Come back Ashes to Ashes, all is forgiven!

Glad to see that the 24 set is being put to good use during its hiatus.

Of course not, no this is the latest British TV programme to get the American remake treatment; Life on Mars! Unfortunately it has much more in common than sub-par spin-off Ashes to Ashes than the far superior Life on Mars. For starters it's almost entirely pointless, being a remake we know the answer to the "Am I mad, in a coma, or back in time?" and because the opening storyline is identical to that of the original we know what's going to happen, so why bother watching it? In fact, I'm not entirely sure what the point of this remake is, anyone in the U.S who wanted to see it would have bought the DVDs or caught it on BBC America.

Replacing John Simm and Phillip Glenister are Jason O'Mara and Colm Meaney as Sam Tyler and Gene Hunt respectively. And it's these two that are the other problems with this American remake.

For starters, Jason O'Mara is terrible, just terrible. He has all the acting style and charisma of a cardboard cutout of Matthew Fox and delivers his lines like a character out of Silent Hill and Resident Evil 5; "What's happening?" He only seems to brood or shout angrily, not unlike Keanu Reeves.

Colm Meaney though, is a competent actor. It's just a shame that, in this opening episode at least, injects none of the attitude or machismo to the character of Gene Hunt. The only moment at which he does break the 21st century police rules is when he beats up a woman. Yes, he beats up a woman. Something the original Gene would certainly not do.

And that's the final main problem, having Gene as a woman beater is the only thing they do different. The appeal to many with the original Mars was that it was much like having new episodes of The Sweeney back on the telly. If the makers of this new American remake had any balls, they would channel the likes of Starsky and Hutch to give it a proper American makeover. It has, however made me think I should give Ashes to Ashes another shot, and I will be watching the second episode just to see if they do anything at all different, after all the American version of The Office had a similarly dodgy first episode. But then they have Steve Carrell....we have Jason O'Mara who is just as funny, albeit for the wrong reasons.