Life on Mars US Finale (CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!)

futureoscarwinr

The last five minutes of the final episode of 'Life on Mars' were so bad that the magic spell the show cast on me is now broken and I am no longer upset about its cancellation. It was like ending 'Gone With the Wind' with a McDonald's commercial.

Many say that the ending must have been rushed after news of it not being picked up for another season, and that's why it was so awful. But I fully believe this is what was planned all along, because it was deemed that American audiences would not be able to handle the type of ending that the British version had – where Sam jumps off of a building to put himself back into 1973. That ending was even tough for the Brits to take (and they are a far more stolid group than we Americans). For the entire year until 'Ashes to Ashes' (the Brit spin off) arrived, fans were hoping that Sam didn't really kill himself but just somehow put himself back in a coma. Hints told the opposite – the final words we heard over the radio after Sam jumped were "He's slipping away from us." And alas, Sam Tyler was dead. Since American producers and a major network don't seem to have the courage to go to that place, why bother with the series at all?

Your ending took me from caring intensely about these characters to thinking them all ridiculous. I always get a bit sad at the end of a really good book, because I've spent days in an amazing alternate world, and then it's gone. That's how I felt for weeks when I found out that 'Life on Mars' would be canceled. The ending not only broke the spell but it made me feel totally manipulated.

And talk about "on the nose." The worst dialogue is when characters say exactly what they mean. It stands to reason that entire scenes that are "on the nose" are garbage.

The ending didn't even make sense:

1. What idiot would choose to be a cop (whether in 2008 or 1973) for his "restful, relaxing" two-year cyber-journey?

2. The whole point of the 'real-unreal' dilemma – that Sam could feel actual pain in 1973 but was numb in his real life – was totally lost in the ending.

3. Um, so he woke up from his virtual reality game and is now in love with Commander Norris, because there was a character who looked like her in his virtual reality? Give me a large personal break.

4. Ray Carling – with or without mustache – would never be on a NASA flight.

5. A guy with a snake tattoo on his hand would never be on a NASA flight.

6. A senior citizen (yes, Harvey Keitel is actually a senior citizen) would never be on a NASA flight without a whole lot of whoopla. If, in some absurd reality, the ending were possible, no one would care if "2B" woke up. They'd all be asking how grandpa was doing?

7. PEOPLE FLOAT IN SPACE!!!

Oh, and then you ended it with Gene Hunt's shoe stepping onto Mars. The point? None. But gee, isn't it a neat image? Yeah, let's throw that in too.

Should we make the final music "Life on Mars" by David Bowie? Naah, that would make too much sense. Let's play some Elton John and Reunion. That'll really throw 'em off.

The addition of the tiny "Soul Finders" that looked like NASA equipment / 70's toys was a fascinating image. It's also how I know that this was the intended ending all along. But what would have been far more understandable was that Sam woke up in a hospital facility where much of the equipment resembled the "Soul Finders." Then, fine, you don't want to end it with a suicide? Okay, well, end it with him getting his hands on some coma inducing meds. End it with him really going to the old Annie and reading to her. End it with the kiss with young Annie after he's hung up the phone on the 'voice' who purports to be able to get Sam back to the present. Whatever! Just don't end it like a Star Trek episode but with less production value.

The only time a finale like this worked was when Bob Newhart woke up with the co-star of his former series (Suzanne Pleshette) and remarked on what a strange dream he just had. And that was a sitcom. In the case of 'Life on Mars' the ending lacked artistic integrity. It "jumped the shark" at the worst possible moment.

The ending of the British version, with the TV Test Card girl skipping down the street to turn off our televisions, is saying to the audience, "Don't worry. It's just fiction. It's a TV series, and it's come to its end." It wasn't insulting – more like an 'in-joke.' On the other hand, the ending of the American version was saying, "You're all idiots, and you wouldn't understand or accept it if we told you what really happened, so we're going to dumb it down for you."

In the future, please try to remember your audience. The viewers of "smart TV" are not stupid. We could have handled more. And for us, it is much more important that there is a strong emotional closure to the story than a massive twist. Frankly, you owe us one more episode – an episode where we find out that Sam's NASA reality isn't reality at all, but just another elaborate fantasy cooked up in his coma-brain. And then get him back to 1973. Otherwise, you owe me seventeen hours of my life back. For now, I'm going to have to watch the British version again just to get the bad taste of mini-Mars-rovers out of my mouth.

score 1/10

futureoscarwinr 3 April 2009

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2047041/