.....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
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
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