Sunken dream
So, Life On Mars ended after two series - and by ended, I mean it was left wide open for a third series, even though the creators have assured us that there won't be one. If you haven't seen the final episode, read no further. Matthew Graham, co-creator with Tony Jordan and Ashley Pharoah, and a thoroughly nice chap, took the reins and pretty much tied everything up. What I've enjoyed most about the second series has been the boldness to do "issues" (racism, heroin, the IRA, wife-swapping), and this aspect had to be set aside, as Sam's niggling fate necessarily took centre stage. The plot about the wages heist, in which the bloke who plays Maguire on Shameless had so little to actually do, you wonder if his part was cut down to accomodate the double-twist, was a distraction. The crux of the episode saw Sam - and us - almost convinced that 1973 was reality and he'd dreamed 2006. This looked to be the "solution" the writers had chosen, which threw up immediate nagging doubts (how would Sam have been able to quote Robocop if he'd been dreaming the future?), and you wonder if we were really supposed to buy it in the first place.
In the end, they reverted back to the original premise, that Sam was in a coma and Frank Morgan (Wizard Of Oz reference) was his surgeon. Making Gene Hunt his tumour was a nice spin, although this didn't work either if you followed it to the very end, when, bored with modern poice work (as illustrated by a load of men and women in suits and modest shirt collars sitting round a boardroom table), Sam jumped off the roof in order to get back into his coma. This was a risky move - what if he'd just, like, broken his neck, or died? Anyway, if Graham had left it there, with Sam jumping in to space, I would have switched off satisfied. It's the last episode - it could have ended there. Dramatic. Surprising. Uncertain.
But no, they're crowd-pleasers at the end of the day, this is primetime BBC1 and we're in a best-selling show, so it all ended in 1973 with Sam kissing PC Cartwright and DCI Hunt calling him a "fairy" as they barrelled off in the Ford Cortina down that one cobbled alleyway. What message this sends out, I don't know. That things were better when the lawman was beating up the wrong guy and all Irishmen were Paddies? It's not such a bold conclusion, when millions have so enjoyed being in this era over the last two years. The nation has fallen in love with a racist, homophobic, bigoted, sexist bastard who's "having hoops". Because he's not "real", does that mean Hunt has been cauterised by irony? There's no denying his appeal (thanks, in the most part, to Philip Gleinister, although I'm hardly going to leave the writers of his salty dialogue out of the praise), but would we have loved him if John Simm hadn't been there as his conscience? Probably not. As long as there's a Guardian reading fairy around to tell him off, Hunt is a dinosaur who's allowed to walk the earth.
Now, let's hope they keep their promise and don't come back for a Christmas special. Life On Mars has been an astonishing triumph: funny and dramatic, realistic and totally unrealistic. Certainly, it mucked about with our loyalty in the final episode, teased us for caring, but given the overturned lorryload of red herrings and MacGuffins that needed sweeping up, and the amount of logic holes that will no doubt be filled in by people on message boards, it was a valiant effort. And Hyde was the name of the ward. See? See?
posted by Andrew Collins @ 9:10 AM
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21 Comments:
So... is it true that Gene Hunt returns in a spin-off titled "Ashes To Ashes" set in the 80s ?
I don't know why you're taking it all seriously, Andrew. It's only telly. Like Gene Hunt, it's not 'real'.
I thought it was a fitting end to a great series. I'm looking forward to Ashes To Ashes, in which no doubt we can expect more of the same.
Absolutely loved it. So pleased not to feel cheated or disappointed at the end which I think is common in a series like this where you are focussing on what the resolution might be, especially when it had been building up for two series. I do think it would have been better had it just faded out with him killing himself (which is how I read it rather than him returning to a coma state) but it did leave me with a big cheesy grin as they sped off in the Cortina (and boy was I willing him to jump as it dawned how good an ending that would be). Reminded me of the end of Brazil where although Sam Lowry is dead at the hands of Michael Palin's character, he finishes the film happy in his dreams with the woman he loved rather than in the drudgery and oppression of his real life.
Except of course there is a sequel planned. Set in 1981 and called Ashes to Ashes. With Gene Hunt and a new female time traveller/coma patient.
Not sure how I feel about the news, but I'm sure like Life on Mars it will be great. Looking forward to that next year. And also to the American version of LOM, in the Autumn...
I think Sam was giving in to the tumour, and so metaphorically jumping off the roof.
I liked how, just at the end when you’re wondering if it's real or not, the Test Card Girl answers that by turning off the TV. Of course it's not real. It’s a telly program.
I'm just excited that the old blog's working and people are commenting. It's like I've been hit by a car and woken up a week ago.
Incidentally, am I going mad, or does it still say "0 comments" at the bottom of the Life On Mars entry, even though there are "6 comments"?
No, it doesn't. (I'm getting paranoid.)
Good to see this blog working again. At the moment it says 5 comments when there are actually 6 but I suppose that that is really a minor point now that it is working again.
Re Life on Mars - I liked the ending as it provided resolution of the 1973 situation. If the resolution hadn't been needed then an ending with him jumping off the roof would have been the best one for me and would have stuck with me longer.
I feel sure that the fact that he was told that the tumour hadn't been removed is an important fact -ie perhaps he can never be free of Gene Hunt in the same way that he can never be free of the tumour. Perhaps then it was inevitable that he would go back to 1973 and Gene Hunt.
I thought it was a superb end to a brilliantly inventive series. It's amusing to see reactions on fansites such as 'The Railway Arms', some people are really tying themselves up in knots about the conclusion and getting very confused in the process. In this sense, I guess the writers have succeeded: everyone is talking about it today, and it will be remembered for years to come.
I'm not sure I like the sound of the spin-off 'Ashes to Ashes' though, with a female cop 'back in time' in 1981 after an accident, like Simm was. All sounds a tad contrived doing it over again- I mean, another partner ‘from the future’ for Gene… really? What do you think Andrew?
"especially when it had been building up for two series"
I'm not sure it had been... it certainly seemed to me as though the story had been worked out for one series (the build-up to finding out his Dad's involvement in a crime in 1973) and then the massive success of that series meant the writers were duty-bound to come up with something for a second.
It felt a bit as though they'd had to come up with a new reason for Sam being in 1973, come season two. I did enjoy it, but I felt it was also a shame that some of the subtleties in the 70s references were discarded in favour of broader 'humour' from Hunt's unreconstructed views.
Where better than the Manchester Evening News (blog!) to tell you all the answers to life, the universe and everything? (wrong show but you know what I'm getting at).
http://blogs.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ianwylie/2007/04/life_on_mars_the_answers.html
Well, the way I saw it was that Sam died when the "test card girl" switched off our TV's at the end. Bloomin' fantastic series given the Dallas-esque "it was all a dream really" pretext.
Have to say I would have loved the resolution to be that 2006 was "the dream", but that's me.
Nice point by Gwen. Makes sense!
I was actually getting fed up with what felt incresingly like the crowbarring in of successive 70's 'issues' each week...oh, here's the NF one, here's the wifeswapping one...I did groan a bit when it looked like they were going for an NUM 'issue' in the last one (especially given the lack of collieries East of the Pennines), but it was overtaken - quite correctly - by getting back to the 'meat' of the series. I ended up enjoying the soppy ending, but am quite happy to see the end of Sam, who to my mind is a bit of a ringer for 'Cartoon Head' in 'Ideal'.
Or ... perhaps 1973 was real after all, he blacked out in the tunnel, dreamt he was in 2007, then woke up back in 1973 in time to save the day? Or maybe not. The point is surely it ended when it did, not outstaying its time and that it never took itself too seriously (compare and contrast 'Twin Peaks' for example)
On a completely unrelated point - and this is simply because I thought you might be interested - did you know that every state in the US sends the White House a decorated egg at Easter? It's a long standing tradition since 1994 apparently. This year I think that Wyoming's heart just wasn't in it... http://www.whitehouse.gov/easter/2007/eggsbystate/
I was very pleased with the resolution. I thought it was interesting that he clearly found the modern-day meeting to be boring and irrelevant, and longed for some of the direct and forthright methods of the 70s. It's been a great series, and one of the most original and well-made shows in years. The cast were all brilliant, and if there's any justice in this world, we'll be seeing more of all of them on our screens soon.
I got increasingly frustrated with the shoe-horning of 70's subjects and the dragging out of the time travel issue. I was feeling that halfway through the second series that the show wasn't really sure what it wanted to be.
They've created a lovable monster in Gene Hunt, we all know he's bad, that's part of his appeal. I agree that he needed a 21st century foil to keep us on side.
I don't think its the first time the nation (or world) has fallen for racist homophobic bigoted male characters in tv. After all the Sopranos is full of them, and that's the best show. Ever.
Marshall Lancaster, who played Chris (and also appeared in Coronation Street) lives just down the road from me. He wasn't sure how successful LOM would be, so after the first series finished filming he went on a course to learn to become a plasterer!
I gotta say that, after having watched them all, it seemed a little thrown-together and too pat an ending. The 'maybe 1973's real and the future's a dream' didn't even remotely seem a possibility to me.
I'd have gone for an unexplained spot of time-travelling myself. Far more interesting and thereby leaving the prospect open for further series.
As it came across to me, Sam wanted back into the dream, so killed himself, delicately pointed out by the test card girl switching everything off at the end.
Had the odd whiff of The Bridge by Iain Banks about it in places, too. Not in the plagiarism sense, just some of the same feeling here and there.
A little disappointing, but them's the breaks.
As a viewer, I felt completely pulled into Sam's confusion and sadness when he found himself out of the coma and back at work in 2006. There was something very bleak about the way this was portrayed. When he jumped off the roof, I really thought that was the end.
I must admit, I think I would have preferred the final episode ended right there with Sam in mid air.
Nevertheless, it was still nice to see Sam "get the girl" in the end - overall, a highly unusual and enjoyable series in my opinion.
I've never really had any issues with the 'issues'. After all, we did get footbal hooligans and strikes in the first series. My worry with the second series was that it started to follow a little too closely the standard murder-mystery formula: body in scene one; suspect in scene two; real murderer is the only other named character.
The only problem with bringing in real issues is that there are real things he could really change. How about looking up a P Sutcliffe or an H Shipman for a bit of preventative action?
There are obvious dilemas to be played with - come 1996, would you foil the IRA's ultimately restorative Manchester bomb?
Personally, if I was Sam I'd get along to the Free Trade Hall in 76 to see who was really there.
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