Check out the new fall imports: "Kath/Kim," "Eleventh Hour," "Life on Mars" debut Thursday

  

American TV shows have been borrowing ideas from other countries for more than a generation. From "Sanford and Son" and "All in the Family" to "Big Brother" and "The Office," some of our biggest hits were tested in offshore laboratories before coming here. (Then there were the American versions of "Coupling," "Fawlty Towers" and "Viva Blackpool"; the less said about those, the better.)

As it happens, three such adaptations are all debuting Thursday night on competing networks.

"Life on Mars" (9 p.m. CT, ABC) will be familiar to anyone who remembers my picking the British sci-fi thriller as one of the top shows of 2006 when it aired on BBC America. The concept hasn't changed -- though the action has shifted from England to New York City, and Harvey Keitel is now involved -- and while I prefer the British "Mars," the show's premise is so strong that this decent execution of it is hard not to recommend.

The premise? While solving a ring of serial murders that's deeply personal to him, detective Sam Tyler is struck by a car and knocked straight back into 1973. In this parallel world he still has his badge, but no computer, no DNA ... and no clue what he's doing here or how he gets back to the present.

Sam is played by Jason O'Mara, who can't hold a candle to the original Sam, played by John Simm. O'Mara overacts his way through the first hour, including the inevitable moment when he yells, to a precinct room full of cops in 1973 clothes and fashions, "I don't know who the hell you are, but ..." (At first I didn't even recognize Michael Imperioli from "The Sopranos," who looks like Al Pacino's Serpico in a leisure suit.)

For that matter, Keitel doesn't bring much interest to his role as Sam's aggressive precinct commander. As often happens with adaptations, the producers (or network) insisted on recreating the British pilot almost scene by scene, and it's the "almost" that gets this show in trouble. When Keitel beats the stuffing out of O'Mara early on, it's an edited version of the original scene, with little explanation for why this is happening.

At the heart of "Life on Mars," besides the question of how Sam got here, is the weekly playing-out of the rivalry between the commander, with his old fashioned people "skills," and Sam with the advantage of 35 years of CSI hindsight. I'm afraid that editing key moments in the original has diluted much of that tension, but the season is hopefully still young.

"Kath & Kim" (7:30 p.m. CT, NBC) was a huge hit in Australia. Imagine the "Gilmore Girls" gone horribly awry and you get the idea. Kath (here played by Molly Shannon) is a single mom to her spoiled brat Kim (Selma Blair) in a world dominated by shopping malls, TV and celebrity tabloids. Kim has just moved back in with her mom after marching out on her hapless husband of six weeks, Craig (Mikey Day), whose crime seems to have been suggesting that eating out three meals a day might not be a good long-term strategy.

I really wanted to hate this show, with its two self-absorbed, unreal characters and its shopworn satire of suburbia. But midway through the second episode, I couldn't help but laugh at the two leads' exuberant embrace of their goofy, pop-culture-stuffed personas. The dialogue is surprisingly fresh, even to someone who's watched way too many MTV reality shows. In its comedic treatment of everyday American foibles, "Kath & Kim" is well matched with "My Name Is Earl."

"Eleventh Hour" (9 p.m. CT, CBS) is an OK adaptation of a British mystery that starred Patrick Stewart as Jacob Hood, a brilliant scientist sent in to investigate creepy phenomena. But this isn't "Fringe," the Fox thriller that announced itself with a gory outbreak of some sort of plague on steroids. There's very little "X-Files" in "Eleventh Hour," which looks and feels like other CBS crime shows -- not surprising, since Jerry Bruckheimer, the director-producer behind all the "CSIs," adapted this. Episodes are procedural and self-contained, and if there is some sinister force behind the weird medical terrors that inhabit this show, it's not obvious.

The show is entertaining enough, but the American Hood, played by Rufus Sewell, won't remind anyone of Patrick Stewart.

Comments

[Jason]

Hey Aaron,
I lasted through 5 minutes of that Kath and Kim pilot. Just painful to view. I'll be surprised if it lasts til November. Oh wait, its on NBC. It will last years. ;)
-Jason

[matt stechel]

really so Kath and Kim is all right then? That's honestly really good to hear. Sandwiched as it is with Earl, The Office, and 30 Rock, I've been pulling for it to be watchable at the least since I already know I'll be recording it every week (i regularly tape that two hour block for my dad every week since well since fall of 06, so there you go) but man those commericials did not leave me feeling particularly good about that prospect. (my dad is the type to insist upon watching everything on the tape i've loaned him, so it helps enormously that this could be compatible with Earl. it'll be nice is all. ) i just wanted to post that I"m really glad to hear this (first review i've read yet of it.) and i'm def pulling for it to be decent enough tomorrow night.

Ditto for Life On Mars.
VERY CURIOUS to see what it'll be like on a weekly basis. will it be standard solve the mystery cop show? or will it be funky and be allowed to breathe? (also how much of Gray's aud do you think it'll actually hold on too?)

lastly The Eleventh Hour--i gotta be honest--i'm not that excited over the prospect of yet another Bruckheimer proceedural on CBS. I kind of wish this one would have been on Fridays between Ghost Whisperer and Numbers where I could pick and choose if i wanted to follow it rather than being after survivor/csi. I know Shark wasn't the greatest (though I liked it enough for its run, and wouldn't have minded having it come back--James Woods chewing the scenery is def entertaining) but given Eleventh's timeslot--its almost certain to get a full season order (unless of course the retention rate is horrible) but my question for you is--Is it worth following for a whole year? I'm already pretty much on top of Fringe, and i really don't feel like following another similarly sounding show even though i already know i'm gonna end up giving the show a shot cause of its post csi location. so i guess the question really should be how does it compare to Fringe in terms of i don't know weekly mystery? character interplay? mood? things like that? (Keep in mind i'm not in love with fringe but i think its solid enough effort to keep the tape running after house is done.)

[Mark Jeffries]

Thanks to deleting the wrong version from iTunes, I have only seen in jumpy HD (on my other computer) the first few minutes of the first episode of of "Kath & Kim" USA. Since I've seen the first 24 episodes of the Australian series (and the "Kath & Kim Code" made-for), from what I've seen, the U.S. version looks disappointing. Shannon's great as Kath, but Blair is just a pretty cipher who doesn't have Gina Riley's balls-out ferociousness as Kim. And the loss of Sharon (the greatest wacky neighbor since Ethel Mertz) is going to hurt a lot (I assume it's because they want to avoid paying residuals to Magda Szubanski, who claims ownership of her character), not to mention that it sounds from what I've seen elsewhere that the "lookatmelookatmelookatmeeee" catch phrase is not making the trans-Pacific trip (if it's funnier in an Australian accent, I understand).

The problem here is that as much as we can assume that Australian suburbia and American suburbia are the same, there are subtle differences--and the fun thing about the Australian version is that despite all of the goofiness, there was a subtlety to it all. I don't think that's going to translate here. I'll try to catch it on Hulu, but I don't expect much (and I hope that this version isn't keeping Sundance from picking up the fourth Australian season).

[Pam]

Life on Mars is the only new show I'm looking forward to. All the other ones either were bad or will be bad (Kath and Kim, for example). It has a very cool cast and an even cooler premise.

I agree with Matt that I'm sick of another procedural on CBS. Time for something else!