Life On Mars

[Dac]

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!

I think they should have kept an element of that though, like Sam does rough up some hooligans and then gets reprimanded for it, and that along with everyone else's complete misunderstanding of good and evil coupled with his disconnect of the real world contributes to him doing what he does. As it stands, the end of LoM while I loved it, seemed a bit too quick to pull the whole "the future is shit and every one hates you" card.

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

And boy, did that piss me right off. 48 hours after the end of A2A and LOST pulls the exact same thing. Didn't help that LOST threw away a season of plot development for the sake of that ending too.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I would like to see a US Ashes to Ashes, but just to make things easier, make Annie Norris the lead character. Plus we could see Gretchen Mol again.

 

[Kelso]

Yeah, the British version was great.

 

[firehawk12]

I really adore Life on Mars but I'm fairly mixed on what they did to the mythology in Ashes. I felt like the premise became very shaky by the third season and, in a way, they ruined the ending of the original series.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I checked out the American version but couldn't warm up to the concept. In general, I greatly dislike the way the cop show format has taken over sf/f. But that won't stop me from watching Alcatraz and Grimm. Oh yeah, and Awake. Sigh...what ever happened to alien planets and roguish space captains on the wrong side of the law?

Why are british TV series seasons so short?

Because the market is not as insanely competitive as it is in America, where there is really no choice to maximizing profit on anything that actually makes a profit. The very few hits that come out of the TV biz are what pays for the tsunami of failures every season.

And those failures are inevitable because it's clear that nobody knows what actually works. You don't know if your show is Lost or The Event until you've already produced it, put it on the air, and seen how the Nielsens work out.

 

[Deckerd]

I really adore Life on Mars but I'm fairly mixed on what they did to the mythology in Ashes. I felt like the premise became very shaky by the third season and, in a way, they ruined the ending of the original series.

At the end of the original series the guy got the girl, got his mates and they all drove off into the sunset. There wasn't any explanation of who or what they were. I actually think Ashes went on a season too long, plotwise, but we were net winners because we got another season of Gene being Gene. An added bonus was that Bollyknickers definitely grew into the role as time went by.

 

[captcalhoun]

and keeley hawes is a serious fox.

 

[Canadave]

I really adore Life on Mars but I'm fairly mixed on what they did to the mythology in Ashes. I felt like the premise became very shaky by the third season and, in a way, they ruined the ending of the original series.

At the end of the original series the guy got the girl, got his mates and they all drove off into the sunset. There wasn't any explanation of who or what they were. I actually think Ashes went on a season too long, plotwise, but we were net winners because we got another season of Gene being Gene. An added bonus was that Bollyknickers definitely grew into the role as time went by.

And we also got this:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz8ppujjTXw&feature=related[/yt]

 

[Dac]

Christ, I forgot how utterly brilliant that was.

 

[Professor Zoom]

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. )

So, it's not that it was all a dream that was a problem for you--as that's the same ending as you propose--he's awaking from a coma--but it's the specific ending of Sam in the UK version, what he chooses to do, that you don't like?

 

[Snaploud]

I love Life on Mars (UK) but couldn't get into the U.S. version. I'm still waiting to watch Ashes to Ashes as it's not available on DVD in region 1, and I don't have a region free dvd player.

 

[Canadave]

Christ, I forgot how utterly brilliant that was.

I ended up watching it about five times before actually posting it.

 

[byron lomax]

The original UK Life on Mars was excellent, and though I don't think it was as good, the US version was enjoyable too. I thought the ending was neat.

Ashes to Ashes didn't really impress at first - it went too far with its cute 80s signifiers (wheareas LoM just felt like the 70s) and Hawes was irritating. But the last season was a big improvement, and the finale was simply brilliant - easily one of my favourite endings of the past few years. I had problems with both UK LoM's ending and the fact that Hawes knew about it and suspected she was in a dream from the start, but the A2A finale helped rectify all of that.

 

[CaptainStoner]

Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes....what other Bowie songs are we turning into TV series?

A Ziggy Stardust animated series would be epic.

 

[Starkers]

I never really liked the end of LoM (UK) version until A2A came along.

Is it wrong that in many ways I liked A2A better than LoM?

 

[Kirkman1987]

The UK LOM is a perfect series. Every episode is classic, perfect ending, Great characters. Ashes to Ashes seemed a bit awkward storywise (And the LOM ending was perfect), but that didn't matter because A2A is so much fun, and generally is still very high quality all around.

I didn't get far in the US one. It just seemed like a joke after seeing the original.

 

[Australis]

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. )

So, it's not that it was all a dream that was a problem for you--as that's the same ending as you propose--he's awaking from a coma--but it's the specific ending of Sam in the UK version, what he chooses to do, that you don't like?

I'm not sure. I would have liked Sam trying to search out the real Gene Hunt, if you see what I mean. he supposedly met him in the 70s - what if he was reliving a memory instead of a hallucination?

In real life, how often ware we saying, especially in here, that suicide is no answer? That I find just a bit too steep, taking his own life for what was basically a fiction.

Spoiler: A2A conclusion

Alex Drake, well, she died of her injuries, though I think it's pretty sad she didn't get back to her daughter, and that's an unnecessary downer.

 

[Professor Zoom]

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. )

So, it's not that it was all a dream that was a problem for you--as that's the same ending as you propose--he's awaking from a coma--but it's the specific ending of Sam in the UK version, what he chooses to do, that you don't like?

I'm not sure. I would have liked Sam trying to search out the real Gene Hunt, if you see what I mean. he supposedly met him in the 70s - what if he was reliving a memory instead of a hallucination?

Reliving a memory? Did he meet him as a kid? I don't remember. But, then, what's the rest of it? The imagination of his coma? It still all works out to being just a dream.

Once he woke up from his coma, then looking for the real Gene that could have been interesting...

Still, I think the gutsiest ending--and not whether or not it was a dream, time travel, whatever, but the REAL end-- didn't see that coming. And as soon as I saw it, I knew the US would NEVER, NEVER ever do that. Networks would have a fit.

In real life, how often ware we saying, especially in here, that suicide is no answer? That I find just a bit too steep, taking his own life for what was basically a fiction.

But, I don't think all fiction needs to feel good or be an easy solution to life. If Sam woke up and then just became a tougher copper, like Gene, that wouldn't have been... memorable. It woulda been easy. The other way... Well, we're still talking about it.

Ultimately, the "mystery" of Life on Mars isn't all that great, the characters are fantastic and that ending, and it some how tapped into something that's missing--not sure what--and the ending, it's provocative. But, whether or not same is in a coma or time traveling or going mad? yeah, not much of a mystery.

 

[Angel4576]

Personally I thought that the ending to LoM took a fairly bold approach. Certainly more bold than anything that involved Sam staying permanently in the present.

Did Sam meet Gene in the 70s? Probably not. Just his sub-conscious mind filling in the blanks, much in the same way that

Spoiler: A2A spoiler

Alex later filled in the same blanks when determining that it was Gene that took her hand after her parent's car exploded.

Re Drake -

Spoiler: A2A Finale

yes, it was sad that she never got back to her daughter, but, that's just a reflection of the harsh realities. I didn't think that that was an unnecessary downer at all. I think it would have been less genuine had they contrived a 'goodbye' or Alex actually getting back.

LoM/A2A is a fantastic story IMO - in the 5 seasons there's only really a single low point, and that's the first season of A2A. It took KH a while to find her feet, often coming across as irritating. That being said, come the second season onwards, and everything was hitting its stride perfectly.

 

[firehawk12]

I really adore Life on Mars but I'm fairly mixed on what they did to the mythology in Ashes. I felt like the premise became very shaky by the third season and, in a way, they ruined the ending of the original series.

At the end of the original series the guy got the girl, got his mates and they all drove off into the sunset. There wasn't any explanation of who or what they were. I actually think Ashes went on a season too long, plotwise, but we were net winners because we got another season of Gene being Gene. An added bonus was that Bollyknickers definitely grew into the role as time went by.

Spoiler: Spoilers galore

Honestly, it's been years, so I could be misremembering things, but the original ending to LoM made it seem that Sam had a choice as to whether he wanted to be in the dreary real world or in his alternate reality/dream state.

For Alex, it seemed like she had no choice in the matter whatsoever. Gene was meant always meant to guide dead cops to cop heaven, so if you saw him, you were guaranteed to be dead.

As I suggested at the time, I also think the more interesting ending would be for the character to choose life - precisely because she is a mother and doesn't find 200X a dreary, lifeless, joyless reality like Sam did.

And yeah, I'm not sure we got anything out of the fact that all the cops in this world are dead cops who have yet to resolve their traumas. Certainly it didn't feel like what they had in mind when Life on Mars first started.

But, maybe it's just easier to treat the two shows as completely separate entities and leave it at that.