Life on Mars American style made its final bow last night, and I have to say I was disappointed, not because the short-lived series ended, but because it never really lived up to its potential.
I hear the British version, with a somewhat different story, is brilliant - and I look forward to seeing that - but the American version of Life of Mars brilliant was not. And that's saying a lot for me, because I'm always willing to give any story with even a whiff of time travel the benefit of the doubt, and usually much more.
Until the last few minutes of last night's finale, the episode did about the only thing the series was good at - providing brief instances of Sam's inexplicable, paradoxical life in 1973/2008-9. Last night had another compelling scene of adult Sam in 1973 watching himself on television in 2008 (taking care of an aged Norris), and a good exchange between adult Sam and his father in 1973, in which Sam's father says he knows that the adult Sam is his son. Gene (Harvey Keitel) and Ray (Michael Imperioli) were ok, but, as in the entire series, these two were acting way below their talent.
The denouement did wrap everything up, with some nice touches, but the "everything was just a dream" resolution, even when Sam is dreaming on a mission to Mars way in the future, is one of the tritest gambits in fiction and science fiction.
I'm glad the series tried to do something different, sorry it didn't do it better, and will look forward to seeing the British version when it's available in Region 1 DVD.
See also Life on Mars Debuts in America ... Life on Mars 2nd Episode in America: Coma, Time Travel, Mars Rover ... Life on Mars Goes On in America: What Happens When a Time Traveler Runs Into His Earlier Self? ... Life on Mars #4: All in the Family ... Life on Mars #5 Meets the Wire ... Life on Mars #6 Meets Itself on Television ... Life on Mars #7: Is Annie Real? ... Life on Mars Returns with a Glimmer of Sanity
The Plot to Save Socrates
"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!
I hear the British version, with a somewhat different story, is brilliant - and I look forward to seeing that - but the American version of Life of Mars brilliant was not. And that's saying a lot for me, because I'm always willing to give any story with even a whiff of time travel the benefit of the doubt, and usually much more.
Until the last few minutes of last night's finale, the episode did about the only thing the series was good at - providing brief instances of Sam's inexplicable, paradoxical life in 1973/2008-9. Last night had another compelling scene of adult Sam in 1973 watching himself on television in 2008 (taking care of an aged Norris), and a good exchange between adult Sam and his father in 1973, in which Sam's father says he knows that the adult Sam is his son. Gene (Harvey Keitel) and Ray (Michael Imperioli) were ok, but, as in the entire series, these two were acting way below their talent.
The denouement did wrap everything up, with some nice touches, but the "everything was just a dream" resolution, even when Sam is dreaming on a mission to Mars way in the future, is one of the tritest gambits in fiction and science fiction.
I'm glad the series tried to do something different, sorry it didn't do it better, and will look forward to seeing the British version when it's available in Region 1 DVD.
See also Life on Mars Debuts in America ... Life on Mars 2nd Episode in America: Coma, Time Travel, Mars Rover ... Life on Mars Goes On in America: What Happens When a Time Traveler Runs Into His Earlier Self? ... Life on Mars #4: All in the Family ... Life on Mars #5 Meets the Wire ... Life on Mars #6 Meets Itself on Television ... Life on Mars #7: Is Annie Real? ... Life on Mars Returns with a Glimmer of Sanity
The Plot to Save Socrates
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!
6 comments:
The ending for the American version of Life on Mars had some really big shoes to fill... as Io9 recently ranked the ending to the British original as the best ending on a Science Fiction series ever, and a British television list had it at #1 the entirety of television.
I still haven't given the US version a fair shake yet. I watched some of the first episode, and then recorded the rest of them to my DVR. I watched a very small slice of the final ep the other night, just because I happened to be home when it was on (and being recorded) and was flipping thru stuff for a few minutes.
I will watch the whole thing though, or I plan to unless it really lets me down somewhere in the middle. It does have some huge shoes to fill from the UK/BBC version. I absolutely loved that show (watched in on BBC America) and am just now watching the follow up series "Ashes to Ashes" as it has popped up on BBC America now too.
http://backin81.blogspot.com/2009/03/lets-fire-up-quattro-finally-on-my-us.html
Sometimes Comcast (cable) pops some old eps of LoM (BBC) on their OnDemand menu. I've watched a few here and there too, even after the series was ended, just to relive some of the joy.
And yes, I too am dying for a real release in region 1. I hear it may never come to be though, due to music rights issues.
That's what they said about Spaced, but it eventually got its music issues sorted out (and as far as I know, everything was in order).
Paul:
While we disagreed about the Sopranos series end, we agree completely on this one.
The production of the denouement was incredibly schlocky, right up there with the original Star Trek episdoes. Up until the space scene, we had actually somewhat resolved 1973 Sam's story arc, and mostly satisfactorily (although I didn't really feel the chemistry between Tyler and Norris ... they were like kissing siblings). But then the space ending essentially invalidated the entire arc with the series-as-a-dream shtick. Reminded me of the season of Dallas where Bobby "woke up" ... oy ...
Overall, the best part of the series was by far O'Mara. The script gave little extra room for the other actors to do anything other than vamp it up it their respective charicatures (the tough cop, the wiseass cop, the rookie/dumb cop, the good angel cop). The writing and plotting of the show, not the cast, was its weakness.
Shockingly, the producers say this is the ending they had in mind long ago, to which I say I'm glad the series ended sooner than later. The series was at its best as an off-beat police procedural; the sci-fi/time travel elements were its weakest link.
Yeah, we pretty much agree on this one.
For me, though, the best parts were the impossible things that Sam was experiencing - seeing himself on television in the future, etc. Had the series figured out a way to account for that as something other than a dream (which is a blank check for anything inexplicable, and therefore not very satisfying), then it could have surged up to one of the best series ever on television.
I'd love to see a show where the character is synchonastically infidibulated, or where they are coping with seeing weird things while trying to keep up a good front, but where the "how is this happening?" and "want to get home" are left out.
John Ordover
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