The lovely Gretchen Mol may be far more known for her film work, most notably in The Notorious Bettie Page playing the pinup legend.
She's doing her first TV series returning tonight on the U.S. network ABC - no, not LOST. Not that we haven't covered that and one Ms. Lilly before, but after LOST, stick around for the American version of the semi-guilty pleasure that is Life On Mars. Imagine you're a NYC Police detective in 2008. You're trying to save your detective girlfriend from a serial killer. You're hit by a car. You wake up, and it's 1973. No cellphones. No computers. (No Blogs, YouTube, Twitter, Skype or G4!) No microwave ovens. No such thing as Political Correctness. You have a cool muscle car, and one of the first things you see are the World Trade Center Towers still standing, brand new. Jason O'Mara plays Detective Sam Tyler - welcome to his new world. Someone else he sees is the only co-worker he confides in, 'Police Woman' Annie Norris. Ms. Mol is far from her Page persona, and more often is buttoned up - and '1970's-ized' as is everyone else in the cast - that's lead O'Mara on the right. Hey, at least it's the pre-Disco 1970's..
As if all that weren't enough, the Precinct's Captain, Gene Hunt, is played by the under-rated and rarely-on-TV-except-in-cool-movies-from-the-real-1970's -and other decades- Harvey Keitel, and The Sopranos' Michael Imperioli sports a 70's mustache that must be seen to be believed. Having seen pictures of my Dad and his friends from that era, I can tell you it's not(!) too wild to be accurate. If you've enjoyed reruns of 1970's cult detective shows like I have - mainly for the cheese factor - or lived through them like my Dad, enjoy Life On Mars for that and the added element of looking at it with a grit filter from 2009.
So, let's review the reasons for this post: To get more people to watch the damn show already so ABC leaves it on. And as a damn good excuse to post the above pictures of Gretchen Mol in lingerie.