Life On Mars

[Kail]

Anyone else watch this show? I'm watching it because Netflix suggested it for me, and I really like it. Why did I not hear of it when it was on the air? This show was really unique, had great writing and great actors. I wish it had lasted more than 18 episodes. I couldn't even find a thread on it here at the BBS. Seems like a natural for this group. Any thoughts?

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I assume you're referring to the American remake. If you want to see more, you can watch the original British version which ran two seasons (16 episodes) and has a sequel Ashes to Ashes which ran three seasons.

I liked the cast and characters on the American version well-enough, but that finale ending when the show was canceled was a goddamn overly-literal travesty that left things on a very sour note.

 

[Kail]

Why are british TV series seasons so short?

 

[iguana_tonante]

The original British series is gold. Watch it. Watch it now.

The American remake is okay-ish.

 

[Dac]

Partly funding - the BBC is publicly funded so I don't think they like to be seen as putting all their eggs in one basket. And the other part of it is because I personally tend to think shorter seasons focus the quality of a show. 16 episodes of Life on Mars UK and each one of them is brilliant.

 

[Canadave]

The British series was fantastic. It's still amongst my favourites. The American remake left me a bit cold, though.

 

[P0sitr0nic]

I liked the ending of the american version....

I kinda wish more series would do this. Run one season. Tell their story. Make way for another story that will last a season.

 

[Kail]

I just finished this show, US version, and must say I hated the ending.

I'm going to check out the British version because so many seem to think it was better.

SPOILER













When will producers learn that people hate "It was all a dream"?

 

[Maestro]

British TV doesn't necessarily do "seasons" in the way that US TV does. They do "series," and if I'm not mistaken, each series is designed to be run start-to-finish with no reruns, no breaks, and be wrapped up.

One of the reasons that each series is shorter than the US season is that they don't always come back with the same regularity that US seasons do. British TV may run a show's eight episode Series 1 in Sept/Oct, and the turn around and run Series 2 in April/May.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Part of the reason that the UK LoM only lasted two seasons is that John Simm quit - but if they'd had the (originally intended) third season, there would never have been Ashes To Ashes, so it worked out better this way! Five seasons of the Gene Genie instead of three.

The endings...

The UK ending is way more emotional, and the US ending makes perfect logical sense in a totally cold and uninvolving way! Which makes the UK ending better - and the US ending pretty much precludes doing A2A.

FWIW though, the original scripted UK ending was going to be that Sam recovers, goes into a pub and goes all Gene on some thugs, having learned from his dream that that's how things *should* be done... Glad they changed it!

 

[MacLeod]

Plus of ourse setting in the 70's/80's allowed the show to be un-PC.

 

[MacLeod]

British TV doesn't necessarily do "seasons" in the way that US TV does. They do "series," and if I'm not mistaken, each series is designed to be run start-to-finish with no reruns, no breaks, and be wrapped up.

One of the reasons that each series is shorter than the US season is that they don't always come back with the same regularity that US seasons do. British TV may run a show's eight episode Series 1 in Sept/Oct, and the turn around and run Series 2 in April/May.

Not strictly true as the current season of Doctor Who is going to be taking a mid-season break. Returning sometime in the Autumn.

 

[Australis]

Hated the endings for both. Hated them, hated them, hated them. There was LoMUK/US, A2A, Lost, BSG (to an extent), a coupler of otyhers I've blotted from memory. As the OP said, "it was all a dream" endings are a ripoff.

But Gene Hunt is a great character it has to be said. A shame they completely ripped the nuts off him in the last half hour of A2A. YMMV.

 

[MacLeod]

in the UK we had two shows end the same week with a similar ending. First "Ashes To Ashes" followed shortly after by "Lost".

 

[Deckerd]

Hated the endings for both. Hated them, hated them, hated them. There was LoMUK/US, A2A, Lost, BSG (to an extent), a coupler of otyhers I've blotted from memory. As the OP said, "it was all a dream" endings are a ripoff.

But Gene Hunt is a great character it has to be said. A shame they completely ripped the nuts off him in the last half hour of A2A. YMMV.

There were several givens in both series. The hero was in a coma and within that coma in another world. I'm fascinated to learn what kind of resolution from that situation would have satisfied you.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Yeah, in this instance I don't consider the "it was all a dream" a downer ending. It was organic to the narrative, and the only foreseeable answer given the many hints in the course of the series. Honestly, a time travel ending would have been ridiculous given the premise, and it would have felt as a forced "twist ending" just for the sake of it.

 

[MacLeod]

No matter how you end a show you won't please everyone.

 

[Deckerd]

This is true, but given the setting of LoM it's hard to support the stance that 'it was all a dream' is a cop-out, unless there has been a serious misunderstanding of the plot.

 

[Australis]

Hated the endings for both. Hated them, hated them, hated them. There was LoMUK/US, A2A, Lost, BSG (to an extent), a coupler of otyhers I've blotted from memory. As the OP said, "it was all a dream" endings are a ripoff.

But Gene Hunt is a great character it has to be said. A shame they completely ripped the nuts off him in the last half hour of A2A. YMMV.

There were several givens in both series. The hero was in a coma and within that coma in another world. I'm fascinated to learn what kind of resolution from that situation would have satisfied you.

Have the hero go though this life changing event (which is what it was) and come back a better copper. A better person. And they could have introduced another layer, as Tyler tries to track down the truth about Gene Hunt (who may or may not have been dead, and who may or may not have been real) in the real world. It wouldn't have been hard.

(Admit it: that would have been a better ending. )

I do get while a fair number of the audience prefer the ending they got, but not me. It goes to my, uh, philosophy of storytelling. That's for a different thread.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I have only seen the American version. And I liked it very much.

Didn't much care for its ending, but here is why I don't think it is real either:

Spoiler: US ending

You'll notice that the control room of the Mars lander has 70's decorations in it. Plus, the boot that we see step onto the Mars surface is Gene's - in his 70's clothing! So that's why I think that the ending is another one of Sam's hallucinations. I think that the brief scene with Sam in 2010, visiting old Annie in the hospital, is real, and is the true ending of the show. Even though it wasn't the last scene we saw.