Revisiting Life on Mars

[Deckerd]

Damn but this is a good show. I only ever saw it once but got hold of the 2 season set recently. The two leads are so charismatic but even then the first episode is deliberately uncomfortable. You don't know whether it's going to be good or rubbish right up until the point where they both look at each other and take off over the office desk. Then you know it's going to be really good.

 

[Deckerd]

"Halt! You are surrounded by armed bastards!"

 

[Peter Q Taggart]

Love the Gene Genie.

 

[iguana_tonante]

I fucking love Life on Mars. The show was an experience.

 

[MacLeod]

Of course you do realise, that you'll have to move onto Ashes to Ashes afterwards.

 

[auntiehill]

I LOVED LoM. But I couldn't take Ashes to Ashes. I think hubby and I made it through the first season but that was it. Bah.

I just loved how they ended LoM. No American TV series would ever have the balls to end a series like that.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Life on Mars is pure brilliance. The rapport between John Simm and Phil Glenister is why the show was so awesome.

Ashes to Ashes is highly enjoyable (largely because of Glenister) but it's not quite on the same level as Life on Mars simply because it lacks that rapport.

 

[Kirkman1987]

Life on Mars is pure brilliance. The rapport between John Simm and Phil Glenister is why the show was so awesome.

Ashes to Ashes is highly enjoyable (largely because of Glenister) but it's not quite on the same level as Life on Mars simply because it lacks that rapport.

This. Life on Mars is maybe my favorite show of the past decade (I might like Mad Men just a hair more.)

Ashes was great fun and got much better as it progressed, but it never reached the heights of Life on Mars. The ending of Life on Mars was perfection, and I do feel Ashes slightly sullied it by continuing the story (as entertaining as the series was)

 

[MacLeod]

And the less said about the American remake, the better. Esp. the ending.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ I have only ever seen the American version, but I liked it very much. I suspect the ending was either 1) forced on them by the network, or 2) cooked up at the last minute because of the abrupt cancellation (there's certainly nothing in the actual run of the series that would lead up to such an ending, and lots of indications - such as the 'Aries Project', the plentiful scenes that had no Sam in them at all (and thus should not exist), and the weird voice on the phone - that would indicate something completely different.

It is very likely that the UK ending wouldn't be used on the US version - because US networks would not allow it. It's not the fault of the people running the show. They do what the network execs tell them.

And besides, there's no proof that the ending is even real, anyway:

Spoiler: American ending

If you'll notice, the control room of the Mars lander has 70's decorations all over it. And the boot you see stepping onto the Martian surface? It's Gene's, but in his 1973 clothes!

Also, there is a line in the final episode which doesn't outright state this, but implies it, that Sam may never wake up, and that he should just accept whatever reality he finds himself in and make the best of it.

Me, I think that 2010 Sam - the version we see talking to Old Annie in the hospital - is the real version. I think the whole series was indeed a fantasy - but Annie's!

 

[Enterprise is Great]

My recollection that the producers of the American version were told by ABC that the show would be canceled at episode number whatever it was that it ended on and that they should wrap up the series in that final episode. I'm pretty sure that the producers of that show said that the ending they did was how they had planned to end it if the series had continued on.

 

[Deckerd]

Love the Gene Genie.

Perhaps I'm misremembering but I don't recall him calling himself that in LoM.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Love the Gene Genie.

Perhaps I'm misremembering but I don't recall him calling himself that in LoM.

I'm pretty sure he did at least a couple of times.

 

[iguana_tonante]

^ I have only ever seen the American version, but I liked it very much.

Do yourself a favour and watch the British one. Stat.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Of course if you made it tot he end of ashes to ashes, everything is explained.



And it's hilarious.

I remember thinking... "What the fuck is an Iphone?"

They're making shit up to seem futuristic.

 

[cultcross]

Love the Gene Genie.

Perhaps I'm misremembering but I don't recall him calling himself that in LoM.

I've not seen beyond the pilot of Ashes to Ashes and I remember it, so I'm fairly sure he does! I think the song is playing in a bar in a very early episode, too.

LoM is brilliant, and one of my favourite shows ever. The last of the cops who joined in that era are retiring or just retired now, and I'm reliably informed that, the guns aside, it is fairly accurate.

 

[Butters]

The big difference between LoM and A2A is the ambience. LoM is full of nostalgic tidbits, like white dog muck and selnec buses, streets alive with seventies people. A2A, nothing of the sort. Every street deserted, giving a dream like atmosphere. Just wasn't the same.

Edited to add. Why did they move to London? I can't think of any creative reason off the top of my head, can only have made it harder to recreate the city convincingly.