Though that fur coat he wore did make him look more than a little pimpish.

One big change you notice is the dynamic between Gene and Sam - In a twist of irony it is the 70's coppers doing everything by the book while Sam is trying to fit Crane up any which way he can to stop him from being able to commit crimes he knows Crane is going to do in the future.

I have to admit a lot of last series is a bit of a haze now, but that gives me an excuse to watch the series again so I'm not complaining. However, one thing that does stick out in my memory due to the pure creepyness factor is that girl from the BBC testscreen, and the whistling in tonight's episode has a similar effect.

One problem I do have with Life On Mars though, is that while it is a fantastic 70's cop drama, it can sometimes be hard as a viewer to believe in all the back in time, or back in a coma business considering just how real and gritty the rest of the show is - It's not like Life On Mars is any real sci-fi show, it's supposed to be real within our own physical laws and reality. But at the same time I guess that just adds to the charm and originality of the show.

On another note, I could see the ending coming - Not the ending where Sam got that phone call about his predicament being a 'job' of course - I'm talking about how he got rid of Tony Crane - Like all cutting edge and smoothly done shows nowerdays they don't include little extra scenes like the 'stringer/stinger' scene and to some extent the scene where that man was getting sent to a padded cell, without it meaning something to the plot later on. Then Sam goes and tells Tony 'the truth' and you kinda know that that is going to come back later and bite one of them in a very sensitive place - And as we're only on episode one, it's kinda obvious that it's not going to be Sam.

All in all a very enjoyable episode with good support acting and as usual more fantastic one liners than I can mention - A great start to the new series in my opinion and I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest pans out, as well as finding out how the writers have decided to end the series - Though all I can say on that front is that I'm glad I'm not responsible for the final episode, but I of course have no problem in watching and seeing what brains much more brilliant than mine have decided to do.

Episode Two is of course now airing on BBC4, but I think one ranty episode 'review' is enough for now, besides - I don't want to spoil my Tuesday evening for next week.