When first I heard about a US version of Life on Mars, the excellent, if ultimately depressing, British show about a modern-day police detective trapped in 1973, I thought, “there’s nothing they can do to justify a remake, and there’s no way they could end the show the same way.”
I watched the first episode of the US version… or, at least, I watched the last half of the first episode. I never watched another.
Sadly, a friend, with a wicked, evil sense of humor (well, he’s British, so I suspect he was just trying to rub BBC superiority into my face) compelled me to watch the finale of the US version. The show was mercifully cancelled but they allowed them to “finish off” in the final episode.
Now, I’m not going to reveal the US ending, but… never in my life have I been as irritated, annoyed and pissed off at such a stupid ending. What a total (unexpected) load of cop out!
You can watch it here at ABC’s Life on Mars page. I’m not sure if ABC blocks out-of-country viewers, but it would be a mercy if they did.
I’ve seen none of the US version. I dislike the ending of the UK version a lot, so if the US version is worse, that can’t have been easy to achieve.
Luckily we are blocked by ABC outside the US…
I’ve seen none of the US version. I dislike the ending of the UK version a lot, so if the US version is worse, that can’t have been easy to achieve.
Luckily we are blocked by ABC outside the US…
ABC did you a small mercy. 🙂
However, I cannot resist, so… spoilers ahead.
<spoiler>
For those who’ve not seen the UK original, Sam Tyler is approached by a manifestation of a doctor in the real world. He leads Sam to the position where he has to betray his 1973 friends, leaving them to die in a dangerous police stakeout. The betrayal represents his turning his back on the fantasy world he is in. The betrayal works and he returns to the present day, in the Hyde Ward of the hospital.
After returning to work, he grows distant from the world of modern policing and all the legal niceties and goes up to the rooftop and kills himself.
In the US version, Sam Tyler receives a phone call from the mysterious voice that tells him what he has to do to return to 2008. First, he has to save himself – meaning his younger self, who has been kidnapped by his evil father.
Sam ends up in the town of Hyde, New York, where he was conceived, and in the brutal fight, his father is killed by Gene Hunt. After the case is over, the caller starts to tell Sam what final thing he needs to do to return, but Sam tells him he likes it in 1973 and he likes his friends and hangs up on him.
Hunt calls him into his office and starts to tell him goodbye, just then, the illusion breaks up and Astronaut Sam Tyler is awakened from suspended animation in the year 2035, aboard the Mars-bound spaceship, the Hyde 125, just before planetfall.
The other astronauts are the same actors as Ray, Chris, Anny and Hunt. Hunt being “Major Tom”, Sam’s real-life father.
Must I go on?
</spoiler>
ABC did you a small mercy. 🙂
However, I cannot resist, so… spoilers ahead.
<spoiler>
For those who’ve not seen the UK original, Sam Tyler is approached by a manifestation of a doctor in the real world. He leads Sam to the position where he has to betray his 1973 friends, leaving them to die in a dangerous police stakeout. The betrayal represents his turning his back on the fantasy world he is in. The betrayal works and he returns to the present day, in the Hyde Ward of the hospital.
After returning to work, he grows distant from the world of modern policing and all the legal niceties and goes up to the rooftop and kills himself.
In the US version, Sam Tyler receives a phone call from the mysterious voice that tells him what he has to do to return to 2008. First, he has to save himself – meaning his younger self, who has been kidnapped by his evil father.
Sam ends up in the town of Hyde, New York, where he was conceived, and in the brutal fight, his father is killed by Gene Hunt. After the case is over, the caller starts to tell Sam what final thing he needs to do to return, but Sam tells him he likes it in 1973 and he likes his friends and hangs up on him.
Hunt calls him into his office and starts to tell him goodbye, just then, the illusion breaks up and Astronaut Sam Tyler is awakened from suspended animation in the year 2035, aboard the Mars-bound spaceship, the Hyde 125, just before planetfall.
The other astronauts are the same actors as Ray, Chris, Anny and Hunt. Hunt being “Major Tom”, Sam’s real-life father.
Must I go on?
</spoiler>
Kidnapped by evil father? Yuk, yuk.
Fight, father killed? Eugh.
Likes it it 1973? Pah!
Wakes up in 2035? Woah, cool.
Kidnapped by evil father? Yuk, yuk.
Fight, father killed? Eugh.
Likes it it 1973? Pah!
Wakes up in 2035? Woah, cool.
It’s not nearly as cool as my description made it out to sound. Must just be my way with words. 🙂
I disliked the ending of the original because, what we learned about Sam over the 16 episodes or so was that Sam was a driven, motivated survivor. He existed in 1973 because he was a fighter.
When he got out, he got all maudlin and kills himself – the ultimate form of quitting. Totally out of character. If he hated modern police work, he could have taken a job as a mercenary, or used his police disability pension and travelled the world – or whatever. He could have and would have continued to fight for his life.
Unless, of course, the intent was to show that Sam had gone insane in the end.
But the US ending was a total cheat. Bing, sorry, it was all a fantasy that Sam Tyler chose to experience. (Forgot to mention – Sam chose “2008 Cop”, but a meteor storm caused a problem and glitches the program, putting him in 1973 with his (fake) 2008 memories.)
No explanation at all why they had to be put in a fantasy world (the Ray character was on a desert island with 200 beautiful women) for their suspended animation. Plus, it’s clear from comments from both Sam and Ray that people form emotional attachments inside the fantasies.
If I was sending a team to Mars, I wouldn’t put them in a fantasy world for 2 years that, when they came out, they might have strong feelings they want to return to. That can’t be good for morale.
Just like the UK Sam Tyler – they might not be able to adjust to the real world again – just at a time when your multi-billion dollar spaceship needs them most.
In the show, they just shook it off with a few moments of disorientation – and not much of that. Apart from some longing glances from Sam towards the Anny character and a sudden desire to reconcile with his father, Major Tom – because they apparently had previously had a rocky relationship.
It’s not nearly as cool as my description made it out to sound. Must just be my way with words. 🙂
I disliked the ending of the original because, what we learned about Sam over the 16 episodes or so was that Sam was a driven, motivated survivor. He existed in 1973 because he was a fighter.
When he got out, he got all maudlin and kills himself – the ultimate form of quitting. Totally out of character. If he hated modern police work, he could have taken a job as a mercenary, or used his police disability pension and travelled the world – or whatever. He could have and would have continued to fight for his life.
Unless, of course, the intent was to show that Sam had gone insane in the end.
But the US ending was a total cheat. Bing, sorry, it was all a fantasy that Sam Tyler chose to experience. (Forgot to mention – Sam chose “2008 Cop”, but a meteor storm caused a problem and glitches the program, putting him in 1973 with his (fake) 2008 memories.)
No explanation at all why they had to be put in a fantasy world (the Ray character was on a desert island with 200 beautiful women) for their suspended animation. Plus, it’s clear from comments from both Sam and Ray that people form emotional attachments inside the fantasies.
If I was sending a team to Mars, I wouldn’t put them in a fantasy world for 2 years that, when they came out, they might have strong feelings they want to return to. That can’t be good for morale.
Just like the UK Sam Tyler – they might not be able to adjust to the real world again – just at a time when your multi-billion dollar spaceship needs them most.
In the show, they just shook it off with a few moments of disorientation – and not much of that. Apart from some longing glances from Sam towards the Anny character and a sudden desire to reconcile with his father, Major Tom – because they apparently had previously had a rocky relationship.