Life on Mars series finale (SPOILERS)

**TNGTony** · #1 (**permalink**) 04-01-2009, 11:32 PM

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.....and then Bobby Ewing steps out of the shower to reveal that the last two years of what you though was really going on was nothing more than a dream.

The end.

Really?

No, really?

Is this the most imaginative ending these writers could come up with?

So okay, the "pre shower scene" portion of this episode wrapped up all the questions posed within the 1973 time frame. The only question was how did he get there.

We already found out he didn't care to leave 1973.
We could have left the "metal bug" scenes to the medical "nano-doohickie" explanation from 2008/9
The "trouble with father" question was completed quite nicely in 1973.
All was well and the series could have wrapped up here. How?

We could have had a final 1973 scene with Sam and "no-nuts"---pardon, Detective 3rd Grade "no-nuts" kissing passionately as the screen goes to a heavenly white and had a "Sopranos" type ending (only more satisfying)
---or the heavenly white could have had a slight sound of a heart monitor measuring sinus rhythm and the program ends a la "Who's Life is it Anyway?" (A movie with Richard Dryfus)
---or for those that want to be told everything, the heavenly white screen dissolves to a long beep and a face of Sam in a 2008 hospital bed (which was slightly hinted at just before the big surprise). Knowing that Sam dies happy even if it was within his own mind. Though it would have still had some of the pitfalls of a "it was all just a dream" plot device, at least it would have been more satisfying.

There were sooooo many possibilities.

But no. Some one went though Rod Serling's discarded plot twist files to come up with the most ridiculous and tired plot twist ever devised. Didn't Jack Klugman deal with this in a Twilight Zone Episode? It was all just a dream and he really IS a spaceman! Everything and everyone we met were a figment of the imagination with no redemption except the reconciliation with his dad. And that seemed forced since this was already addressed but more satisfyingly during the 1973 sequence.

The 2035 story answered every question posed within the series, but in the most dissatisfying way ever!

I did have a laugh about "President Obama and her sister visiting their sick dad.

But the 2035 segment of the story was a joke to me.

For the record this is the third "It was all a dream" series I know of and both of the others did it sooooo much better.

Bob Newhart waking up next to Suzanne Plachette (sp) was one of the defining moments in TV History! It was imaginative and very, very funny.

And the ending of "St. Elsewhere" being all the imaginings of an autistic boy looking at a snow globe fit the wacky pseudo-comedy series.

Having this series end in a 2035 space shot to Mars like the aforementioned "Shower Scene" from "Dallas" did not fit the entire look and feel of the series. (regardless of the series' name) Dallas is infamous for this stunt to revive a character we saw die. Life on Mars carries on the infamy to, in my mind, weasel out of actually creating an imaginative end.

A giant boooo and a long hiss from me on the disappointing end.

I did not see the British counterpart. If it had a similar ending, I will not make the effort to catch that series either.

See ya
Tony

**Kevinw** · #2 (**permalink**) 04-02-2009, 06:46 AM

I agree weak ending. I sat there going WTF. Should have left it with "Maybe I don't want to go home..."

mike123abc · #3 (**permalink**) 04-02-2009, 12:32 PM

Well technically it was not a dream but an active computer simulation keeping his brain busy during the 2 year flight. The computer malfunction (meteor storm) sent him back to 1973. How does dodging a meteor storm send you back to 1973?

**TNGTony** · #4 (**permalink**) 04-02-2009, 12:35 PM

Whatever!

Simulated, faux, unreal, manufactured, dreamt... all the same device with the same ramifications invalidating the entire experience.

gbjbany · #5 (**permalink**) 04-02-2009, 02:10 PM

Well i dont remember any meteor storm in the UK version, wonder why they changed it ?

if your interested there is a sequal on BBC america right now called ashes to ashes,
Makes me laugh , i assume BBCA, added subtitles for the Detective Chief Inspector who has a northern england accent, nobody else, just him !

mloebl · #6 (**permalink**) 04-02-2009, 07:16 PM

I always wondered why his Mom was Rose Tyler (like out of Dr Who.) I figured being a British series originally, it was a local tie-in. Now I know it was due to the ultimate SciFi ending... lol. I didn't hate it, but definitely a WTF ending...

-Mike

**Kevinw** · #7 (**permalink**) 04-02-2009, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mloebl

I always wondered why his Mom was Rose Tyler (like out of Dr Who.) I figured being a British series originally, it was a local tie-in. Now I know it was due to the ultimate SciFi ending... lol. I didn't hate it, but definitely a WTF ending...

-Mike

Rose who

Quote:

Sam Tyler, the lead character in the BBC's other time-travel drama, Life on Mars, was named after Rose. Reportedly, the lead character's surname was suggested by the young daughter of Life of Mars co-creator, Matthew Graham, after her father had asked her to choose the character's surname. She had ultimately decided upon "Tyler" because of Rose, a fact only later discovered by her father, who eventually went on to write the Doctor Who episode "Fear Her". Sam Tyler is played by John Simm who is also the sixth on screen incarnation of The Master. In the US production of Life on Mars, Sam Tyler's mother is named Rose.

mloebl · #8 (**permalink**) 04-02-2009, 08:07 PM

Nice! Thanks for the info

-Mike

**Kevinw** · #9 (**permalink**) 04-02-2009, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mloebl

Nice! Thanks for the info

-Mike

Got to know I like Rose

Paul Wozniak · #10 (**permalink**) 04-02-2009, 08:37 PM

One of the crappiest endings ever!